News of the Week

1.  Judge Certifies Athlete Class Suing the NCAA

2. Right-Of-Publicity Claims And Their Impact On The Gaming Industry

3. PS4 Beating Out Xbox One in ‘Purchase Intent’

4. PS4 defects are isolated incidents, says Sony

5. Someone In The Vatican Pirated ‘Football Manager 2013’ Creator Alleges

6. Tropes vs Women in Video Games: Ms. Male Character

7. EA, Sony Execs Say Nice Things About Used Games

8. Timothy Leary Plans a Neuromancer Video Game, with Art by Keith Haring, Music by Devo & Cameos by David Byrne

9. Papers, Please: A Video Game With No Shootouts or Theft—Only the Banality of Evil

10. Major Research Finds No Correlation Between Video Games and Behavioral Problems

11. No dice: Supreme Court declares Alberta privacy law unconstitutional in Palace Casino case

12. Manitobans get new privacy law, but no one to complain to

13. Judge Sides With Google on Book Scanning Suit

+ US Dist. Ct. Opinion

14. WikiLeaks publishes secret draft of Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty

+ Link to Draft of IP Chapter

15. EFF and Other Groups to NSA: Are You Spying on Our TPP Work?

16. Google Employees Speak Out About Government Spying

17. Law Professors Call for Public Process for Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Intellectual Property Chapter

18. LG Smart TV Caught Collecting Data On Files Stored On Connected USB Drives

19. Hacker Receives 10-Year Sentence for ‘Causing Mayhem’

20. Organization for Transformative Works submits comments on remix to PTO/NTIA

21. Online Retailer Says If You Give It A Negative Review It Can Fine You $3,500

22. Regulators See Value in Bitcoin, and Investors Hasten to Agree

+ Federal Reserve: While bitcoins hold “promise,” we have no regulatory authority

And in the “in case teens needed another reason to quit Facebook as lame” category:

Facebook Reasserts Posts Can Be Used to Advertise

jon

1. Huge Xbox losses hidden by patent royalties, says analyst

2. PSN: We Reserve the Right to Monitor and Record Your PSN Activity

3. 9 Ways Video Games Can Actually Be Good For You

4. Witness Blames Malicious Act on Oakland Public Bus on Video Games

5. XBox, Watch TV: Inside Microsoft’s Audacious Plan to Take Over the Living Room

6. The Massive Nintendo Paradigm Shift

7. $800 Minecraft Bill Leads to Felony Filing Against Ten-Year-Old

8. Xbox One and PS4 “too limited” for Oculus Rift creator

9. Helsinki: Picking the Right Acorns

10. Police need judge’s specific permission to search computers, Supreme Court rules

11. Judge rules that peer-to-peer file-sharing data isn’t private

12. WikiLeaks publishes secret draft of Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty

13. In Viacom v. YouTube appeal, law profs duel over copyright cop duties

14. Some thoughts on Chitrakar v. Bell TV and damage awards under Canadian privacy law

15. C.I.A. Is Said to Pay AT&T for Call Data

16. Google Is Ordered to Block Images in Privacy Case

17. User Generated Content Copyright Law Symposium Videos  (Osgoode IP & Technology Program, October 10, 2013)

jon

1. Zynga Wins ‘Scramble With Friends’ UK Lawsuit, But Must Alter Game’s Logo

2. Video game controller manufacturer Scuf Gaming files patent infringement claim against French competitor BURN controllers

