News of the Week; May 28, 2014
+ Virtual Rift Leads to Legal Rift for Oculus and ZeniMax
2. Wolfenstein: The New Order clocks up 100,000 illegal downloads
3. Blizzard suing StarCraft II hackers
4. Nintendo Reveals Plan to ‘Share’ Revenue with YouTube ‘Let’s Play’ Video Makers
5. Timeline: The rise and fall of 38 Studios in Rhode Island
+ Caprio: Ratings agencies hands weren’t clean in 38 Studios deal
6. Former CEO of Atlus parent arrested for fraud
7. An Anti-Bullying Video Game Where Mean Kids Become Demons
8. Apple pulls Weed Firm from App Store
9. Vivendi sells another $850m in Activision Blizzard stock
10. Sony PlayStation Follows Microsoft Into China
+ Sony Forms Joint Ventures in China for PlayStation
11. Sony: PS4 “likely” to exceed profits earned from PS2
12. PCCC Video Compares Net Neutrality Proposal to ‘Laggy Video Games’
13. Why we behave like psychopaths in online games
14. Watch Dogs PR stunt causes evacuation of Australian news office
15. Darpa Turns Oculus Into a Weapon for Cyberwar
16. How One Video Game Became a Million-Dollar Professional Sport
17. Video games are the most fascinating medium ever created, David Cage says
18. Man Robs Bank, Buys Games at Walmart, Gets Caught
19. Meet The Man Who Keeps Making Up Fallout 4 Rumors
20. The domestication of digital games in the lives of older adults
21. “A Multiplayer Game Environment Is Actually a Dream Come True for an Economist”
