News of the Week; June 14, 2017

GAMES

1. Augmented reality lawsuit provides augmented view of 1st Amendment: “They’re passing two dimensional laws in a three dimensional world.”
2. Class action lawsuit over Xbox 360 defect shut down by court (again)
3. Popular GTA V Modding Tool Shuts Down, Community Explodes
4. GTA Mod Tool Program Shuts Down, After Reported Cease And Desist Letter: OpenIV is no more, apparently.
5. Bethesda announces new mods network, Creation Club
6. Witcher developer: Thieves want ransom for leaked Cyberpunk 2077 docs – Files are from the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077, an open-world RPG based on a 1990 PC title.
7. CD Projekt Red faces extortion over Cyberpunk 2077: Witcher studio says it won’t meet ransom demand to prevent release of early development documents
8. Report: Konami is making life hard for people who leave the company
9. New Cracking Group May Have Delivered Denuvo Its Death Blow
10. GameStop notifies online customers of possible credit card theft
11. Testology founder’s anti-Muslim comments “still far too common” in games industry: Andy Robson apologises for Facebook rant, but Rami Ismail says such attitudes have a “stifling effect” on developers
12. When an Apology is Not an Apology
13. Members of the Games Industry Respond to Testology Founder’s Call to “Get Rid of Every Muslim”
14. Testology owner called out for anti-Muslim comments
15. Double Eleven publicly disavows Testology: “We do not tolerate religious persecution in any form”
16. Ubisoft CEO: Vivendi fight will continue because freedom matters
17. FIFA 18: Football for the many, not the few – “There is no stereotypical FIFA user,” says EA – and that makes development hard.
18. Largest EA Sports FIFA Competition Launching This Fall
19. Season Pass dropped for Star Wars Battlefront II: All content packs will be free, including Force Awakens’ Finn and Captain Phasma by Christmas
20. EA’s press conference showed the danger of relying on influencers: This is not how to use your for-pay talent
21. EA wants to use machine learning to create real-time game narratives
22. EA Boss Andrew Wilson’s Vision of Gaming’s Future Will Blow Your Mind
23. One year later, Pokemon Go has surpassed 750 million downloads
24. Minecraft to receive its first top-engine visual overhaul since 2010 debut: “Super-Duper Graphics Pack” retains blockiness, goes crazy with particles, shadows.
25. Microsoft and Nintendo embrace cross-platform play – but where’s Sony?: PlayStation absent from cross-platform strategy of both Minecraft and Rocket League
26. Sony exec offers an answer for PS4’s absence from Minecraftcross-platform play
27. PlayStation quietly announces smartphone-based PlayLink range: New series connects phones to PS4 for asymmetrical multiplayer games
28. The PS4 has now sold through over 60.4M units
29. PlayStation 4 hits 60.4 million sales: As Microsoft rallies with Xbox One X, SIE’s Andrew House says the PS4 platform is “in its prime”
30. Are 4K-enabled consoles backing into a niche?: With 4K TV adoption still low, crafting a message around console hardware that includes most consumers is a tricky balancing act
31. Xbox Scorpio is now Xbox One X—launches November 7 for $499: Alongside 4K console Microsoft promised 22 exclusive games will launch on Xbox.
32. Xbox One X: Analysts concur that $499 is “a tough sell”: “The price point is the most obvious weakness, giving Sony an opportunity to drop its current PS4 Pro to $350 and raise the stakes”
33. First impressions: Xbox One X doesn’t quite bring the “wow!” factor – Our initial thoughts on the new hardware, plus a look at upcoming Xbox software.
34. The devil from the details: Proper interpretation of our Xbox usage data: Microsoft subtweets aside, we’re sticking to our data until they prove us wrong.
35. Xbox expanding backwards compatibility program to original Xbox games: Actual Xbox “one” on Xbox One! Crimson Skies confirmed now, launching later this year.
36. Xbox One X, PS4 Pro, x86, and the downfall of the PC gaming master race
37. Destiny 2 will launch on PC 46 days after consoles: Console launch dates pushed ahead two days; beta will not require pre-order.
38. Xbox One X Ignored VR—Just Like Everyone Else
39. The state of virtual reality: Microsoft, Sony, Valve, Ready at Dawn all have games in the works
40. Ubisoft VP: ‘We’re trying to figure out what is fun’ about VR
41. The VR Challenger League is a new eSports venture from Oculus, Intel and the ESL
42. Study shows virtual reality has appeal among U.S. game enthusiasts
43. Virtual Reality Video Will Be Worth $3 Billion By 2021: PwC study
44. YouTube Says Esports Tournament Watch Time Has Grown 90% Over Past Year
45. After-school eSports clubs are now a thing in the UK
46. Yahoo eSports is winding down, a casualty of the Yahoo-AOL merger
47. Study: Women Comprise Nearly One-Third Of Esports Audience
48. Riot opens India office to nurture local player base
49. Bandai Namco targets emerging mobile markets with Docomo partnership
50. Docomo partnership to open new mobile markets for Bandai Namco: Japanese publisher will co-create HTML5 games for Africa, Latin America and India
51. Mandatory co-op fuels the storytelling possibilities of new game A Way Out
52. The Pentagon Looks To Videogames For The Future Of War
53. E3 games feature more multi-gender options than ever before: Feminist Frequency’s findings indicate progress, and indeed, the group had a direct impact on Dishonored 2, Harvey Smith revealed
54. Women Play Video Games
55. Everything is the first video game to qualify for an Oscar: Trailer for bizarre indie title on the Academy Award longlist for animated short film
56. To Drive Like A Nascar Star, Break Out The Video Games
57. How Massive Entertainment tries to retain every employee for at least a decade: Managing director Polfeldt on giving junior staff a voice and protecting your workforce from the pressures of AAA development
58. StarCraft Remastered dev analyzes the enduring appeal of StarCraft