3. Lewis v. Activision Blizzard

4. German Court Says MMOG Publisher Can Set Game Rules, Regardless of Consumer Rights Legislation

5. Nintendo says this amazing Super Mario site is illegal. Here’s why it shouldn’t be.

6. Nintendo disables Swapnote/Letter Box over “offensive material”

7. UK retailer offering ROM-based retro game cartridges

8. Updated privacy policy outlines Xbox One Kinect data protections

9. German Researchers Find that Playing Games Improves Brain Functions

10. The wonderful and absurd story of “Minecraft”

11. EA: “We don’t want to be viewed as the worst company in America”

12. Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

13. Apple: Governments asked us for data on over 2K accounts and 36,464 devices in last 6 months

14. A warning for websites allowing data collection for online behavioral advertising

15. SEC unanimously approves proposed crowdfunding exemption rules

16. Google Glass Milestone: Driver Ticketed For Wearing Google Glass

17. What Does It Mean To “Own” Digital Art?

jon

1. Glen Greenwald: Edward Snowden’s Actions Inspired by Video Games and Comic Books

2. Star Citizen reaches $25 million in funding 

3. How Forza 5 and the Xbox One use the cloud to drive machine-learning AI

4. Wind Waker, GTA V, and the beauty of the videogame selfie

5. “Phoenix Wright Dual Destinies” Review: Still appealing

6. AT&T Files Patent to Prevent Predators From Interacting With Minors in Gaming Environments

7. Is Bell’s Plan to Monitor and Profile Canadians Legal? By Michael Geist

8. Watchdog Group Sues Canadian Government for Overbroad Domestic Spying Activities

9. Reports that NSA taps into Google and Yahoo data hubs infuriate tech giants

10. Allegation of U.S. Spying on Merkel Puts Obama at Crossroads

+ President Obama Says He Had No Idea His Own NSA Was Spying On Angela Merkel

11. Hands Off Encryption! Say New Amici Briefs in Lavabit Case

12. Graffiti Artists Use Moral Rights to Prevent Building Demolition

13. Faulkner v Sony – a dying past, or a glass half full by Bob Tarantino 

14. Fair Use Project Teams With The Andy Warhol Foundation and Robert Rauschenberg Foundation In Filing Amici Curiae Brief In Cariou v. Prince (S.D.N.Y.)

15. Data Shows Google’s Robot Cars Are Smoother, Safer Drivers Than You or I

16.  And in the “How could we have guessed?”  category:

PS4’s $1,840 price in Brazil bad for gamers, says Sony

jon

1. Blizzard wins $7M judgment in World of Warcraft bot lawsuit 

2. “The Legal Status of Video Games: Comparative Analysis in National Approaches” by Andy Ramos, Anxo Rodriguez, Tim Meng, Stan Abrams and Laura Lopez (WIPO) 

3. Gaming adds $2.3 billion to Canada’s GDP 

+ Canada’s Video Game Industry in 2013 (Nordicity Report) 