22. 7 Gamecations for the Ultimate Nerdy Summer
24. Amazon Speaks on Hachette Book Battle: Everyone Negotiates Like We Do (Wink)
25. Why I’m ditching my Amazon account
26. Canada needs a royal commission on spying and privacy of Canadians
27. From Toews to Todd: The Unravelling of the Government’s Lawful Access Sales Strategy
28. ‘Gutted’ NSA reform bill passes the House, but sheds supporters
29. FBI withdraws national security letter following Microsoft challenge
30. China Pulls Cisco Into Dispute on Cyberspying
31. Pentagon Report That Supposedly Shows How Much Harm Snowden Caused… Actually Shows No Such Thing
32. Government Seeks Seven-Month Sentence for LulzSec Leader ‘Sabu’
33. Google, Yahoo and others are getting fed up with government gag orders
34. Google’s Brin Says NSA Surveillance Revelations Were a “Huge Disappointment”
35. Facebook Wants To Listen In On What You’re Doing
36. E.U. Debates Which Nation Will Regulate Web Privacy
37. You Are Not a Digital Native: Privacy in the Age of the Internet
38. Twitter caves to Pakistani “blasphemy” censorship requests
39. Microsoft sues Siberian bank for copyright infringement
40. Legislation to Protect Against ‘Patent Trolls’ Is Shelved
41. An Open Letter on Feminism In Tech
42. Wake me up before you Indiegogo: legal issues with crowdfunding
43. Microsoft’s Skype “Star Trek” Language Translator Takes on Tower of Babel
jon
News of the Week; May 21, 2014
1. Nintendo Wins Patent Lawsuit Against Wall Wireless
2. Philips alleges Nintendo patent infringement
3. Hex card game sued for infringing Magic IP
4. With Twitch Acquisition Talks, Validation of Games as Spectator Sport
5. You Can Try a Demo of Kabam’s New Videogame … On YouTube. What?
6. Microsoft offering refunds on Xbox Live Gold
7. It’s Run and Gun Time with Kim Jong Un in ‘Glorious Leader’
8. Far Cry 4 already playing with fire
9. Army’s new training shooter makes out of shape soldiers look fat
10. The vagina that scared Apple
11. Op-ed: It’s time for Nintendo to move beyond white characters
12. With Virtual Currency Giveaway, EA Tests New Type of iOS Promo
13. The gamification of buying games
14. As It Brings Its Mobile Game to China, Betaworks Reconnects the Dots
15. McDonald’s World Cup Promo Uses Augmented Reality to Turn French Fry Boxes Into Soccer Fields
16. Oculus Rift coming to Chuck E. Cheese’s
17. EVE Online And The Big Game Hunters
18. PS4 outsells Xbox One in April for fourth consecutive month
+ Sony’s still on track despite tough figures
19. Watchdog Group Report Concludes That New Consoles are Power Hogs
20. The Rise of Nintendo: A Story in 8 Bits
21. The Inside Story of Oculus Rift and How Virtual Reality Became Reality
22. A visit to Galloping Ghost, the largest video game arcade in the USA
23. Data Pirates of the Caribbean: The NSA Is Recording Every Cell Phone Call in the Bahamas
24. Secrets, lies and Snowden’s email: why I was forced to shut down Lavabit
25. Irony Alert: US Filing Criminal Charges Against China For Cyberspying
26. Photos of an NSA “upgrade” factory show Cisco router getting implant
+ In Letter to Obama, Cisco CEO Complains About NSA Allegations
28. (Canadian) Spy program suspended for being too aggressive
29. The “right” to be removed from Google: what the big EU decision means and the reaction so far
+ What we can salvage from ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling
+ Politician and paedophile ask Google to ‘be forgotten’
+ Will Europe’s “Right to be Forgotten” cross the pond to Canada?
30. Google Can’t Forget You, But It Should Make You Hard to Find
31. Apple May Be Liable For Privacy Violations by Third Party Developed Apps
32. The End Of Maximalist Copyright?
33. The Copyright Board of Canada Music Streaming Decision: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
34. How Much Copyright Protection Should Source Code Get? A New Court Ruling Reshapes The Landscape
35. We Need a Legal Framework for Biohacking Our Brains
36. Competition Bureau Recommends New Regulations To Address Wireless Competition Concerns
37. FCC Proves Yet Again That It’s Out to Kill Net Neutrality
38. Rogers explains why it came last in Netflix rankings
39. Shocker: Cable TV prices went up four times the rate of inflation
40. The Judge that Apple Hates
41. Bitcoin Foundation Hit by Resignations Over New Director
42. Forget the 3D Printer: 4D Printing Could Change Everything
43. Internet Addiction: Real or Virtual Reality?
44. Big Brother teams up with TMZ: How celebrity culture is hastening privacy’s digital demise
jon
News of the Week; May 14, 2014
1. Nintendo’s anti-gay cop-out: Why its demented same-sex ban is no game
+ Nintendo Apologizes for Response to Same-Sex Controversy
2. The Sims 4 rated 18+ in Russia for same-sex relationships
3. The Glorious History Of Video Game Panics
4. Research: 26 Percent of Men Use Opposite Gender Avatars in MMOs
5. Always Sometimes Monster’ Maker Urges GLAAD to Honor Games in its Media Awards
6. Capcom promoting female employees in an effort to recognize diversity
7. Report says Chinese authorities are banning bikinis in video games
8. CCP Punishes Eve Online Monument Vandals
9. Federal Court Rejects Facebook, Zynga Privacy Lawsuit Appeals
11. Sega’s gaming business rebounds
12. Tencent banks $1 billion in Q1
13. Sony executives to return bonuses
15. EA confirms 50 games going offline
16. Microsoft: Xbox Live is bigger than DirecTV
17. Microsoft Cuts Xbox One Price to $399 Without Kinect, Will Put Media Apps in Front of Paywall
18. Epic announces crowdsourced dev model for next Unreal Tournament
19. Take-Two CEO open to buying more studios
+ GTA V ships 33 million, boosts Take-Two’s income to a record $361m
20. Australian Government Redirects $10 Million Meant for Australian Interactive Games Fund
21. The Birth of the $60 Billion Videogame Industry
22. Are Video Game Publishers Becoming Irrelevant?
23. From Paper to iPad, Pixel Press Turns Drawings Into Videogames
24. Sony’s Project Morpheus brings virtual reality to mainstream console gaming
25. I’ve Been Playing ‘Snood’ for 14 Years, and It Won’t Stop Insulting Me
26. The Untold Story of How Sega Nearly Won the Console Wars
28. Edward Snowden Sees Himself As A Video Game Hero
29. The Mystery of Go, the Ancient Game That Computers Still Can’t Win
30. Government snooping on social media may breach Privacy Act
31. ‘We Kill People Based on Metadata’
