News of the Week; May 17, 2017

GAMES

1. Judge Explores Boundaries of Authorship With Nods to ‘Star Wars,’ Spike Lee and ‘Love Actually’: Modded video games get likened to movies in a tour de force of legal writing.
2. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., and Valve Corporation v. Lilith Games (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. And uCool, Inc. (U.S. Dist. Ct., Northern District of California)
3. ZeniMax extends legal pursuit to Samsung Gear VR: Former id Software employees John Carmack and Matt Hooper involved in fresh VR lawsuit
4. ZeniMax sues Samsung over Gear VR tech: Suit says Oculus’ Mobile SDK used stolen trade secrets, copyrighted code.
5. With a legal win against Oculus, ZeniMax turns to a new target: Samsung’s Gear VR
6. ZeniMax sues Samsung over Oculus-derived Gear VR headset: The lawsuit claims the Gear headset infringes its property rights in the same way as the Oculus Rift.
7. Ruslan Sokolovsky Gets 3 And A Half Years Suspended Sentence And A Conviction For Playing Pokemon In A Church
8. Scientists Still Studying Pokémon Go, Months After We All Moved On: The craze around the augmented reality game offers plenty to study, even if it takes a while
9. In the name of the algorithm, Valve nerfs Steam Trading Cards
10. Steam tries to shut down “fake” games that abuse Trading Card system: Algorithms will detect content-free titles that use bots to resell cards.
11. Alan Wake will be removed from digital stores after this weekend: Expiring music licenses means modern classic can no longer be sold for download.
12. Alan Wake to be removed from sale over music licenses: Renewal is not “in Remedy’s hands” due to Microsoft publishing deal, so the revered game will be pulled from PC and Xbox today
13. Makers Of Payday 2 Donating DLC Profits To Help 2 YouTubers Fight Copyright Lawsuit
14. Nier Automata Modder Includes Piracy Checks In Mod, Causing An Uproar, But Should It?
15. Pirates upset that popular graphics mod won’t work for them: User-made graphical fix for Nier Automata comes with Steam API check
16. Bethesda’s Pete Hines Shrugs His Shoulders About Trademark Dispute With No Matter Studios
17. Is Bethesda’s reviews policy really harming game sales?: We look at the data around Doom, Skyrim Special Edition, Dishonored 2 and Prey
18. Minecraft dev sacrifices Nirvana in-joke to save players’ parrots
19. After uproar, Minecraft maker to stop feeding cookies to in-game parrots: Mojang accepts concerns that children might imitate the game’s dangerous avian diet.
20. UploadVR sued over sexual harassment allegations: Former social media director claims “unbearable” atmosphere for female employees, accuses rising VR company of wrongful dismissal
21. “No region or city is free of the games industry’s gender disparity”: Gram Games calls on companies around the world to push for better diversity, just as it’s doing with The 22% Project
22. Why Bungie overstaffed on Halo: to train its devs for Destiny: “We needed to bring extra people on to Halo to train them up, ready [them] for Destiny.”
23. Glu’s losses widen in Q1 despite revenue gains: Mobile publisher lost $22.8m on $56.8m revenue, but Crowdstar acquisition boosted year-on-year bookings
24. Square Enix posts ‘record-high’ sales and profits as key franchises deliver
25. Square Enix puts Hitman dev IO Interactive up for sale
26. Square Enix drops IO Interactive: “There can be no guarantees,” publisher warns as it hunts for a buyer for Hitman developer
27. Switch Was Best-Selling Console In The Us In April, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe No. 1 Game
28. Switch best-selling console in US for second month: Nintendo says it sold more than 280,000 systems last month and 550,000 copies of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
29. Two Months In, I’ve Barely Taken My Nintendo Switch Off The Dock
30. Report: Andromeda’s poor reception sees Mass Effect put on hold – Bioware Montreal staff and resources focused elsewhere for now
31. Civilization V designer Jon Shafer joins Paradox – under a cloud: Shafer will be game director on new Paradox projects, but his Kickstarted empire builder At The Gates is still years behind schedule
32. Reported $20m franchise fee is putting esports teams off Overwatch: High costs and scarce events cited as major orgs bide time on OWL
33. MotoGP owner aims to create “the most important racing esport championship”: Dorna Sports, Milestone and Sony unite for ambitious esports project
34. Adelaide Crows First Australian Mainstream Pro Sports Organization To Acquire Esports Team
35. Square Enix posts “record-high” revenue and profits: Full-year results boosted by Final Fantasy XV, weather the storm of IO Interactive withdrawal
36. “There’s a change in the way games are exploited in the market”: Ubisoft execs explain why they cut unit sales projections by 30% while total revenues are virtually unscathed
37. Ubisoft’s operating income grows 40% as digital takes 50% of sales: Ghost Recon Wildlands and For Honor were strong performers for the publisher; Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry confirmed for current fiscal year
38. Google announces support for standalone Daydream VR headsets
39. Google announces untethered, fully tracked, standalone VR headsets – Also: New “visual position system” is an AR Google Maps for indoors.
40. PSVR: Losing Steam, or Gaining Traction? – If Sony really has lost interest in PSVR, it’s a major strategic blunder from a company about to face tough competition for the first time this generation
41. Microsoft intros AR/VR motion controllers: Windows 10 inputs will launch this holiday bundled with an Acer headset for $399
42. Oculus promises developers better communication
43. Inside a Chinese Internet Cafe Where Gamers While Away Their Days
44. Price, scarcity concerns drive a growing bootleg Amiibo scene
45. Yes, Videogames Are Serious Art. This Guy’s Career Proves It
46. Derivière: “Games music needs to emancipate itself from Hollywood”
47. Sega plans to revive ‘major’ franchises by 2020
48. Sega strategy calls for revival of dormant franchises: Sonic publisher looking to boost game sales 50% in next three years partly by bringing back “major IPs”
49. Tom Brady Is On Madden 18’s Cover And Life Is Hell
50. Video games are creating smarter animals: Our relationships to animals in games have evolved, and they just might change the way we treat them in the real world
51. Playground spent 18 months developing the first 10 minutes of Forza Horizon 3: “First impressions change how players perceive a game,” says creative director Ralph Fulton
52. The Witcher coming to Netflix as a TV series: Live-action drama is a new direction for video game adaptations.
53. Characters and Worldbuilding: Analyzing the Strength of Japanese Games
54. Twitch Unity day aims to promote diversity, inclusivity: Streaming platform also selling t-shirt to raise money for Amnesty International
55. Sellers of circumvention devices beware!
56. UKIE lays out new policy manifesto: With an election on the way, UK trade group tells government what the industry needs to succeed in a post-Brexit world

