News of the Week; March 29, 2017

GAMES

1. Playtonic removes controversial YouTuber JonTron from Yooka-Laylee: “We do not endorse or support JonTron’s personal viewpoints”
2. JonTron Loses Out On Video Game Role After Racist Rant
3. JonTron Out As Voice In ‘Yooka-Laylee’
4. Australian Classication Board reverses Outlast 2 ban: After refusing to rate survival horror game, regulators have now cleared it to launch as R18+ title
5. Red Barrels made a mistake with Outlast 2 classification: Australian Classification Board’s refusal based on content never intended for game’s final build
6. Psyonix disapproves of Rocket League gambling: Developer speaks out after betting platform Unikrn adds its hit title to line-up
7. StarCraft remaster unveiled, and original SD version becomes free-as-in-beer: Original version’s patch to 1.18 will make it free; remastered gameplay revealed.
8. Take a look at how Blizzard decides which mods live and die
9. Nintendo Flags YouTuber For Using Switch Sound
10. GameStop: Switch demand ‘incredibly strong’, Zelda attach rate ‘almost 1:1’
11. GameStop expects Switch shortages all year: Executives tell investors each shipment sells out in hours, “we’re going to be chasing supply this entire year”
12. UK retailer GAME blames falling profits on lacklustre console sales
13. Twitch to start selling video games this week
14. Super Mario Run revenue fell short of expectations, says Nintendo
15. Nintendo disappointed by Super Mario Run revenues: However, company says it still prefers pay-once model to free-to-play formulas like the one used in Fire Emblem Heroes
16. PS4 is clear leader in media coverage despite Switch hype: According to ICO Partners, Switch is seeing around 40% of the coverage that Sony’s console gets on a weekly basis
17. Overwatch League could bring in $720 million annually – Analyst: Most bullish scenario from Morgan Stanley researchers puts game’s eSports revenues on par with WWE, 20% larger than MLS
18. Blizzard’s Overwatch League could see $100M in its first year, says analyst
19. Boston Celtics Co-Owner Wyc Grousbeck: ‘There Will Be An eCeltics’
20. The Future of Sport—An eSports Epiphany
21. British Esports Association: ‘Esports Is Not A Sport, But A Credible Activity’
22. Hearthstone is killing itself – Superdata: Research firm’s monthly digital revenue report says Blizzard’s card game hits new low on mobile as worldwide digital sales growth slows
23. BioWare Releases Statement On Mass Effect: Andromeda Criticism, Says Improvements Are Coming: “We’ve received quite a bit of feedback, some of it positive and some of it critical.”
24. Mad Catz to be delisted over “abnormally low” share price: NYSE has already started a process, and Mad Catz does not intend to appeal
25. Four years later, Xbox exec admits how Microsoft screwed up disc resale plan: Compare and contrast with Mehdi’s marketing push for the plan back in 2013.
26. Mobile Games’ Booming Market: Opportunity for Hollywood and IP Owners
27. Devs can now reply directly to user reviews on the Apple App Store
28. The strange case of the phantom Pokemon: In August 2016, a woman claimed to have been attacked by a real Pokemon. Her terrifying hallucination reveals the mysterious ‘twilight zone’ between waking and sleep — a strange state of consciousness that may also lie behind various phenomena, from the Salem Witch Trials to alien abductions. Psychologist Matthew Tompkins explains.
29. Roam free: A history of open-world gaming – You know the violence, but there were text-adventures, skiing, space, and ants(!) too.
30. The Video Game That Claims Everything Is Connected: Instead, it shows how individual and unique things really are.
31. Pokemon, Halo, and Donkey Kong among 2017 World Video Game Hall of Fame finalists
32. Check out the handwritten game design doc for Asteroids
33. 1975-2015 – Building a timeline of computer and video game history

