News of the Week; November 4, 2015

GAMES

1. Judge Tells Plaintiff That Paying Real Money For Virtual Gold Doesn’t Somehow Lead To Gambling Law Violations
2. Nintendo censors Xenoblade Chronicles X costumes for western release
3. Warner Bros. offers refunds for Arkham Knight PC… Again
4. Facebook to crack down on game invitations
5. Princeton Police blame swatting incidents on ‘gamers’
6. Will the justices be game and tackle EA’s cert petition?
7. Sony Reveals Playstation Plus League Esports Platform
8. Smite, Sexism And The Soul Of Esports
9. Research: 42% of women own gaming consoles compared to 37% of men
10. Analysis: Sony continues to widen its console sales lead over Microsoft
11. Realm Pictures Goes All In On Real First Person Shooter; Brilliant New Form Of Interactive Entertainment
12. ESA: over 1600 game developers and publishers in the U.S.
13. Activision Blizzard to buy King for $5.9 billion
14. Activision and King: Wrong price, poor fit
15. Activision Blizzard Q3 sales, profits slide
16. Halo 5 generates $400 million in software and hardware sales
17. Activision Blizzard to stop reporting Warcraft subscribers
18. Konami closes down studio responsible forMetal Gear Online: But promises development on Metal Gear Solid will continue.
19. Zynga CFO resigns
20. How eSports are saving the PC industry
21. eSports: Where are the big sponsors?
22. Ad-blockers “devastating for smaller channels” – PewDiePie
23. CEO Of Mobile Company Blames Everyone For Wanting Coffee Rather Than His Game
24. The History Of Gaming: An Evolving Community
25. Is the videogame market ready for polarizing games?
26. “There were no rules…we made them up as we went along” – Sex & Drugs and Video Games: Tim Chaney’s book on the industry of the ’90s

DIGITAL

1. United States and European Union reach agreement in principle for continued transatlantic data transfers following Safe Harbor invalidation
2. Court says it’s legal for NSA to spy on you because Congress says it’s OK: “An abrupt end to the program would be contrary to the public interest….”
3. Senate approves legislation to encourage disclosure of online threats despite opposition
4. Google held to be a publisher of defamatory autocomplete and related search terms 
5. In the UK, Web browsing history must now be stored for a year: UK gov’t backs down on crypto bans, but calls for major extension of surveillance powers.
6. FBI planes gathered days of video, electronic surveillance over Baltimore: ACLU obtained FBI records of high-definition video and “other electronic surveillance.”
7. After guilty plea, judge confused as to why prosecutors still want iPhone unlocked: “I respectfully direct the government to explain why the application is not moot.”
8. Feds explain (sort of) why they really want data on seized iPhone 5S
9. UK Gov’t Pretends That It’s ‘Backed Down’ On Snooper’s Charter
10. Does a Teen’s Sex Crime Deserve Extra Punishment if He Used the Internet to Commit It?
11. Facebook Beats Privacy Lawsuit Alleging Persistent Tracking
12. John McAfee: No one in government cares about your privacy.
13. How The EU’s Proposed New ‘Privacy’ Rules Will Be A Tool For Massive Censorship
14. Canadian Judge Says Asking For A Copy Of A Legally-Obtained But Paywalled Article Is Circumvention
15. Google Books and Fair Use: From Implausible to Inevitable? (Jane Ginsburg)
16. MPAA Touts Big Legal Success Against Popcorn Time
17. MPAA Whacs A Few More Moles, Declares Premature Victory While Making Movie Fans Worse Off
18. Copyright As Censorship: Sketchy Food Scanning Company Abuses DMCA To Censor Critical Reporting
19. Amazon opens its first real-world bookshop in Seattle: Book selection is based on online ratings, and online reviews are printed out on cards
20. Can pro sports players legally demand payment from online fantasy sites?: Wagering on player performance deemed right of publicity violation, lawsuit says.
21. Bell playing politics with your Internet bill by appealing CRTC ruling
22. Why a Battle over the Internet and Canadian Cultural Policy is Brewing (Michael Geist)
23. Title II kills investment? Comcast and other ISPs are now spending more: ISP earnings reports contradict Republican claims of reduced investment.
24. SXSW Interactive changes tune, announces day-long Online Harassment Summit: Canceled panels return along with 19 more speakers; SXSW is “truly sorry.”
25. SXSW plans Online Harassment Summit: Festival restores cancelled panels as part of day-long event, but key speaker says the show might not go on after all
26. I Was on One of Those Canceled SXSW Panels.
27. Here’s How Iranian Women Are Protesting Forced Hijab: “Facebook is our weapon,” says their advocate, exiled journalist Masih Alinejad.
28. Former Instagram Model Edits Her Posts To Reveal Truth Behind The Photos
29. Anonymous plans to ‘unhood’ 1,000 Ku Klux Klan members online
30. Copyright Trolling in Canada: Is Blacklock’s a Copyright Troll & “Frequent Flyer” Litigator? (Howard Knopf)
31. EFF asks appeals court to “shut down the Eastern District of Texas”: An (unintended) “absurd situation of forum shopping and forum selling.”
32. How Congress Can Protect Online Consumer Reviews
33. The Orwellian Story About CafePress Takedowns By Orwell’s Estate… Was Really CafePress Screwing Up
34. Maybe Spotify Isn’t Killing The Music Industry After All
35. Google Inbox will reply to e-mails for you with machine learning
36. Artificial Intelligence, Neural Networks, and Deep Learning

CREATIVITY

1. Fox News Anchor’s Suit Over Toy Hamster Likeness Results In Hilarious Point-By-Point Hasbro Rebuttal
2. US judge denies copyright over 3-word phrase ‘Everyday I’m Hustlin’’
3. Kit Kat and the registrability of shapes as trade marks
4. Iran’s Film Industry Hopes Nuclear Deal Will Help Open Up Biz Internationally
5. The Tangled Cultural Roots of Dungeons & Dragons
6. Can a monkey own copyright?
7. Happy Birthday to you: the final verse?
8. The dubious relationship between   Lego and the art world

jon