DIGITAL

1. WannaCry Ransomware That’s Hitting World Right Now Uses NSA Windows Exploit
2. An NSA-derived ransomware worm is shutting down computers worldwide: Wcry uses weapons-grade exploit published by the NSA-leaking Shadow Brokers.
3. Leaked NSA Hacking Tool On Global Ransomware Rampage
4. Massive ransomware attack hits UK hospitals, Spanish banks: Ransomware attack appears to be targeting institutions in several European countries.
5. Massive cryptocurrency botnet used leaked NSA exploits weeks before WCry: Campaign that flew under the radar used hacked computers to mine Monero currency.
6. Fearing Shadow Brokers leak, NSA reported critical flaw to Microsoft: WaPo confirms long-held suspicions as NSA cyberweapons crisis threatens to grow worse.
7. Two days after WCry worm, Microsoft decries exploit stockpiling by governments: Company president specifically notes role of NSA code used by Ransomware worm.
8. Microsoft Is P___ED OFF At The NSA Over WannaCry Attack
9. Microsoft Says The NSA Shares Blame For Ransomware Attacks: The WannaCry authors used a stolen NSA vulnerability to hurt Windows users — should the NSA take responsibility?
10. The Ransomware Meltdown Experts Warned About Is Here
11. Today’s Massive Ransomware Attack Was Mostly Preventable—Here’s How To Avoid It
12. Global Ransomware Attack ‘Accidentally’ Halted But It’s Probably Not Over
13. ‘Accidental hero’ halts ransomware attack and warns: this is not over – Expert who stopped spread of attack by activating software’s ‘kill switch’ says criminals will ‘change the code and start again’
14. Hackers Behind Massive Ransomware Attack Have Made an Embarrassingly Small Amount of Money
15. WCry is so mean Microsoft issues patch for 3 unsupported Windows versions: Decommissioned for years, Windows XP, 8, and Server 2003 get emergency update.
16. FBI Gives Hollywood Hacking Victims Surprising Advice: “Pay the Ransom” – Netflix isn’t alone – Agencies and others are balancing demands for money against the fears of stolen data ending up online.
17. New Netflix DRM Blocks Rooted Phone Owners From Downloading The Netflix App
18. Two days after WCry worm, Microsoft decries exploit stockpiling by governments: Company president specifically notes role of NSA code used by Ransomware worm.
19. The WannaCry Ransomware Hackers Made Some Real Amateur Mistakes
20. Microsoft Says The NSA Shares Blame For Ransomware Attacks: The WannaCry authors used a stolen NSA vulnerability to hurt Windows users — should the NSA take responsibility?
21. The WannaCry Ransomware Has a Link to Suspected North Korean Hackers
22. What the Rise of Russian Hackers Means for Your Business
23. Thailand Demands More Proxy Censorship From Facebook
24. Well, Duh: Facebook’s System To Stop ‘Fake News’ Isn’t Working — Because Facebook Isn’t The Problem
25. Abortion Pill Organization Temporarily Booted Off Facebook
26. Austrian Court’s ‘Hate Speech’ Ruling Says Facebook Must Remove Perfectly Legal Posts All Over The World
27. US Court Upholds Enforceability Of GNU GPL As Both A License And A Contract
28. “Genericide” legal assault to nullify the Google trademark fails: Google doesn’t lose trademark even if it is a generic term for searching the Web.
29. Google Gets Big Ninth Circuit Win That Its Eponymous Trademark Isn’t Generic–Elliott v. Google (Eric Goldman)
30. A focus on digital habits could help news publishers fight Facebook
31. Facebook’s plan to disrupt TV advertising may have hit a wall
32. Bleacher Report CEO Dave Finocchio Doesn’t Buy That Facebook Isn’t Avid About Securing Sports Rights
33. Texas Court Orders Sports Streaming Sites To Be Blocked In Anticipation Of Piracy
34. Facebook Warrant Case: Stark Debate and a Divided Court
35. The MP3 Is About As ‘Dead’ As Pepe The Frog
36. Recording Industry Claims Imaginary Value Gap As A Bigger Threat Than Piracy (EFF)
37. SoundExchange Acquires CMRRA
38. The Real Threat to Our Government Is Tech Illiteracy
39. Cambridge Analytica Explained: Data and Elections
40. Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online
41. The Apophenic Machine: The conspiratorial mode and the internet’s data hoard were made for each other (Molly Sauter)
42. Maybe the Internet Isn’t Tearing Us Apart After All
43. Can These Apps Really Help You Escape Your Filter Bubble?: New tech products offer some tiny first steps toward shaking up our social networks
44. We Recorded VCs’ Conversations and Analyzed How Differently They Talk About Female Entrepreneurs