DIGITAL

1. Judge: Sure, These Bloggers Are A Bunch Of Jerks, But They’re Not Engaged In Defamation
2. “Offensive, Rude, Annoying, Mean-Spirited & Ill-Advised” Blog Posts Aren’t Defamatory–Milazzo v. Connolly (Eric Goldman)
3. Dangerous Copyright Ruling In Europe Opens The Door To Widespread Censorship
4. Nothing to glOSS over: California court agrees to hear case on open source license enforcement
5. Internet “Framing” Is A Valid Ground For Copyright Infringement In Canada
6. Pirate Bay may finally be sunk after EU copyright ruling: TPB operators delete obsolete torrent files, filter some content—Europe’s top court.
7. Copyright Holders Keep Targeting Dead Torrent Sites
8. Copyright Misuse Emerges as a Political Issue: QP Questions on Notice-and-Notice Abuse
9. Another Day, Another Bogus YouTube Takedown Because Of A Major Label
10. Intel fires warning shots at Microsoft, claims x86 emulation is a patent minefield: Intel doesn’t name names, but Windows 10 on ARM is surely the target of its ire.
11. History by lawsuit: After Gawker’s demise, the “inventor of e-mail” targets Techdirt: “I defined e-mail! And you guys have got to give me that credit.”
12. Should Tumblr Be Forced To Reveal 500 People Who Reblogged A Sex Tape?
13. Tech giants face fines in UK, France over extremism posts—PM May: British MPs likely to rumber-stamp law that punishes firms that fail to take action.
14. EU legislates for portability of online content
15. The Importance Of Defending Section 230 Even When It’s Hard
16. Facebook Isn’t Liable for Fake User Account–Caraccioli v. Facebook (Eric Goldman)
17. Facebook’s First Original Shows Are A Cancelled MTV Comedy And A Nationwide Reality Competition
18. While Commercials Air On TV, Viewers Flock To Facebook
19. Facebook says people can’t stop looking at Facebook during TV commercials
20. Facebook can’t be sued for “jerkingman” revenge porn account
21. Verizon Closes $4.5 Billion Yahoo Deal, Marissa Mayer Resigns
22. SiriusXM Sets $480 Million Investment in Pandora
23. Sirius XM’s Pandora Investment Looks Like A Lifeline – But Feels Like An Invasion
24. Apple and Valve Have Worked Together for Nearly a Year to Bring VR to MacOS: SteamVR and OpenVR available in beta for MacOS ‘High Sierra’ this week
25. How Adobe Got Its Customers Hooked on Subscriptions: The switch to the cloud was risky, but revenue is way up.
26. More than a decade later, how do original YouTube stars feel about the site?: For original YouTubers, their online haven became a media behemoth—but they keep vlogging.
27. Apple’s New Transparency Is Huge For Podcasts Everywhere
28. The Secret Origin Story Of The iPhone
29. Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick To Take Indefinite Leave: Meanwhile Uber’s board will adopt recommendations to reform culture from within
30. Trump-Style Tactics Finally Stopped Working For Uber: The laws of gravity apply. Even in Silicon Valley. Maybe even in Washington.
31. David Bonderman Resigns From Uber Board After Sexist Remark
32. Uber’s Culture Problems Could Sink Its Self-Driving Future
33. Read the full investigation into Uber’s troubled culture and management: Uber released the findings of an external investigation to its staff at an all-hands meeting today.
34. Uber’s Problems Are Silicon Valley’s Problems
35. A judge is ordering drunken drivers to install Uber, Lyft: “It’s just common sense. It doesn’t cost anybody anything to install.”
36. As Uber Crumbles, Lyft Builds Its Future
37. Policymakers Increasing Their Scrutiny of Virtual Currencies 
38. Instagram’s most-followed celebs failed to label 93 percent of ads, report finds
39. Instagram Adds New Tag To Let Influencers Properly Disclose Brand Partnerships
40. Instagram Will Now Tell You Who’s Getting Paid To Post
41. Instagram Will Add ‘Paid Partnership’ Tag to Sponsored Posts, After FTC’s Warnings to Celebrity Users
42. Making Google the Censor
43. GOOGLE Mark Is Not a Victim of Genericide 
44. Why Is Google Digitising the World’s Fashion Archives?: For years, Google has been digitising the world’s museums, making cultural artefacts accessible in extraordinary detail to millions of internet users. Now it’s turning to fashion.
45. Amazon and Netflix are heading up a new anti-piracy group
46. It Was Inevitable, Really: Netflix Is Turning Into HBO
47. How augmented reality could save tech from itself
48. “Covfefe”—there’s a congressional act for that now: Proposed legislation seeks to bar a US president from deleting tweets.
49. A Running List Of People Donald Trump Has Blocked
50. Schools Tap Secret Spectrum To Beam Free Internet To Students
51. Social media is as harmful as alcohol and drugs for millennials
52. A Brief History of the GIF, From Early Internet Innovation to Ubiquitous Relic: How an image format changed the way we communicate
53. How the Internet Is Getting a Little Nicer, One Meme at a Time
54. Do Androids Dream of Electric Guitars? Exploring the Future of Musical A.I.: New projects by Google and Sony use machine-learning technology to create music that essentially writes itself. Should we be scared—or excited?
55. Advancing to the next level: the quantified self and the gamification of academic research through social networks

