GAMES
- Canadian DMCA in Action: Court Awards Massive Damages in First Major Anti-Circumvention Copyright Ruling (Michael Geist)
- Nintendo Of America Inc. v. Jeramie Douglas King And Go Cyber Shopping (2005) Ltd. (Federal Court of Canada March 1, 2017)
- Nintendo Awarded $12.7 million for Circumvention of Technological Protection Measures in Precedent-Setting Case
- Nintendo awarded $9.5M in case against flashcart distributor
- Nintendo claims victory in Canadian case over mods: 3DS maker lauds $12.76 million judgment against Waterloo-based distributor of mod chips and flash carts
- TPMs Are Alive and Well: Canada’s Federal Court Awards Nintendo $12.7-million in Damages
- Canadian Court Chips Away At Anti-Circumvention Exceptions In Massive Win For Nintendo
- Riot awarded $10 million following lawsuit against LeagueSharp
- Riot Games wins $10 million in LeagueSharp suit: League of Legends cheat service is now under Riot’s control
- Digital Homicide’s $10 Million Lawsuit Against Game Critic Gone
- Ghost Recon lands Ubisoft in trouble with Bolivian government: Wildlands sparks diplomatic incident over depiction of drug problem, with possibility of legal action
- Ghost Recon Wildlands’ portrayal of Bolivia prompts government complaint
- Bolivia Initiates Diplomatic Action With France Over Portrayal In Fictional Video Game
- US giant, Valve Corporation, fined over $US2 million for its no refund policy
- Elite: Dangerous crowdfunding campaign reinstated after copyright flap – Spidermind Games’ crowdfunding campaign back in business, closes Wednesday morning.
- Nintendo Switch launches into a storm of expectations: Nintendo’s strategy for its new console is both familiar and brand new; as a result, there are many confused and even conflicting expectations for its first year
- Nintendo Switch to sell 5 million in 2017 – SuperData: “Investors are looking for a solid win by Nintendo that at least approximates the success of the Wii”
- Nintendo’s U.S. chief responds to our biggest gripes about the company’s new console
- Switch will get streaming media “in time”: Nintendo of America president says company in talks with Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, launch focus was on system as a gaming device
- Nintendo says dead Switch pixels are “normal,” which isn’t wrong: Industry standards and LCD makers’ warranties generally allow for some leeway.
- Don’t read too much into the Switch’s successful launch numbers: Strong opening weekend is necessary, but not sufficient, for long-term success.
- Indies on Nintendo: “We’ve been treated like royalty” – Is the Switch a new home for indies? We speak with Nintendo and multiple developers about the platform’s appeal
- Oculus drops Rift and Touch price by $200: HTC doesn’t “feel the need” to cut price of the Vive due to “incredible success” so far
- Is Xbox Game Pass really a threat to physical retail?: GAME and GameStop investors have been frightened by Microsoft’s new digital initiative
- Microsoft introduces the Xbox Live Creators program: Now anyone can publish Xbox Live-enabled games on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs, no dev kit needed
- Twitter agrees to eSports streaming deal with ESL and Dreamhack
- Twitter will live stream 1,500 hours of eSports, including original content
- CCP Games: How ‘Sparc’ is Made to be a ‘Real Sport’, Not a ‘Sports Game’
- Twitch Introduces Pulse – The Gamer News Feed
- An NBA Star Thinks He Can Help Video Gaming Competitions Grow Up: Video game sports are on the cusp of going mainstream. Can game publishers, team owners, and investors like Rick Fox figure out a business model?
- No Man’s Sky creator describes issues with launch, crashes, money: “Labs” unveiled at end of No Man’s Sky panel along with acknowledgement of launch woes.
- Sid Meier tells Civilization’s origin story, cites children’s history books: Lack of mod support was “horribly wrong;” responds to question about remaster.
- Slouching toward relevant video games: People respond differently to stress, says Brie Code. Design for it
- How failure, copycats, and flops helped Atari find success: “I thought it was going to be a throwaway… It just turned out to be fun. We were staying after work to play the damn thing.” – Bushnell shared his first impressions and experiences with the game that would eventually become Pong.
- 16-hour video game binges almost ruined Calgary teen’s life: After an addiction to gaming brought on depression, family problems and a wish to end his life, Cam Adair finally broke free.
- A second chance for Take-Two – 10 Years Ago This Month: A shareholder revolt rights the ship for the Grand Theft Auto publisher in the wake of Hot Coffee
- UK games industry voices Brexit concerns in latest UKIE report
- UK Industry braces for Brexit impact, with 40% considering relocation: UKIE study finds British studios primarily concerned over access to talent
- Unity Without Borders offers a path to Unite Europe for devs affected by Trump
- Pokémon Go: augmented reality tests IP (Andres Guadamuz)
- Report: China halts licensing for South Korea-made games amid political turmoil
DIGITAL
- Snap explodes another 14% on second day of trading
- NBCUniversal invests $500 million in Snapchat maker’s IPO
- Snapchat says 42 million people are watching its NFL content
- Shares of Snapchat Are Way Higher Than Expected
- How Mobile Dominates YouTube Viewership
- Uber and Airbnb are not the future of capitalism
- Uber Maybe Not Taking Its COO Search Very Seriously
- Important Ruling On Perennially-Problematic Creative Commons Non-Commercial License
- Italian firm thinks Facebook’s “Nearby Places” is a copycat, gets feature shut down: Court ordered Facebook to suspend the feature or pay 5,000 euros per day.