45. Cloudflare, sued by its first “patent troll,” hits back hard: Blackbird Technologies, owned by its own lawyers, has filed over 100 lawsuits.
46. Patent Trolling Lawyers May Have Picked With The Wrong Company To Shake Down: Cloudflare Hits Back
47. Dear Google, You Could Start Fixing Content ID By Taking Down Dozens Of YouTube Videos On How To Defeat It
48. YouTube still has full albums on its platform, and that’s a problem
49. When a Picture is Worth… Thousands of Dollars: Ontario Court decides Ground-breaking Online Copyright Case
50. The Kardashians Can’t Keep up with Copyright Law 
51. Now Canceled Crowdfunding Project Sent DMCA Notice Following Skeptical Review
52. Story About Ex-Sony Pictures Boss Magically Disappears From Gawker; His Lawyer Tells Reporters Not To Talk About It
53. Class action against computer manufacturer proceeds
54. MySpace Tries To Play Dead To Avoid Lawsuits
55. Trademarks in a “Social” World: A Canadian Perspective
56. Snap Blows First Earnings—But That’s Not the Whole Story
57. Magic Leap settles discrimination lawsuit with former exec
58. Magic Leap settles sexual discrimination case: Terms of the out of court settlement with Tannen Campbell were not disclosed
59. Magic Leap, and the Troubles In Sexism Valley
60. Clashing With Second Circuit, Court Orders Google to Turn Over Foreign-Stored Data
61. Internet providers ordered to block streaming of Premier League
62. Google’s Fight Against Uber Takes a Turn for the Criminal
63. Judge refers Waymo v. Uber lawsuit to criminal investigators: Also, Uber’s bid to move the case into arbitration fails.
64. Judge’s order bars Uber engineer from Lidar work, demands return of stolen files: “Misuse of that treasure trove remains an ever-present danger wholly at his whim.”
65. Waymo and Lyft team up against Uber: In the self-driving world, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
66. Uber not just a dumb app, must comply with EU transport rules—top law adviser: Taxi-hailing app faces a tough ride from regulators in Europe.
67. Lawsuit: VR Company Had a ‘Kink Room,’ Pressured Female Employees to ‘Microdose’
68. Judge Alsup Threatens To Block Malibu Media From Any More Copyright Trolling In Northern California
69. A new tool to further deter smartphone theft: “Think of it as Carfax for phones.”
70. Spotify and – no joke – iTunes are coming to the Windows Store: Apple’s music app is a major get for Microsoft and Windows 10 S.
71. One More Thing: Inside Apple’s Insanely Great (Or Just Insane) New Mothership
72. 15-second ads coming to Amazon’s Alexa: Ads at the start and end of Alexa conversations, thanks to third-party company.
73. Twitter, NFL Announce New Multi-Year Partnership To Include Live Pre-Game Coverage
74. Lululemon Turns To Vice Media For Big Ad Push
75. Vice Media Said to Be Raising More Cash as Prelude to Possible IPO
76. How Amazon Go (probably) makes “just walk out” groceries a reality: Amazon’s new age grocery likely wasn’t possible even five years ago.
77. Can Ticketmaster’s Anti-Bot Assault Fix Its Most Infuriating Problem?: “Verified Fan” fights scalper bots to make those Harry Styles tickets easier to snag—but there’s still room for improvement.
78. Google Rattles the Tech World With a New AI Chip for All
79. The Surprising Repercussions of Making AI Assistants Sound Human
80. AI, Deep Learning, and Machine Learning: A Primer
81. Autonomous Systems — Is it time for empirical research?
82. Scientists 3-D Print Mouse Ovaries That Actually Make Babies
83. Fashion visionaries are using 3D printing to create mind-bending textiles that are nearly impossible to wear.
84. Archive digitization: a coordinated effort by CBC/Radio-Canada to preserve and showcase our heritage
85. Startup culture’s obsession with “side hustle” gets more unsettling the closer you look
86. Google’s AI Invents Sounds Humans Have Never Heard Before
87. Website Blocking, Injunctions and Beyond: View on the Harmonization from the Netherlands (Martin Husovec & Lisa Van Dongen)
88. Digital copies, exhaustion, and blockchains: lack of legal clarity to be offset by technological advancement and evolving consumption patterns? (Eleonora Rosati)
89. How 4 Agencies Are Using Artificial Intelligence as Part of the Creative Process: Can algorithms replace humans?
90. Sorry, Westworld: We Should Be Able to Torture Robots
91. Cristiano Ronaldo Goes Shirtless On Instagram Live To Celebrate Hitting 100 Million Followers
92. French Theater Owners Freak Out; Get Netflix Booted From Cannes Film Festival