4. British Newspaper Confuses Deus Ex With Real Life 

5. Illinois State’s Attorney Pushes for ‘Economic Boycott’ of GTA V

6. Dr. Kimberly Voll on Challenging Gender Stereotypes in Gaming 

7. Free will is overrated: the surreal, self-aware joy of ‘The Stanley Parable’ 

8. YouTube Personality TotalBiscuit Claims ‘ Day One: Garry’s Incident’ Dev Made Copyright Claim Against Critical Video

9. Gamers Solve HIV Puzzle in Ten Days

10. Google’s Quantum AI Lab adds quantum physics to Minecraft 

11. Oculus working on 4K Rift headset 

12. Digital Capital hires Patrick Sweeney as Chief Legal Officer 

13. Face value: digging through Google’s clumsy new terms of service 

14. Canada – EU Trade Agreement Reached “In Principle”: The Intellectual Property Provisions by Michael Geist 

15. Apple v. Samsung: court orders investigation into potential protective order violation by Samsung 

16. Opening Pandora’s Box: Copyright and Antitrust 

17. Megaupload Raid ‘Destroyed’ (Way) More Than 10,000,000 Legal Files

18. Lavabit Case Shows Why We Need Tech Literate Judges 

jon

1. THQ Sues EA Over UFC License

2. Artist Daz Dillinger Sends Cease-and-Desist Letter to GTA V Makers over Two Music Tracks

3. Activision sale cleared by Delaware Supreme Court

4. Gaming the Name: Federal Court Dismisses Trademark Claim in Video Game Case on First Amendment Grounds

5. Case C-458/13, Grund and others – video games and technological protection mechanisms (EU)

6. Foxconn admits to pushing interns into overtime to build PS4 parts

7. Is it legal to sell second hand digital games?

8. Zynga patents virtual sheep breeding

9. The Future Of Storytelling Is About To get Wild

10. Sexualized avatars affect the real world, Stanford researchers find

11. Patents, Meet Napster: 3D Printing and the Digitization of Things by Deven Desai & Gerard Magliocca

12. Living and Dying in a Virtual World – Estate Planning for Digital Assets by Greg Lastowka & Trisha Hall

13. Google to Sell Users’ Endorsements

14. Hearst Stations Inc. v. Aereo, Inc. (U.S. Dist. Ct. Mass.)

15. The Difference Between Plagiarism And Copyright Infringement

16. Apple Makes Questionable Copyright Claim To Pull Down iTunes Contract

17. Stallman: How Much Surveillance Can Democracy Withstand?

18. Yep, the NSA is grabbing your address book, contact lists too

jon

1. Activision Blizzard Sues Worlds, Inc. for Patent Infringement

2. Nottingham Trent University Professor Dissects Video Game Research

3. Gamers committing war crimes should suffer ‘virtual consequences,’ says Red Cross

4. Russian government offers funding for “patriotic” games

5. Xbox One facial data from Kinect doesn’t leave the console

+ Microsoft offers differing takes on use of Kinect data for marketing

6. SimCity Kneecaps The Modding Community

7. Fan Communities and the Self-Regulation of Digital Creative Space

8. Research: Food Advergames Promote Unhealthy Lifestyle Choices to Children

9. Xbox Fitness: how Microsoft plans to use big names and big data to whip you into shape

10. Digital console revenue to surpass PC this year

11. Exciting Time for Privacy in Canada

12. B.C. elevator cases reveal the ups and downs of privacy rights

13. Lawsuit Accuses Google of Wiretapping in Gmail Scans

14. Selling Secrets of Phone Users to Advertisers

15. California enacts children’s online privacy legislation

16. 15 Technologies The Legacy Content Companies Have Sued In The Past 15 Years

17. Piracy Isn’t Killing The Entertainment Industry, Scholars Show

+ LSE Media Policy Brief 9 – “Copyright & Creation: A Case for Promoting Inclusive Online Sharing”

18. Dish Network, L.L.C. v. ABC: In Re Autohop Litigation (U.S. District Court N.Y.) – Court Decision

19. Sanctions loom large: Samsung execs were told all terms of secret Nokia-Apple patent license

20. Patent Troll Lodsys Dismisses Suit Against Kaspersky Labs Rather Than Go To Trial

21. Curtain Is Rising on a Tech Premiere With (as Usual) a Mostly Male Cast

jon

1. E.A. Sports Settles Lawsuit With College Athletes

2. Court Bans Wisc. Teen From Playing Video Games

3. Father Blames Minecraft for Son Bringing Gun to School

4. Settle With Friends? Zynga and Bang With Friends End Trademark Dispute

5. Capitol Hill Focuses On Gun Control, Despite Media’s Fascination With Violent Video Games

6. Researchers express concerns about APA Task Force on Violent Media

7. International Committee of the Red Cross Wants International Law Rolled into War Games

8. GTA V is not subversive – but these games are

9. ‘NBA Jam’ Rigged Against The Chicago Bulls According To Pistons Fan/Lead Designer

10. Apple: We Did Not Pay EA to Delay Plants vs. Zombies 2 on Android

11. Twitch closes $20 million Series C investment

12. “Are Video Games a Sport?” (NYTimes video) 

13. Copyright assignment termination after 35 years: the video game industry comes of age

14. Grooming the Champions of the Keyboard

15. In Video Game Market, Blockbusters’ Dominance Grows

16. The Law & Economics of Copyright Users’ Rights in Canada

17. Tech Bros Are Losing

18. NSA mines data to map Americans’ social connections, report says

19. NSA Leaks Bring the Whole Idea of “Net Neutrality” Into Question

jon

1. Game Copiers and Mod Chips – AG Sharpston issues Opinion in Case C-355/12 Nintendo v PC Box

+ More on modchips: Are they legal in the EU?

