News of the Week; September 28, 2016

GAMES

1. Palmer Luckey: The Facebook Near-Billionaire Secretly Funding Trump’s Meme Machine – Palmer Luckey—founder of Oculus—is funding a Trump group that circulates dirty memes about Hillary Clinton.
2. Oculus Rift inventor Palmer Luckey is funding Trump’s racist meme machine: Admits involvement with pro-Trump nonprofit, deletes Reddit account.
3. Insomniac, other devs condemn Palmer Luckey’s support of pro-Trump troll group
4. Some developers dropping Oculus support to protest founder’s politics 
5. In Wake of Palmer Luckey Report, Multiple Devs Drop Oculus Support: After news broke of Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey’s anti-Clinton funding, game devs are dropping Oculus support.
6. Luckey on pro-Trump donation: “My actions… do not represent Oculus”: Amid fallout, Oculus founder tries to walk back impact of his political giving
7. Oculus founder apologizes as devs suspend support: Palmer Luckey denies posting as “NimbleRichMan”, Oculus CEO says employees are “free to support the issues…that matter to them”
8. Oculus “diversity” fellows struggle with cofounder’s politics: Those competing for scholarships express “surprise, shock, dismay, and disappointment.”
9. YouTube And Twitch Are Battling To End “Misogynistic Abuse In Gaming”
10. How A Washington-Based Clinic Treats Video Game Addiction
11. VR: There will be blood – The diversity of software already out there for VR is proof of a bubble; variety is great, but even if VR succeeds overall, many creators will be left behind
12. No Man’s Sky Being Investigated Over Misleading Advertising Claims: One person says they felt “properly misled.”
13. Federal Court Holds That Casino In Video Game App Is Not A Gambling Device 
14. Game Developer Chooses To Connect With Pirates, Reaps Rewards As A Result
15. Jagex punishing banned Runescape players by selling their stuff
16. Jagex now at the core of publicly-listed Chinese company
17. Star Wars: Uprising shutting down – Kabam will no longer be taking payments from players of the game as of September 22
18. Sunset Overdrive Dev Wants to Bring Game to PC, But Microsoft Gets to Make the Call: “We’d love for it to come to PC, though it’s up to Xbox on that one.”
19. You can now study EA’s lost sci-fi shooter Battlefield 2142
20. Ubisoft CEO: A Vivendi takeover ‘threatens the construction and pillars of Ubisoft’: “Yes, companies merging is normally not a problem, but in our industry, which is changing a lot of time, it’s actually risky.”
21. Ubisoft buys back €122.5 million in stock: Publisher regains 3.2% in share capital ahead of Vivendi’s request for greater board representation
22. Ubisoft buys publisher of notorious game clone 2048
23. Ubisoft opens book publishing house to ‘propel’ brands forward
24. Riot commits to revenue sharing with LoL eSports players: “We recognize that the current ecosystem isn’t consistently profitable yet for team owners or for the league”
25. In the wake of criticism, Riot promises to share more revenue with League pros: “We’re making some changes around in-game content which will create additional revenue streams for players and teams.”
26. Influx of capital into eSports will force it to grow up: Traditional sports owners and executives getting into eSports will herald huge changes to the culture and business of the sector
27. Why Brooklyn Nets Point Guard Jeremy Lin Launched An eSports Team
28. ESL One will be the first eSports event livestreamed in VR
29. Philadelphia 76ers Become First U.S. Sports Team To Purchase eSports Franchises
30. Real-world teams march further into eSports: Philadelphia 76ers become the first North American franchise to buy an eSports team, but it’s just the latest deal in an ongoing trend
31. NBA team execs purchase eSports franchise, Team Liquid
32. Iceland rejected EA’s $15k offer for FIFA 17 national team rights: “They are the ones buying these rights and they almost want it for free”
33. The rise and rise of tabletop gaming: Gentler designs with an emphasis on teamwork are fuelling a boom in board game sales. Why, in the golden age of video games, are we choosing to play with counters round a table?
34. Chris Melissions: creator and guest curator for “The Art of Videogames” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

