News of the Week; December 9, 2015

VIDEO GAMES

1. Report: Kojima prevented from picking up award by Konami
2. Report: Konami lawyer barred Hideo Kojima from accepting any Metal Gear Solid awards
3. Steam Under Fire – New Case: Ironburg Inventions v Valve (NDGA 2015)
4. Steam tightens trading security amid 77,000 monthly account hijackings: Traded items will be “held” for days unless you have two-factor security.
5. Modder/Hacker’s Work Pushes Sony To Release Its Own PS4 Remote Play For PC App
6. Patent For Mini-Games Within Loading Screens Expires; Explosion In Better Game Loading Screens Forecasted
7. The Year of Pokémon: the Potential & Pitfalls of AR Gaming
8. Woman who killed her daughter ‘for interrupting her video game’ in 1994 gets parole
9. EA disputes GameStop’s claim that Star Wars: Battlefront underperformed
10. Video Game Stocks Bounce Back in 2015
11. Sega cuts full-year profit estimate by 90 per cent
12. VR to hit $70 billion by 2020 – Report
13. Magic Leap raising additional $827 million – Report
14. Double Fine launches crowd-funding campaign for ‘Psychonauts 2’
15. Welcome to the post-indiepocalypse
16. Time killers: The strange history of wrist gaming
17. Why AI Systems Are Learning to Play Old-School Video Games
18. Twitch’s gaming empire: How streaming changed the way we play
19. eSports network Azubu raises $60 million
20. Eight PS2 games coming to PS4
21. PlayStation VR expo round-up: Impressive Rez Infinite leads killer line-up: Other stunners include Until Dawn light gun game, Eve Valkyrie, Harmonix experiment.
22. The Art of Escape: What do we gain from giving inmates access to video games?
23. These are the most popular gaming videos on YouTube this year

DIGITAL

1. “Repugnant” online discussions are not illegal thoughtcrime, court rules: Judges also rule prosecutors abused the anti-hacking Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
2. Pakistan Aims To Take Home ‘Worst Cybercrime Legislation In The World’ Trophy With Prevention Of Electronic Crimes Bill
3. Eric Schmidt Suggests Building A ‘Spell Checker’ For Online Harassment And Other Bad Things Online
4. Florida newspaper fighting judge’s order to unpublish online news
5. ZenithOptimedia Sees TV Ad Share Shrinking: Internet to be top global medium in 2018
6. Trump says “closing that Internet” is a good way to fight terrorism: Because ISIS recruits kids from the Internet, you see.
7. The Smartphone Is Eating the Television, Nielsen Admits
8. RIAA lawsuit kills Popcorn Time-like free music streaming site
9. Is “this video has been removed for violating the ToS” commercial advertising?: Darnaa, LLC v. Google, Inc., 2015 WL 7753406, No. 15-cv-03221 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 2, 2015) (Rebecca Tushnet)
10. Can YouTube ‘Remove And Relocate’ User Videos Capriciously? (Eric Goldman)
11. Microsoft settles lawsuit against Ballmer, Gates, others over browser ballot blunder’s $732M fine
12. TPP language on copyright open to interpretation, needs to be more clear, say experts: ‘I think before you go and sign something you should have a better sense of what you are signing for,’ says University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist.
13. As an academic, Liberal MP critiqued TPP copyright rule he may have to support
14. Intellectual property biggest issue for Canada in TPP, says Doer
15. BREAKING: EU Commission unveils next steps for copyright reform, including draft content portability regulation
16. New EU copyright rules would give travelers cross-border Netflix access: Rules keep geo-blocking in place, could also introduce “Google tax” on snippets.
17. Set the data free, Mr. Trudeau (Michael Geist)
18. Why the Government’s Commitment to “Open by Default” Must Be Bigger Than Open Data (Michael Geist)
19. The Internet’s Loop of Action and Reaction Is Worsening
20. The online ad industry made a huge mistake 20 years ago that’s still costing it dearly today
21. Bitcoin’s Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Is Probably This Unknown Australian Genius
22. This Australian Says He and His Dead Friend Invented Bitcoin
23. Who is the hacker that outed Craig Wright as the creator of Bitcoin? Maybe Craig Wright himself.
24. Supreme Court Reaffirms Technological Neutrality in Copyright Royalty Disputes: Description of technological neutrality may be at odds with prior case law
25. 9% of Kickstarter projects fail – Study
26. Yahoo wants to spin off Yahoo, become a holding company for Alibaba shares
27. Kickstarter hires reporter to probe startup that collapsed after raising $3.4M: Crowdfunding firm: We are entitled to further info from Torquing Group.
28. Advances in Robotics Pose Legal, Ethical Questions
29. Insurer now offering “troll insurance” for victims of online harassment: Claims of up to $75,000 can be made for counseling, relocation, or missed work.
30. HTTPS Lawsuits, A New Low For Patent Trolls (Andres Guadamuz)
31. Snapchat’s Move Into Real-Time News is Fascinating
32. Comedians Are Loving This Whole Periscope Thing
33. The self-driving car – a new legal frontier?
34. There’s No Such Thing as a Computer-Authored Work – And It’s a Good Thing, too (James Grimmelmann)
35. When Ethical Hacking Can’t Compete: Companies are paying “white hat” hackers to probe their cybersecurity systems for weaknesses—but some say that so far, they aren’t paying enough.
36. Artificial Intelligence Ethics a New Focus at Cambridge University
37. The “Founder” Generation’s Creation Myth