2. Fox & Friends Co-Host Elisabeth Hasselbeck: We Need National Registry for Video Games

3. GTA V exceeds $1 billion in only 3 days

4. The Pratfall of Penny Arcade – A Timeline

5. International Conference Meets to Solve In-Game Hate Speech

6. Indie Developer Pulls Game From Ouya After Free the Games Fund Troubles

+  Ouya overhauls its plan to help game developers after shutting down alleged scams

7. Diablo 3 auction houses are doomed by developer Blizzard

8. Dutch Supreme Court 2012: Virtual Theft Ruling a One-Off or First in a Series? (Journal of Virtual Worlds)

9. Valve Announces SteamOS

10. Myths About Canadian Copyright Law

11. Pandora Wins Court Victory Over Licenses to Stream Music

12. Does copyright law work?

13. Facebook ‘likes’ are protected free speech. I’ll give a thumbs up to that

14. Users Sue LinkedIn Over Harvesting of E-Mail Addresses

15. To protect Canadians’ privacy, telcos must shut the ‘back door’

16. The (Canadian) Privacy Case of the Year?

17. ‘Keep out’ signs can override open internet culture 

18. Apple Touch ID fingerprint tech ‘broken’, hackers say

19. “PRISM” : Europe looks for appropriate remedies

20. In secret, Fisa court contradicted US supreme court on constitutional rights

21. A Proposed Reset Button for Children Online

22. VGL privacy Big Data and Due Process: Toward a Framework to Redress Predictive Privacy Harms by Kate Crawford, Jason Schultz

23. A collection of peer reviewed papers on the topic of Internet Censorship and Control

jon

1. 3DRealms Drops Duke Nukem Forever Lawsuit Against Gearbox, Makes a Public Apology

2. Why the University of Washington Wants Its Surgeons to Play Videogames

3. Fox News Offers Two-Part Feature on the Bad Influence of Violent Video Games

4. Fox & Friends Co-Host Elisabeth Hasselbeck: We Need National Registry for Video Games

5. Manifesto: The 21st Century Will Be Defined By Games

6. Massachusetts Lawmaker Pushes for Video Game Tax Credits

7. 38 Studios loan under investigation by SEC

8. Gamers unleash swarms of nanoparticles on tumours

9. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – issue focused on legal issues

10. Nevada District Court Finds No Reasonable Expectation of Privacy in Private Twitter Posts

11. Girl’s Suicide Points to Rise in Apps Used by Cyberbullies

12. The End of Kindness: Weev and the Cult of the Angry Young Man

13. What Women Don’t Want

14. Vituality in the Sphere of Economics by Vili Lehdonvirta

15.  Should Crowdfunding Be Regulated?

16. Content Creators Use Piracy to Gauge Consumer Interest

17. FBI Admits It Controlled Tor Servers Behind Mass Malware Attack

18. Privacy Substitutes by J. Mayer & A. Narayanan (Stanford Law Review)

jon

1. Microsoft Wins Big in Motorola Patent Case

2. The Penny Arcade Controversy That Will Not Die

3. Copyright Law and Video Games: A Brief History of an Interactive Medium by Prof. Greg Lastowka

4. Touchdown for video game producer over football players false endorsement claim

5. Tattoo Artist Looks to Show Value of Copyright Claim Against Videogame Publisher

6. Ouya’s Uhrman defends Free the Games Fund

7. Are Video Game Companies Next In Line For Copyright Termination Battles?

8. U.S. Patent No. 7,530,895: Method for advancing network game by group competition

9. Dr. Keith Ablow Talks Video Game Warning Labels on Fox & Friends

10. The Real Costs of a Video Game or App Copyright Infringement claim

11. Court Says Privacy Case Can Proceed vs. Google

12. Many of Web’s Encryption Tools Compromised by N.S.A.

+ Privacy and Big Data (Stanford Law Review symposium of articles)

+ NSA spying, cyber security and liability under Canada’s anti-spam spyware law CASL