32. Protecting Privacy Through Copyright Law? by Pamela Samuelson
33. Your memories are negotiable: How science is making “Eternal Sunshine” a reality
34. Snapchat Settles FTC Charges on False Promises of Disappearing Messages
35. E.U. Court Orders Google to Grant ‘Right to Be Forgotten’
36. The facial recognition databases are coming. Why aren’t the privacy laws?
37. The Move Toward Computing That Reads Your Mind
38. Appointment of New Copyright Board of Canada Chair Offers Chance for Change
39. Oracle wins Android-Java copyright appeal: API code copyrightable, new trial on fair use
+ Link to Oracle v. Google USCA decision
+ Why Oracle’s Copyright Victory Over Google Is Bad News for Everyone
40. Guarding against abuse: Restoring constitutional copyright
41. Netflix Speed Rankings Raise Rogers Internet Traffic Management Questions: What Did It Know & When
42. Complaints About Net Neutrality Flooding the FCC
+ Comcast is the one who should pay for network connections, Cogent claims
+ Vi Hart Explains & Defends Net Neutrality in a New Doodle-Filled Video
+ Web Hosting Service NeoCities Throttles FCC Over ‘Net Neutrality’ Proposal
43. How Big Cable is organizing against net neutrality
44. Netflix comes through with price hike after struggles with Comcast, Verizon
45. Defending the Open Internet
46. Comparative Study Of National Approaches To Internet Intermediary Liability
47. What Happens When You Break Up With Facebook: Nothing
48. Can You Take a Security Interest in Bitcoin?
49. Talking Turkey: Twitter’s Top Lawyer Fights for Free Speech, Revenue
jon
News of the Week; May 7, 2014
1. Zenimax claims ownership of IP created by John Carmack that powers Oculus Rift [Updated]
+ Oculus “disappointed, but not surprised” by Zenimax claims
+ Oculus, ZeniMax trade accusations in VR technology ownership dispute
2. Valve refunding Earth: Year 2066 customers
3. Wolfenstein: The New Order to be Censored in Germany and Austria
4. Nintendo says no to same-sex relationships in new sim game
5. Nintendo Sinks to Loss on Lagging Wii U Sales
6. Level 3 claims six ISPs dropping packets every day over money disputes
7. After 32 Years, Small Massachusetts Town Votes to Lift Arcade Games Ban
8. Pro League of Legends Player Suffers Collapsed Lung, Continues to Play Anyways
9. Connecticut Lawmaker Calls for Warning Labels, Sin Tax on Video Games (Again)
10. Australia Considers Automating Classification Process for Games, Film and TV
11. Rhode Island Lawmaker Received Death Threat for Investigating 38 Studios Loan Deal
12. Can you tell a person’s gender by their video-game avatar?
14. Mobile Game Revenue in China Expected to Rival U.S. in 2014
15. Lionsgate launching games division
16. Activision backs Destiny with $500m launch investment
17. Glu Mobile Acquires PlayFirst
18. Neversoft folded into Infinity Ward
19. Turtle Rock Community Manager Weighs In On Donald Sterling Situation, Gets Fired
20. EA nearing deal to stream games via Comcast – report
21. The Man Who Disposed of 750,000 Atari Games
22. Computer Technology Is Reviving the Board Game
23. What Do You Owe Your Backers on Kickstarter?
24. Canadian Telcos Asked to Disclose Subscriber Data Every 27 Seconds
+ Why Have Canada’s Telcos Failed to Notify Subscribers About Disclosing Their Information?
+ Responding to the Crisis in Canadian Telecommunications
25. Facial recognition: is the technology taking away your identity?
26. Tech Companies Increasingly Telling Users When Law Enforcement Comes Asking For Data
27. Russia Quietly Tightens Reins on Web With ‘Bloggers Law’
28. Yahoo is the latest company ignoring Web users’ requests for privacy
29. App changes its privacy policy ten days after Facebook acquisition
30. 3 Ways Big Data Is Going To Be Used Against You In The Future
31. Big Data: Seizing Opportunities, Preserving Values (Executive Office of the President)
32. Competition Bureau releases draft updated Intellectual Property Enforcement Guidelines
33. What Exactly Are You Implying?’: The Elusive Nature of the Implied Copyright License
+ Google a Winner in Apple-Samsung Verdict
+ There’s No Dancing in Streets of Cupertino After Latest Apple-Samsung Verdict
36. WeRobot 2014 Conference Videos
jon