CREATIVITY

1. Conan O’Brien Will Go to Court Over Joke Theft Allegations: A lawsuit claims that the late night host stole five monologue jokes from a comedy writer’s blog.
2. Conan O’Brien Headed to Trial Over Claims of Stealing Jokes: Alex Kaseberg overcomes a summary judgment motion and moves forward on jokes about Caitlyn Jenner, Tom Brady and the Washington Monument.
3. Here we laugh again! The eternal controversy over parody scope in Copyright law
4. Latest Attack On A Free Press: Reporter Arrested For Asking Questions To Trump Administration Officials
5. Does the Media Have a Right to Private Communications?
6. Cartoonist who claimed to be Kung Fu Panda creator jailed for two years: Jayme Gordon also ordered to repay $3m in legal fees to DreamWorks Animation after filing spurious copyright lawsuit in 2011
7. Court Finds Infringement of THE KRUSTY KRAB Mark
8. Paul Levy Hoping To Wake Up Maryland Courts To The Numerous Fraudulent Libel Lawsuits Filed There
9. Mathew v. The Walt Disney Co.
10. ITN Flix, LLC v. Univision Television Group, Inc.
11. Higher Costs Awards for the Winning Party in Federal Court IP Cases
12. How Pixar Lost Its Way: For 15 years, the animation studio was the best on the planet. Then Disney bought it.
13. A Candid Conversation About Rap Culture’s Pervasive Disrespect Against Black Women: How do you cope when your social feed reflects how much the world devalues you?
14. Marvel’s Cancelling Black Panther & The Crew, One of Its Most Important Comics Right Now
15. Why Drag Is the Ultimate Retort to Trump: RuPaul versus the White House
16. Kentucky court rejects government attempt to punish printer for refusing to print ‘Lexington [Gay] Pride Festival’ T-shirt
17. KitKat loses bid to copyright four-finger chocolate bars
18. Why Photos of President Trump Are So Aggressively Boring
19. How Amanda Palmer Gave The Music Industry The Finger With Crowdfunding
20. As Cannes turns 70, must cinema adapt to survive in new digital era?: Festival bosses are welcoming TV shows but have banned Netflix films from the Palme d’Or
21. Are Your Nails Gucci? Why the Breakout Trend of the Moment Is a Logo Manicure
22. Revising Non-compete Law to Eliminate Unfair Competition
23. How Noncompete Clauses Keep Workers Locked In
24. New Copyright Law declared constitutional (Brazil)
25. Legal Guide to Music Licensing Contracts
26. Osgoode Hall Law School appoints two Journalists in Residence