13. Lawrence Lessig files copyright suit over “bad faith” DMCA takedown notice 

14. Google in Fight Over Content That Appears in Search Results

15. Spotify Sued Over User-Created Playlists

16. SEC has jurisdiction over investments in Bitcoin

17. Top 10 New IP Paper Downloads

jon

1. Evolving case law on the fair use of famous trademarks in video games

2. Report: Rayman Legends for PS Vita Missing 28 Levels

3. The best (legal) way to enjoy classic game cartridges

4. Examined, the Virtual Life Is Worth Living

5. Amazon Infiltrates the Android Game Market to Sell You Stuff While You Play

6. Iranian ‘League of Legends’ tournament bans female characters

7. Examined, the Virtual Life Is Worth Living

8. Use of Online Data in the Big Data Era: Legal Issues Raised by the Use of Web Crawling and Scraping Tools for Analytics Purposes

9. Microsoft moves forward with NSA surveillance lawsuit after government negotiations stall

10. B.C. privacy commissioner has a passion for data protection

11. HTC’s top designers reportedly in custody after stealing trade secrets

12. Texting drivers in NJ? You might be liable for their car crash

13. The lawyers hackers call – Meet the team defending Matthew Keys

14. Displair makes a touchscreen out of thin air (photos)

And in the “REALLY?????” category:

15. Director Uwe Boll wants Kickstarter to help make ‘Postal 2’ because no one else will

jon

1. King Sues 6Waves for Alleged Game Copyright Infringement. Here’s the Complaint.

2. Keller v. EA Delayed for Supreme Court Review Petition

3. RI Judge Greenlights Lawsuit against 38 Studios

4. Supreme Court Justice Kagan Played Video Games to Prepare for Brown v. EMA

5. New Research Suggest Video Games Are Not Triggers For At-Risk Teens

6. Report: Eight-Year-Old Boy Murders Elderly Caregiver After Playing GTA

+ Once Again, Media Jumps On Violent Video Games Before Knowing The Facts

7. Top Connecticut Lawmaker Urges Industry to End Licensing Deals with Gun Manufacturers

8. League of Legends Finals Sells Out LA’s Staples Center In An Hour

9. The Hunt for One of Gaming’s Most Mythical Creatures

10. Ninth Circuit determines Green Day’s Scream Icon is safe under fair use doctrine

11. EFF Victory Results in Release of Secret Court Opinion Finding NSA Surveillance Unconstitutional

+ Google and Microsoft’s plea on NSA requests moves slowly in secret court

+ NSA paid millions to cover Prism compliance costs for tech companies

12. What killed Aaron Swartz?

13. Intellectual Property Rights and Institutions: A Pluralist Account by Michael E. Kenneally

14. Will the Explosion of 3D Printing Mark the Implosion of Copyright Law?

15. Classic Patent Scholarship

16. When I think, you move: researchers achieve brain-to-brain interface

jon

1.  Nintendo Ordered to Pay $15.1 Million in 3DS Lawsuit

2. EA plans to appeal Keller case to Supreme Court

3. ‘League of Legends’ accounts in North America suffer security breach

4. Origin launches free 24-hour return on EA games

5. Microsoft details long-awaited Xbox One self-publishing plans

6. Game-tokens found in 5,000-year-old burial mound

7. Forrester: PRISM’s cost to the world cloud industry could be as high as $180B

8. Groklaw shuts down rather than risk feds snooping through e-mail

9. Can a loving homage to Disney be a crime? Copyright law says maybe

10. More on copyright in tattoos: a Belgian precedent

11. Sometimes an EULA That Says it is the “Entire Agreement” is Not Really the Entire Agreement

12. Bitcoins and Securities Law

jon

1. Nintendo Sues HackYourConsole.com for Selling Copying Devices

2. New Jersey Court Approves Used Game Lawsuit Against GameStop

3. Jim Brown’s right of publicity claim revived by Keller victory on appeal

4. Clone Wars: The Five Most Important Cases Every Game Developer Should Know

5. Rhode Island Lawmakers Examine 38 Studios Loan Debacle

6. Teaching jerks to behave with Strife

7. Responding to Intellectual Property Theft: How to Protect Your Game Without Damaging Your Company’s Reputation

8. Hitting the Reset Button on Video Game Copyrights

9. Swedish e-sports team win $1.4m Dota 2 video game prize

10. Computer Games Save Norwegian Youth

11. Brad Keselowski Credits Video Gaming for NASCAR Nationwide Series Win at Watkins Glen

12. ‘League of Legends’ gamer granted US visa recognizing him as professional athlete

