News of the Week; September 23, 2015

GAMES

1. Court Trashes Patent Troll For Bogus Lawsuit Against Zynga; Awards Over $1 Million In Fees & Sanctions

2. EA forced to pull 13 women from FIFA 16 due to NCAA rules

3. Andrew House: the PS4 is struggling against censorship in China

4. How Sony snagged Jonathan Blow’s The Witness away from the Xbox One: “I have no political path to making that happen for an independent developer,” said MS.

5. Canadian Cineplex invests in esports

6. Research: ESRB’s descriptors on tobacco use in games are lacking

7. “The console installed base is as big as it’s ever going to get”

8. Old-school game cartridges are coming to your smartphone

9. Riot slaps Team Immunity with two-year ban: Australian pro team barred from League of Legends tourneys for non-payment of players

10. Unionized video game voice actors are considering a strike

11. Collectors preserve nearly lost Sonic arcade game through emulation

DIGITAL

1. Congrats to EFF and the dancing baby

+ How a Dancing Baby Struck a Blow for Balanced Copyright Law (Michael Geist)

+ 9th Circuit Sides With Fair Use in Dancing Baby Takedown Case

2. EU decides that US Safe Harbor is invalid!

3. The Arrival of Artificial Intelligence and “The Death of Contract” (Ian Kerr)

4. How Useful Is the Theory of Disruptive Innovation? (Andrew A. King and Baljir Baatartogtokh)

5. France confirms that Google must remove search results globally, or face big fines: Google fears complying would lead to a race to the bottom for online freedom.

+ French Regulating Body Says Google Must Honor Right To Be Forgotten Across All Of Its Domains

6. Social media providers prevail in quashing subpoenas in criminal proceedings 

7. Welcome to hell: Apple vs. Google vs. Facebook and the slow death of the web

8. Face analysis can tell what you’ll buy after watching ads

9. Apple wins patent ruling against Samsung which could put Galaxy devices’ slide-to-unlock and autocorrect at risk

+ Appeals court grants injunction to Apple, bans some features from Samsung phones:

10. The decision won’t impact market too much as affected phones are from 2012.

11. When journalism, virtual reality, and unclear App Store guidelines collide: A first-person tale of what happens when app gatekeepers rule on journalism.

+ Apple Bans Non-Graphic, VR Representation Of Ferguson Shooting For No Coherent Reason

12. South Korea-backed app puts children at risk

13. The Internet And Its Discontents

14. American Mass Surveillance of EU citizens: Is the End Nigh?

15. White House Realizes Mandating Backdoors To Encryption Isn’t Going To Happen

16. Big cable companies are fighting to stall new tech that would improve cellular service

17. Broadband is a “core utility” like electricity, White House report says

18. The most crucial item that migrants and refugees carry is a smartphone

19. CFTC determines that Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are commodities

20. Ex-Microsoft engineer sues, says company’s 1-5 ranking system was bad for women: Proposed class action suit says less qualified men were promoted over women.

21. Venmo Scammers Know Something You Don’t: Why innocent users are getting defrauded for thousands of dollars on the mobile payments app.

22. Kickstarter becomes public benefit corporation

23. Americans’ Attitudes About Privacy, Security and Surveillance (Pew Research Center)

24. Robots, Holograms And Wearables: A Tech History Of Fashion Week

CREATIVITY

1. Judge Says Warner Chappell Doesn’t Hold The Copyright On Happy Birthday (But Not That It’s Public Domain)

+ Documentarian wipes out Warner’s $2M “Happy Birthday” copyright: Judge finds it’s questionable whether Patty Hill wrote the song at all.

2. PETA wants court to grant copyright to ape that snapped famous selfie: PETA claims a US copyright may be granted to a species “other than homo sapiens.”

+ I’d be smiling, too, if I owned the copyright to this photograph

3. Impact of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement on intellectual property law in Canada

4. Chilean Musician Victor Jara’s Rethinking of Power Lives on Long After His Murder

jon