DIGITAL

1. Teleportation across Calgary marks ‘major step’ toward creation of ‘quantum internet’: Fibre-optic system between university and city hall enables long-distance ‘disembodied’ transfer of info
2. Google and Facebook cases dominate Supreme Court fall session: The high court is set to take on big cases, including a B.C. woman’s class-action lawsuit against Facebook.
3. Record Labels Make New Grab For Website-Blocking Power in YouTube-MP3 Suit (EFF)
4. RIAA takes on stream-ripping in copyright lawsuit targeting YouTube-mp3: “The scale of Defendants’ infringing activity is enormous,” lawsuit says.
5. Major Record Labels Sue Over Ripping Audio Tracks from YouTube Videos: The target is a German company that is the “chief offender” of stream ripping, but the lawsuit also demands an order against third parties.
6. Can Someone Explain To The RIAA That SOPA Didn’t Actually Pass?
7. The Hacking Law That Can’t Hack It: The five cases that show how the frustrating and confusing 30-year-old Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is.
8. Google swallows 11,000 novels to improve AI’s conversation: As writers learn that tech giant has processed their work without permission, the Authors Guild condemns ‘blatantly commercial use of expressive authorship’
9. Revealed: How one Amazon Kindle scam made millions of dollars – For years, thousands were tricked into buying low-quality ebooks.
10. Judge Finds Sony-Spotify Agreement to Be Ambiguous in Big Royalties Lawsuit
11. Feds accuse Silicon Valley firm Palantir, founded by Peter Thiel, of hiring bias
12. The digital age has destroyed the concept of ownership, and companies are taking advantage of it
13. New California IMDb Age Law Probably Unconstitutional, Experts Say
14. Teen-Focused App Musical.ly Is the Music Industry’s New Secret Weapon
15. 46 California Cities Join Rush To Impose ‘Netflix Tax’
16. Immigration Board Says You Can Be Deported For Copyright Infringement
17. Does The FTC Get To Ignore Section 230 Of The CDA?
18. Consumer group: Microsoft should compensate unhappy Windows 10 upgraders – Survey suggested that 12 percent of Windows 10 upgraders switched back to 7 or 8.1.
19. Microsoft Bets Its Future on a Reprogrammable Computer Chip
20. Facebook apologizes for feeding inflated video-view numbers to advertisers
21. Facebook is Teflon: why inflating video viewing may not change anything
22. HP Has Added DRM to Its Ink Cartridges. Not Even Kidding
23. EFF calls on HP to disable printer ink self-destruct sequence: HP firmware update rejected cheaper third-party ink cartridges.
24. New Galaxy Note 7 reportedly explodes in China, burns customer’s finger
25. Goodbye QWERTY: BlackBerry stops making hardware: BB will “end all internal hardware development” and stick to rebranding devices.
26. Judge skewers Oracle attorney for revealing Google, Apple trade secrets: Lawyer “screwed up and she never should have done what she did,” judge says.
27. Oracle’s ‘Gamechanger’ Evidence Really Just Evidence Of Oracle Lawyers Failing To Read
28. Copyright Alert: The European Union Exposes Websites to Copyright Liability for Linking to Infringing Material of Third Parties
29. Nigerian Government Officials Abusing Cybercrime Law To Silence Critical Journalist
30. Court rules that union official’s sexist and offensive blog posts are constitutionally protected
31. Donald Trump Doubles Down On Ted Cruz’s Blatantly Confused And Backwards Argument Over Internet Governance
32. ISPs Offered Service to “Protect Safe Harbor” Under DMCA
33. Journalists Blaming Facebook For Decline Is Just As Tiresome As When They Blamed Craigslist & Google
34. Canadians watched 60 per cent more YouTube in 2015 than 2014, new data shows 
35. Now you can register to vote in Snapchat
36. Yelp fighting court order requiring it to remove negative review
37. How Iran Is Building Its Censorship-Friendly Domestic Internet
38. The Democratization of Censorship
39. Instagram Is The New TV: A too-close look at Karlie Kloss’s new eBay ad
40. I Let Facebook’s Algorithms Run My Life For Weeks: How I destroyed my feed, annoyed my relatives, and maybe even found true friendship in the processWhat happens when your tweet goes viral
41. Wrap Star
42. Listen To The First Ever Pop Song Composed By Artificial Intelligence
43. Ghosts in the Machine: Female Computers in Science Fiction and History