CREATIVITY

1. Study Shows Fair Use Industries Make Up One Sixth Of The Economy
2. Fair Use In The U.S. Economy: Economic Contribution of Industries Relying on Fair Use
3.  A legal victory for the kickstarted Star Trek mashup censored by Dr Seuss’s estate
4. Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. v. ComicMix LLC
5. Judge Overturns Jury’s Verdict That ‘Jersey Boys’ Is a Copyright Infringement
6. Monkey Selfie Case Gets Even Weirder, As The Monkey’s ‘Next Friends’ Are In A Criminal Dispute With Each Other
7. Gene Simmons Seeks to Register Trademark on Iconic Rock Hand Gesture: Index and pinky fingers up. Thumb perpendicular. Some say it’s the devil’s horns. The Kiss rocker says it’s his.
8. Gene Simmons Wants to Trademark Spider-Man’s ‘Thwip’ Hand Gesture (UPDATE: Now He Doesn’t)
9. Kellogg’s Takes Australian Tennis Player To Court For Branding Himself ‘Special K’
10. Trademark Bullying Works: Dawa Food Mart Agrees To Name Change After Trademark Suit From Wawa
11. Trademark Registrations for Emojis  (Eric Goldman)
12. Human rights and trademark legislation: the case of offensive marks (Teresa Scassa)
13. Raising Walls Against Overlapping Rights: Preemption And The Right Of Publicity (Rebecca Tushnet)
14. Strategies For Discerning The Boundaries Of Copyright And Patent Protections (Pamela Samuelson)
15. Copyright Trolls… But For Houses
16. Two Big Copyright Cases Sent To Top EU Court: One On Sampling, The Other On Freedom Of The Press
17. Ezra Levant’s libel appeal denied by Supreme Court: Rebel Media co-founder was ordered to pay $80K in damages to Saskatchewan lawyer Khurrum Awan in 2014
18. Reporter Indicted For Covering Trump Inauguration Protests
19. Copyright rules crippling artists
20. Judge Orders MCSK To Cease Collecting Royalties For Kenyan Musicians
21. EU Copyright Proposal: Not Good, But Not As Blatantly Terrible As It Could Have Been
22. Charging Bull v. Fearless Girl: A Brief Overview
23. Two layers of photo ownership in conflict in street photography case
24. Indigenous Activists Are Working To Get the UN To Ban Cultural Appropriation
25. How a ‘Propaganda War’ Overtook Eurovision, the World’s Most Inclusive Song Competition
26. What’s next, after the 2012 copyright overhaul?: With a review months away, improving one of the world’s best copyright regimes calls for modest tweaks, rather than an overhaul. (Michael Geist)
27. The Upcoming 2017 Copyright Act Review: What Next for Canadian Copyright (Michael Geist)
28. Our problem isn’t ‘fake news.’ Our problems are trust and manipulation.
29. In Search of Unbiased Reporting in Light of Brexit, Trump and Other Reporting Challenges in the UK and US
30. How Hollywood Came to Fear and Loathe Rotten Tomatoes: As Wonder Woman soars and Baywatch flops, the power of the review aggregator is looking greater than ever—and studios are looking for a way around it.
31. How Sex Is Orchestrated on Reality Shows Like Bachelor in Paradise
32. The Importance of Adam West’s ‘Bright Knight’ Batman
33. Are Our Pastimes Past Their Time? How Will The Media Industry Disruption And Changes To The Legal Environment Affect The Sports Industry? (David Sussman)
34. Symposium: Is Free Speech Under Threat in the United States?