- Zuckerberg World President: From a Harvard dormitory at the ripe age of 20, Mark Zuckerberg created one of the most successful companies of the Internet Age. He is liked and respected by his employees and leads what is probably the Valley’s best run organization. Today, Facebook has become so powerful that it challenges established political structures and threatens to undemocratically twist the will of The People.
- Massive Internet Outage Had A Pretty Dumb Cause: A Typo – Pity the poor Amazon programmer and their errant finger
- Terms and Conditions (Rebecca Tushnet)
- Industry, and Apple, opposing “right to repair” laws: Apple claimed jailbreaking would embolden hackers—says same about right to repair.
- A right to repair: why Nebraska farmers are taking on John Deere and Apple – Farmers like fixing their own equipment, but rules imposed by big corporations are making it impossible. Now this small showdown could have a big impact
- The Art Of Manipulating Algorithms:
- Joy Buolamwini: How I’m fighting bias in algorithms
- Patent-holding company’s $533M verdict against Apple is dust on appeal: Massive verdict would have been largest ever for a non-practicing entity.
- Copyright Troll Sues Tor Exit Node, Gets Partial Win
- Why Canada is Now Home to Some of the Toughest Anti-Piracy Rules in the World…And What Should Come Next (Michael Geist)
- UK: Search engines agree to demote pirate sites in search result listings
- German Judge Fines Father Because He Didn’t Tell His Kid Not To Engage In Piracy
- UK government publishes digital strategy to create and support a secure and thriving data economy
- The UK Government Digital Strategy is out, and it’s rubbish
- “Save The Meme” Campaign Protests EU’s Proposed Piracy Filters
- Politico publishes (part of) draft copyright report by MEP Comodini Cachia
- Electronic marketing and internet use in Canada
- 4chan: The Skeleton Key to the Rise of Trump – Trump’s younger supporters know he’s an incompetent joke; in fact, that’s why they support him.
- The Golden State of Hate: How the Internet Made Hate Respectable
- South Africa Introduces Revised Cybercrime Legislation, Acknowledging Criticism
- PR-Stupid JetSmarter Will Charge Journalists $2000 If They Don’t Write Positive Reviews
- Soundcloud Tells Guy It Needs To Kill His Account Of 8 Years Because Someone Else Trademarked His Name
- Silicon Valley Needs To Get Its Act Together On Sexual Harassment & Discrimination
- Google’s Artificial Brain Learns to Find Cat Videos
- Robots’ Legal Personality (Horst Eidenmuller)
- Going for Gold: 3D Printing, Jewellery and the Future of Intellectual Property Law
- Why the biggest challenge facing AI is an ethical one
- How Artificial Intelligence Will Change Everything: Baidu’s Andrew Ng and Singularity’s Neil Jacobstein say this time, the hype about artificial intelligence is real
- Why Netflix Lets You Subtitle All Your Shows In Comic Sans
- Alcatel A5 LED: Because someone, somewhere wants a phone that doubles up as a mobile disco. Maybe.
- Virtual Reality: How to protect your IP rights in a virtual world
- Blockchain applications may be caught by Ontario’s securities law
- Blockchain and Secured Lending in Canada
- Bitcoin Is A Chaotic Bedlam Of Manipulation And Deceit And That’s Just The Way We Like It
- A Single Bitcoin Transaction Takes Thousands of Times More Energy Than a Credit Card Swipe
- Mossberg: Tech’s ruling class casts a big shadow
CREATIVITY
- Audiences no longer care about platforms. The content creator is ‘king.’: Sweet Paul, Cheddar and Axios are proof that media consumers will change their behavior and go where a creator has produced interesting content.
- Andrews v Sony ATV Music Publishing
- SXSW Faces Heavy Criticism For Immigration Clause In Artist Contract: Downtown Boys, PWR BTTM, Priests, and more have signed an open letter demanding that SXSW retract the clause.
- Downtown Boys, Priests, Sheer Mag, More Sign Open Letter Demanding SXSW Rescind Deportation Clause: “We are calling on SXSW to immediately drop this clause from their contract, and cease any collusion with immigration officials that puts performers in danger”
- State Rep Diego Bernal pulls out of SXSW panel amid immigration controversy: “I will not in good conscience participate in a festival that uses the threat of deportation as part of it’s business practices.”
- Federal Law Now Prohibits Censoring of Unfavorable Reviews
- Careful clearing photos from social media for news reporting
- Focus: Appropriation of personality after death issue in estates
- Canadian Government on U.S. Special 301: We Don’t Recognize Validity of Flawed Report (Michael Geist)
- Text Protecting Indigenous Cultural Expressions Streamlined At WIPO, But Divergence Persists
- Why newspaper subscriptions are on the rise
- How Disaster Science Explains the Oscars Mix-Up: Major errors don’t cause disasters. Banal mistakes and human nature do.