DIGITAL

1. Supreme Court Says You Can Copyright Elements Of ‘Useful Articles’ — Which May Spell Disaster For 3D Printing & More
2. Victory for Varsity! But Also for Fashion? Supreme Court Rules in Star Athletica v. Varsity Brands
3. Ruffled feathers or serious harm? Controversial UK personality sued for libellous tweets 
4. Man sentenced to 3 years for Facebook threat to kill Obama loses appeal
5. Judge: eBay can’t be sued over seller accused of patent infringement
6. Will the Supreme Court end the East Texas patent scam?: Tech companies and interest groups seek to alter the geography of litigation.
7. Supreme Court Won’t Hear Case About Copyright Protection Of Pre-1972 Sound Recordings
8. Supreme Court of Canada to address jurisdiction issues in online defamation case
9. CD, DVD pirate sentenced to 5 years in prison: FBI investigated piracy ring with assistance from the RIAA and MPAA.
10. In settlement, app makers change their tune on health benefits and privacy: NY Attorney General says three popular app makers over promised and misled.
11. Consumer Law Group announces the filing of a Canadian class action against Amazon for the collection of undue sales tax
12. Streaming Video Competition Slowly Begins Killing The Bloated, Pricey Cable Bundle
13. Big US companies pull YouTube ads after extremist content sparks uncertainty: The ads might not have run over hateful videos, but they’re not taking any chances.
14. YouTube’s Better-Than-TV Pitch Undermined by Offensive Video
15. YouTube faces exodus of advertisers: Latest example highlights hidden perils of online ads.
16. AT&T, Verizon Feign Ethical Outrage, Pile On Google’s ‘Extremist’ Ad Woes
17. Google and Facebook Can’t Just Make Fake News Disappear: Fake news is too big and messy to solve with algorithms or editors — because the problem is….us.
18. Trolling Scholars Debunk the Idea That the Alt-Right’s Sh**posters Have Magic Powers: Asserting that alt-right “trolls” were a deciding factor in Trump’s victory minimizes the broader trends that amplified their influence. (Whitney Phillips, Jessica Beyer & Gabriella Coleman)
19. We’ve Heard All about Fake News—Now What?
20. Tell California Assembly Not To Ignore The First Amendment As It Tries To Ban Fake News
21. Real Talk About Fake News
22. Facebook Officially Toying With Snap Stock Price Like A Sadistic Cat Playing With A Captured Mouse
23. Elon Musk is setting up a company that will link brains and computers: The ultimate goal would be a “neural lace” to enhance people’s cognitive abilities.
24. Germany’s Flawed Plan to Fight Hate Speech by Fining Tech Giants Millions
25. Netflix: The Monster That’s Eating Hollywood: The streaming-video service is hogging talent and pushing up prices, spurring pushback from rival TV producers who once saw it as a partner; 70 new titles this year
26. Tractor Owners Using Pirated Firmware To Dodge John Deere’s Ham-Fisted Attempt To Monopolize Repair
27. Guy Who Wants Everyone To Believe He Created Bitcoin, Now Patenting Everything Bitcoin With An Online Gambling Fugitive
28. How AI Can Aid Authoritarians—And How Humans Fight Back: Hidden algorithms reflect and amplify racism and other human biases, but researchers hope to fix them
29. Google reportedly removing SMS texting from Hangouts on May 22: But Google Voice users won’t be affected as much.
30. The Death of Advertising: And what will rise from its ashes.
31. Creativity and the Internet
32. In Support of Untargeted Ads
33. Kerr: What if your ‘doctor’ were a robot? How Artificial Intelligence is challenging our ethics
34. Australian Govt.: Just Kidding On That Whole Safe Harbors Reform Thing, Guys
35. What Would a Digital Economy-Era NAFTA Mean for Canada? (Michael Geist)
36. On computational ethics: Is it possible to imagine an AI that can compute ethics?
37. Whack a Meme: Is It Possible to Contain (Let Alone Stop) the “Crying Jordan”?
38. Man who claims he invented e-mail is now running for US Senate: Shiva Ayyadurai, who sued the Techdirt blog for libel, will run in Massachusetts.
39. Intel is keeping Moore’s Law alive by making bigger improvements less often

CREATIVITY

1. Supreme Court Clarifies Test For Determining Whether Designs On Useful Articles Are Eligible For Copyright Protection: Star Athletica, L.L.C. v. Varsity Brands, Inc.
2. Supreme Court Clarifies Copyright Eligibility for Useful Articles
3. Supreme Court Seeks to Clarify Copyrightability of Design Features on Useful Articles in Cheerleading Uniform Case
4. Supreme Court Resolves Split on Design Copyright Eligibility
5. Supreme Court Finds Cheerleading Uniform Designs Copyrightable
6. Cheering on the Fashion Industry: U.S Supreme Court Issues Landmark Copyright Decision That Will Have Deep Implications for Fashion and Sports Industries
7. More Financial Scandals Involving A Collecting Society: Remind Me Again Why They Are Credible Representatives Of Artists?
8. The Future of Copyright post Brexit
9. GS Media and its implications for the construction of the right of communication to the public within EU copyright architecture: a new article
10. Your Periodic Reminder That Initial Interest Confusion Lawsuits Are Stupid–Epic v. YourCareUniverse
11. Archie Comics Is Trying to Trademark the Cute Couple Names for Betty and Jughead
12. Broadway Play Changes Set Design Over Cafe Trademark Threat And, No, That Doesn’t Make Any Damned Sense
13. Does “Raiders Fancast” Infringe the “Fancaster” Trademark? (Eric Goldman)
14. Trademark Lawsuit Claiming Organic Search Results Create Initial Interest Confusion Falls Apart–Larsen v. Larson (Eric Goldman)
15. Higher Costs Likely to be the Norm in Federal Court IP Cases
16. Social Media Erupts as the Art World Splits in Two Over Dana Schutz Controversy: The art world is not a monolith, social media posts reveal.
17. “Fearless Girl” Sculpture Near Wall Street Prompts Copyright Allegation That is More Bull than Bear 
18. Hugo, Inc.: Les Misérables was born of one of the riskiest—and shrewdest—deals in publishing history.
19. Why Hollywood As We Know It Is Already Over
20. Bibliodiscotheque: Array of Events Planned to Celebrate Disco Culture (Library of Congress)
21. Extremist Speech and Compelled Conformity (Danielle Keats Citron)