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. Liberal MPs to call for broadband Internet tax to fund Canadian media
2. Focus: Judge rules Bell Mobility discriminated
3. Focus: U.S.and Canada diverge on net neutrality
4. How The Death Of Net Neutrality Could Hamstring The Internet Of Things
5. Broadband speeds have soared under net neutrality rules, cable lobby says: The cable lobby’s conflicting arguments about net neutrality and broadband.
6. The Internet needs paid fast lanes, anti-net neutrality senator says: Net neutrality is just a “slogan.”
7. Mozilla Poll Again Shows Net Neutrality Has Broad, Bipartisan Support
8. Reddit, Amazon Push For ‘Day Of Action’ On July 12 To Protest The Killing Of Net Neutrality
9. Frontier Fires State Senate Leader (Who Also Worked For Frontier) For Supporting Attempts To Improve Broadband Competition
10. Frederator’s Parent Company To Launch Canadian Cable Channel Featuring YouTube Content
11. Putting the Internet at the Centre: Taking Stock of Jean-Pierre Blais’ Term as CRTC Chair (Michael Geist)
12. Making Sense of Jean-Pierre Blais (Timothy Denton)
13. Government of Canada repeals July 1, 2017 implementation of private right of action under Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) 
14. TV Cord Cutting Poised To Smash Records During Second Quarter
15. AT&T uses forced arbitration to overcharge customers, senators say: AT&T claims mandatory arbitration is better for customers than lawsuits.
16. BT’s “most powerful Wi-Fi signal” brag is misleading, rules ad watchdog: But Ryan Reynolds dangling from a helicopter is clearly “fantastical” and hey-OK.

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. Russian Cyber Hacks on U.S. Electoral System Far Wider Than Previously Known
2. Everything We Know About Russia’s Election-Hacking Playbook
3. Russia struck at election systems and data of 39 US states: Investigators find evidence attackers tried to modify voter data, reports Bloomberg.
4. Al-Jazeera claims to be victim of cyber attack as Qatar crisis continues: Broadcaster targeted after hackers planted “fake news” on Qatar’s state news service.
5. Strong Crypto Is Not The Problem: Manchester And London Attackers Were Known To The Authorities
6. CSIS kept ‘all’ metadata on third parties for a decade, top secret memo says – Top secret memo suggests large scale for CSIS metadata program, Federal Court ruled keeping the data was illegal in 2016.
7. Government Caves to Lobbying Pressure: Bains Blocks Consumer Redress for Spam and Spyware Losses (Michael Geist)
8. Trudeau must do more to promote openness, information czar says
9. Inside the ACLU’s nationwide campaign to curb police surveillance: ‘The only place we face resistance is from the police’
10. Inside the Algorithm That Tries to Predict Gun Violence in Chicago
11. Inspecting Algorithms for Bias
12. Theresa May Tries To Push Forward With Plans To Kill Encryption, While Her Party Plots Via Encrypted Whatsapp
13. Theresa May’s Plan To Regulate The Internet Won’t Stop Terrorism; It Might Make Things Worse
14. Company Lost Secret 2014 Fight Over ‘Expansion’ of N.S.A. Surveillance
15. Another Judge Says The Microsoft Decision Doesn’t Matter; Orders Google To Hand Over Overseas Data
16. Code of Silence: How private companies hide flaws in the software that governments use to decide who goes to prison and who gets out.
17. You Almost Definitely Don’t Know All the Ways Facebook Tracks You
18. Mommy, My Doll is Spying on Me: U.S. Manufacturer’s Doll Labeled an Espionage Device by German Regulators
19. Pacemakers (Think IoT) are not Cybersecure, does that bother you? 
20. College students would give up their friends’ privacy for free pizza: It doesn’t take much to get people to change their security priorities
21. The Next Security Risk May Be Your Vibrator
22. FTC Tracking Of Privacy Complaints
23. The Princeton Web Transparency and Accountability Project (Arvind Narayanan & Dillon Reisman)

Jon