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Internet, TV providers focus on new video packages as 1 million Canadians watch unlicensed content on Android boxes
2. FCC Temporarily Stops Taking Net Neutrality Comments So FCC Can ‘Reflect’
3. The FCC Spent Last Week Trying To Make Net Neutrality Supporters Seem Unreasonable, Racist & Unhinged
4. Flooded with thoughtful net neutrality comments, FCC highlights “mean tweets”: Facing extensive net neutrality support, FCC is ready to gut open Internet rules.
5. Ajit Pai accidentally supports utility rules and open-access networks: Pai praises Clinton, whose FCC enforced open networks and boosted competition.
6. Title II hasn’t hurt network investment, according to the ISPs themselves: ISPs continue to invest and tell investors that net neutrality hasn’t hurt them.
7. Cable lobby conducts survey, finds that Americans want net neutrality
8. Cable Industry’s Own Survey Shows Majority Support Net Neutrality Rules
9. It’s Time For The FCC To Actually Listen: The Vast Majority Of FCC Commenters Support Net Neutrality
10. Cisco And Oracle Applaud The Looming Death Of Net Neutrality
11. Sprint sues government over elimination of broadband price caps: Business Internet price caps were removed by FCC despite lack of competition.
12. Verizon outbids AT&T for nationwide “5G” spectrum: Verizon to buy Straight Path and its millimeter-wave spectrum for $3.1 billion.
13. PSA Leads to Threatened Criminal Investigation for Arizona Radio Station
14. The Widening Blast Radius of the Fox News Scandal: The metastasizing Ailes affair is spilling over into the politics of New York, Virginia and the White House.
15. Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL): A Statistical Analysis from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) 

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Latest FISA Court Order Details Why NSA Didn’t Get Any 702 Requests Approved Last Year
2. NSA Boss: Section 702 Should Be Renewed Because It Helped Prove Russia Hacked Election
3. Police Body Camera Giant Made Lawyers Sign Away Client Footage: Fearing for their clients, defense attorneys are refusing to hit ‘agree’ to access the company’s cloud-based body cam footage
4. America Reloaded: The Bizarre Story Behind the FBI’s Fake Documentary About the Bundy Family
5. Hollywood Helps China Set Up National Surveillance And Censorship System To Tackle Copyright Infringement
6. Google collected NHS records of 1.6M patients on “inappropriate legal basis”: “We haven’t shared patient data with other Google products, services,” says DeepMind boss.
7. Google Lens knows more about what’s in your photos than you do: What flower are you snapping a photo of? Google can tell you that.
8. Here’s How Facebook Knows Who You Meet In Real Life: It may seem like Mark Zuckerburg is personally tracking your every move — but there’s another explanation for those creepy friend requests you’re getting
9. Revisiting the Discoverability of Facebook Account Activity–Gordon v. TGR (Eric Goldman)
10. HP laptops covertly log user keystrokes, researchers warn
11. Cockpit access codes for United Airlines spill online: “The safety of our customers and crew is our top priority,” United says.
12. Amazon’s Alexa Is Getting Smarter, But Potentially More Intrusive: Users will be able to opt-in to weather and news notifications with the A.I. home assistant
13. EU regulators welcome stricter rules on cookies and direct marketing: The European Commission has published a draft Regulation regarding cookies and electronic direct marketing. EU regulators have publicly welcomed the proposal, which has potentially significant consequences for all businesses that engage in online commerce or electronic direct marketing.

Jon