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Germany wants to regulate a 24-hour livestream as a broadcaster: Running a non-stop Twitch channel could be expensive.
2. Consumer Broadband Privacy Protections Are Dead
3. Senate votes to let ISPs sell your Web browsing history to advertisers: ISP now stands for “invading subscriber privacy,” Democratic senator says.
4. U.S. Senate Approves Resolution to Repeal FCC’s Broadband Privacy Rules; Resolution Heads to U.S. House of Representatives for Consideration
5. Congress Just Voted To Kill Consumer Broadband Privacy Protections
6. How ISPs can sell your Web history—and how to stop them: How the Senate’s vote to kill privacy rules affects you.
7. No, You Can’t Buy Congress’s Internet Data, Or Anyone Else’s
8. With U.S. Retreat from Online Privacy, Canada Needs to Safeguard the Internet in NAFTA Talks (Michaele Geist)
9. AT&T/DirecTV give in to government demands in collusion lawsuit settlement: Customers lost when pay-TV companies illegally shared information, DOJ says.
10. AT&T Settles With DOJ Over LA Dodgers Channel Collusion Allegations
11. In New CASL Case, CRTC Sends $15,000 Message 
12. FCC to halt expansion of broadband subsidies for poor people: Pai won’t approve new applications, drops court defense of Lifeline broadband order.
13. Netflix Is No Longer Worried About Net Neutrality Now That It’s Massive And Successful
14. Does a sales tax on Uber pave way for a ‘Netflix tax’ in Canada? Probably
15. Cable retransmission within reception area copyright free?!
16. Alex Jones Apologizes For Pizzagate Coverage, Blames Other Media Outlets
17. Charter promises Trump a broadband push, but no extra Internet connections: Charter’s $25 billion promise is vague and includes stuff it already planned.
18. Warner Bros., Trademark Lawyers Target “Golden Ticket” Beer Brand

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Key priorities of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada in 2017
2. Fixing PIPEDA: My Appearance Before the Access to Information, Privacy & Ethics Committee (Michael Geist)
3. Appeal court says reporter must hand over material to RCMP
4. Secretly recorded Planned Parenthood tapes barred from publication: Two activists criminally charged with allegedly violating privacy of people filmed.
5. Oculus’ VR Privacy Policy Serves the Needs of Facebook, Not Users
6. Whistleblower Says UK Police Worked With Hackers To Access Activists’ Email Accounts
7. Someone is putting lots of work into hacking Github developers: Dimnie recon trojan has flown under the radar for three years… until now.
8. Doxed by Microsoft’s Docs.com: Users unwittingly shared sensitive docs publicly: Thousands of docs with sensitive data still reachable from search engines, including health data.
9. Vizio Must Face VPPA Suit Over Smart TVs, Court Rules
10. Dish Network Seeks New Trial After $20 Million TCPA Jury Verdict
11. US Senate votes to let internet providers share your web browsing history without permission: Just what no consumer asked for
12. Encryption Workarounds Paper Shows Why ‘Going Dark’ Is Not A Problem, And In Fact Is As Old As Humanity Itself
13. Google takes Symantec to the woodshed for mis-issuing 30,000 HTTPS certs 
14. NY Senator Pulls Sponsorship From ‘Right To Be Forgotten’ Bill, Effectively Killing It
15. NSA Official Says It Might Have Been Nice If The Agency Had Handled The Public Disclosure Of The Section 215 Program
16. Judge rules in favor of “Drone Slayer,” dismisses lawsuit filed by pilot: Is it trespassing if you fly over your neighbor’s land? The answer remains unclear.
17. Cybersecurity and the Yahoo experience – Legal pays the price
18. Goldilocks and the Interactive Bear: The Privacy Nightmare 
19. “Samsung Connect” wrangles all the insecure Things in your Internet of Things: Controlling your home—or the security-nightmare “smart” parts of it—with your voice.

Jon