CREATIVITY

1. Russian Film Festival Gets Official Warning After Promoting Anti-Corruption Documentary
2. Turkish Court Establishes A Special ‘Expert Panel’ To Determine If Comparing Prime Minister To Gollum Is An Insult
3. Copyright case over “Happy Birthday” is done, trial canceled: Settlement details aren’t yet public, but Warner/Chappell isn’t happy.
4. Pharrell Williams, Robin Thicke will appeal “Blurred Lines” copyright ruling: Jury ruled that the 2013 hit was too much like Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give it up.”
5. The Selfie Monkey Strikes Back: Lawyers Claim Of Course Monkeys Can Sue For Copyright
6. Op-ed: Extending copyright to The Diary of Anne Frank is wrong
7. For Journalists in Myanmar, an Atmosphere of Fear and Repression
8. Journalists storm San Bernardino shooters’ apartment after landlord pries open door
9. Ryan Seacrest: The Mogul Next Door – “I don’t believe I’ve ever done anything on camera or on the microphone without thinking of the back house opportunities and the next business play.”
10. Turmoil in the Weird Karaoke Market
11. Meet the “Real” Cookie Lyon: Lydia Harris was instrumental in the founding of a major hip-hop record label and had to fight to get what she deserved. Sound familiar?
12. Natalia Antonova: Journalist and Playwright Caught Between Russia, Ukraine, and the West
13. Are We Different People In Different Languages?: On Being A Multilingual Writer In The 21st Century
14. Scott Weiland’s Family: ‘Don’t Glorify This Tragedy’

COMMUNICATIONS

1. CRTC battles forces of dorkness, takes action against notorious botnet
2. Canada’s role in international botnet takedown 
3. CRTC Executes CASL Warrant as Part of Botnet Take-down
4. What email marketers should know about the EU’s new data law
5. John Doyle: CRTC should listen to TV critics, just like everyone else
6. European Commission publishes guidance on transatlantic data transfers
7. Max Schrems launches new legal broadside at Facebook: Facebook can’t protect Europeans’ data from U.S. spying, says man who brought down Safe Harbor pact
8. U.S. Jurisprudence Hurting U.S.-EU Data Privacy Relations
9. Turkey’s YouTube Ban Breached Right To Information, Says European Court Of Human Rights
10. Big Cable’s Sledgehammer Is Coming Down: Why usage-based billing is a threat to the open internet, and what can be done to stop it (Susan Crawford)
11. The FCC Is Being Forced to Defend Net Neutrality in Court
12. AT&T Pretends It Was Just About To Offer A Bunch Of Awesome Services, But Then Net Neutrality Happened
13. Net neutrality just went to court. Here’s how it did.
14. Net neutrality supporters optimistic after court arguments: Judges seem to accept FCC’s Title II authority, lawyer says.
15. Sling CEO: Comcast data caps so low they hurt competing video providers: Five hours of TV streaming a day could blow through a Comcast data cap.

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. European Court of Human Rights says blanket surveillance is a violation: The ruling also applies to the UK, and might be used against the new Snooper’s Charter.
2. With gun control off-limits, politicians want tech sector to fight terror
3. After Paris Attacks, French Cops Want to Block Tor and Forbid Free Wi-Fi
4. SEC enforcement director tells House Judiciary Committee that investigation agencies should not need warrants to access to email data directly from internet service providers 
5. James Comey, Dianne Feinstein Team Up To Mislead About Encryption; Promise Legislation To Undermine National Security
6. Former FCC Commissioner Idiotically Claims Net Neutrality Helps ISIS: From the a-new-low dept
7. Protecting Free Speech on the Internet From the State of Louisiana
8. Lawsuit Reveals Extent of FBI Internet and Telecom Surveillance 
9. New EU cybersecurity rules neutered by future backdoors, weakened crypto
10. Using Content Delivery Networks To Circumvent The Great Firewall Of China
11. Anonymous Divided: Inside the Two Warring Hacktivist Cells Fighting ISIS Online

jon