- Why does anybody own CRISPR? An argument against academic IP
- The Racist Legacy of NYC’s Anti-Dancing Law
- The Defend Trade Secrets Act Isn’t An “Intellectual Property” Law (Eric Goldman)
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY
- Study: Breitbart-led right-wing media ecosystem altered broader media agenda (Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris, Hal Roberts & Ethan Zuckerman)
- I Tried Trump’s Media Diet. Now Nothing Surprises Me Anymore
- Trump’s FCC chairman says he won’t just do what Trump tells him to: Ajit Pai met with Trump Monday but won’t say what they discussed.
- Trump renominates FCC Chair Ajit Pai for another five-year term: Cable lobby hails Pai for pushing “pro-consumer agenda” and “Internet freedom.”
- The FCC Helped Make the Internet Great: Now, It’s Walking Away
- Op-ed: The Internet belongs to the people, not powerful corporate interests – Senator Chuck Schumer writes for Ars – Keep net neutrality rules in place.
- Op-ed: Protect the Open Internet with a bipartisan law – Senator John Thune writes for Ars – Time for a new approach on net neutrality.
- Charter CEO Touts Pro-Industry Cable Deregulation Under Trump
- FCC Boss Calls Net Neutrality A ‘Mistake,’ Repeats Debunked Claim It Stifled Broadband Investment
- FCC Partially Kills Rules Requiring ISPs Be Clear About Usage Caps, Hidden Fees
- Broadband lobbyists celebrate as FCC halts data security requirements: Data security rule would have confused Internet users, FCC chair claims.
- FCC Broadband Privacy Rule On Hold, Likely Dead
- Sprint’s long VoIP patent war leads to $140M verdict against Time Warner Cable: Can Sprint’s patent lawyers force competitors to pay up for VoIP?
- CRTC says No to “backdoor MVNO” Sugar Mobile
- Why proper MVNOs, unlimited data won’t happen in Canada
- Brad Wall says people have spoken and they don’t want SaskTel sold
- CRTC releases data on device unlock revenue made by Canadian carriers
- YouTube TV Improves Outlook For AT&T Time Warner Merger
- Report: Sprint “betting big on Trump,” could merge with T-Mobile or Comcast – Sprint owner weighs a few possible mergers, makes case to Trump administration.
SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY
- WikiLeaks says it has obtained trove of CIA hacking tools
- Helpful(?) coding tips from the CIA’s school of hacks: WikiLeaks dump includes a best (and worst) practices guide for exploit developers.
- How the CIA Can Hack Your Phone, PC, and TV (Says WikiLeaks)
- CIA Leak Shows Mobile Phones Vulnerable, Not Encryption
- Trump Administration Wants A Clean Reauthorization For NSA Surveillance
- Selfie With Merkel by Refugee Became a Legal Case, but Facebook Won in German Court
- Court Tells Cops They Can’t Use GPS Data Gathered After Suspect They Were Tracking Sold The Vehicle
- DARPA’s Brain Chip Implants Could Be the Next Big Mental Health Breakthrough—Or a Total Disaster
- Master spy behind Snoopers’ Charter wants to gag leakers, journalists: Cabinet office refuses to deny that ex-MI6 man Charles Farr is behind espionage law review.
- To keep Tor hack source code secret, DOJ dismisses child porn case
- Yahoo’s data breach costs general counsel his job
- The cost of Yahoo’s data breach
- BBC screenshots child abuse images on Facebook—Facebook reports it to cops: “Probe shouldn’t involve making more images,” say CPS rules. Did BBC follow them?
- Prenda’s John Steele Pleads Guilty, Admits To Basically Everything
- VP Who Thought Clinton Private Emails Were Bad Also Had Private Emails: Mike Pence used an AOL account to conduct official business, which was hacked
- The Vatican Announces Plan To Protect Pope Francis’ Publicity Rights
- India Opening Up World’s Largest Biometric Database For Commercial Applications, Despite Inadequate Privacy Protection
- Court Refuses to Dismiss Biometric Privacy Action over Facial Recognition Technology Used by Google Photos
- EFF: Data Collected From Utility Smart Meters Should Be Protected By The Fourth Amendment
- CIA Leaks Unsurprisingly Show The Internet Of Broken Things Is A Spy’s Best Friend
- GOP senators’ new bill would let ISPs sell your Web browsing data: Senate resolution would throw out FCC’s entire privacy rulemaking.
- Body Cameras Used By UK Local Government To Catch People Dropping Litter And Walking Dogs
- The Validity of EU-U.S. Personal Data Export Tools: A Pending Issue
- Hacker George Hotz cancels Model S order after Tesla reminds him about IP theft: Was set to receive a car last week, then came a last-minute call from Tesla legal.
- Vizio Fails To Dodge Class Action Over Its Spying ‘Smart’ Televisions
- Uber’s “Greyball” tool helped company evade authorities in Portland, Paris
- Here’s A Tip: If You’re Desiging Special Apps To Hide From Regulators, You’re Going To Get In Trouble
Jon