CREATIVITY

1. How the New Star Trek Fan Film Guidelines May Change Fandom
2. Chicago Cubs: With Success Comes Trademark Lawsuit Against Street Vendors
3. SODRAC v. Quebec Artists?
4. Photographer Successfully DMCAs Trump Jr.’s Skittles Image
5. Donald Trump and the Return of Seditious Libel
6. New Hampshire law barring ballot selfies is unconstitutional, court rules: Not even the motive to limit voter coercion can bar right to ballot booth selfies.
7. N.H. ‘ballot selfie’ ban struck down
8. Federal Court of Canada decision encourages creation of historical fiction
9. TV and Film Music Supervisors Are Killing Real Songwriting
10. Spotify is causing a major problem for economists
11. Traffic Is Fake, Audience Numbers Are Garbage, And Nobody Knows How Many People See Anything
12. Texas Rangers Oppose Bacardi’s Logo For Green Tea Spirit Because Of The ‘T’
13. It Only Takes Six Seconds To Hear The World’s Most Sampled Song
14. The Filmmaking Couple Kidnapped by Kim Jong-il to Put North Korean Cinema on the Map
15. Hollywood’s new China syndrome: The country’s enormous audience means money for movie studios and some restrictions; Chinese viewers — and investors — are saving Hollywood. But is China’s influence causing studios to self-censor?

COMMUNICATIONS & BROADCASTING

1. Heritage Minister says she will not reverse Cancon rules for TV industry
2. LA Clippers Sign New TV Rights Deal, But It Does Not Include New OTT Services
3. Rogers, Shaw to shutter video streaming service Shomi in November after less than two years
4. What Cord Cutting? Cable Sector Hiked TV Prices 40% In Last Five Years
5. The Future of the Internet: Less “Walking Dead” and More “House of Cards”? The FCC and CRTC Consider Implications of Data Caps and Differential Pricing
6. ISP explains data caps to FCC: Using the Internet is like eating Oreos – “You have to pay extra for double-stuffed,” cable company Mediacom tells FCC.
7. ISP Feebly Tries To Defend Usage Caps By Comparing Them To…Oreos
8. FCC delays cable TV apps vote, needs time to work out licensing: You’ll have to wait longer for free TV apps that replace rented set-top boxes.
9. FTC won’t give up fight against AT&T unlimited data throttling: Agency also lobbies for more authority to protect Internet subscribers.
10. AT&T sues Nashville in bid to stall Google Fiber: Google Fiber’s quick access to utility poles threatened by lawsuit.
11. AT&T Sues Nashville To Keep Google Fiber At Bay
12. Verizon technician sold calling, location data for thousands of dollars
13. US pay-TV subscribers down to 82%
14. Law Professor Mark Lemley: Hollywood Is Simply Wrong About FCC’s Set Top Box Plan
15. Inside The Final Days Of Roger Ailes’s Reign At Fox News: For 20 years, Roger Ailes did as he pleased at Fox News. Then former anchor Gretchen Carlson sued him for sexual harassment—and suddenly Rupert Murdoch, who’d long had his back, wasn’t there. How the most powerful man in cable news was toppled in 16 whirlwind days.

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Yahoo says half a billion accounts breached by nation-sponsored hackers: One of the biggest compromises ever exposes names, e-mail addresses, and much more.
2. Hack Brief: Yahoo Breach Hits Half a Billion Users
3. As we speak, teen social site is leaking millions of plaintext passwords: i-Dressup operators fail to fix bug that exposes up to 5.5 million credentials.
4. Austrian Teenager Sues Parents For Posting Pictures From Her Childhood To Facebook
5. Cops are raiding the homes of innocent people based only on IP addresses
6. CJEU Sheds Light On Liability For Operators Of Open Wi-Fi Networks (Case C-484/14 Mc Fadden v Sony Music)
7. Leaked Oversight Report Shows Illegal Surveillance, Massive Constitutional Violations By Germany’s Intelligence Service
8. An Ongoing Lack Of Technical Prowess Is Resulting In Bad Laws, Bad Prosecutions, And Bad Judicial Decisions
9. Why the silencing of KrebsOnSecurity opens a troubling chapter for the ‘Net: “Free speech in the age of the Internet is not really free,” journalist warns.
10. New California Law Attempts To Fight Hollywood Ageism By Censoring Third-Party Websites
11. The hopes and headaches of Snapchat’s glasses

jon