13. Two more college sports organizations end licensing with EA

14. Nintendo Restricts The Number Of Times You Can Play A Game Demo For Some Reason

15. Federal judge: Bitcoin, “a currency,” can be regulated under American law

16. Innovation and Incarceration: An Economic Analysis of Criminal Intellectual Property Law

17. The Snowden effect: U.S. government demands cast chill on encrypted e-mail industry

+ NSA releases outline of security programs, says it ‘only’ touches 1.6 percent of internet traffic 

+ The Public-Private Surveillance Partnership

18. DOJ Decided To Ratchet Up Case Against Aaron Swartz Because He Spoke Out Publicly About Being Innocent

And in the “How could this not be included?” category:

19. London ordered to disable snooping trash cans

jon

1. Ninth Circuit Rules That Celebrity “Rights” Trump Free Speech

+ Third Circuit rejects EA’s first amendment defense to college athletes’ right of publicity claims

+ Keller v. EA: visual elements mean game isn’t protected by First Amendment (Prof. Rebecca Tushnet’s 43(B)log)

2. The First Amendment in play: Brown v. EA (Prof. Rebecca Tushnet’s 43(B)log)

3. Activision Blizzard sued over Vivendi buyback

4. EA Sued For Shutting Down Online Games Too Quickly

5. Researchers: Game Developers Need to Put Limits on MMORPG Players to Avoid ‘Pathological Addiction’

6. Holodeck: Holy Grail or Hollow Promise? Part 1

+  Holodeck: Holy Grail or Hollow Promise? Part 2

7. Professor Launches First-ever Study of Copyright and User-Generated Content on Social Media Platforms

+ Survey One (Player Survey) Initial Data

+ Some descriptive statistics from Survey One

8. Court Upholds Cellphone Tracking Without a Warrant

9. Fair Use for the Rich and Fabulous? (The University of Chicago Law Review)

10. Save the Date: The Canadian Copyright Pentalogy Conference on October 4, 2013

11. Other Agencies Clamor for Data N.S.A. Compiles

jon

1. Court of Appeals Rejects EA’s First Amendment Claim in NCAA Lawsuit

2. Why gaming’s latest take on war is so offensive to Russians

3. Activision Blizzard goes independent as Kotick leads $8.2 billion buyout

+  Activision’s Deal Analyzed

4. Zynga loses half of its active users, drops plans for real money gambling

5. Xbox One will allow independent developers to self-publish titles

6. Largest space battle in history claims 2,900 ships, untold virtual lives

7. Phil Fish, Gamer Fury, and the awful price of progress

8. To Restart Mideast Peace Talks, John Kerry Should Look to Video Games

9. Court says skipping ads doesn’t violate copyright. That’s a big deal

+ Fox Broadcasting Company, Inc. v. Dish Network L.L.C.; USCA 9^th Circuit Opinion

10. MIT denies targeting Aaron Swartz, but admits ‘neutral’ stance gave FBI the upper hand

11. Transferring social media accounts: legal and practical problems

12. Intel ditching controversial facial recognition features for its upcoming set-top box

13. Proposing a ‘Nutrition Label’ for Mobile Apps

14. The Rise of the Intangible Economy: U.S. GDP Counts R&D, Artistic Creation

jon

1. Tropico 4 Developer Targeted by Treehouse Avatar Technologies

2. Delaware Supreme Court backs Harmonix in Viacom dispute

3. Robin Antonick wins Madden lawsuit

4. Diversity in Video Games – The Rise of Female Gamers (Learnist page)

5. Wargaming, Stardock, and Rebellion Score Big IP from Atari Auction

6. Vivendi in talks to raise $3b dividend from Activision-Blizzard – repor

7. Xbox One to allow indie self-publishing

8. Gamers: Your man cave is being monitored

9. Intellectual Property and the Value of an Open Internet

10. U.S. Government Can No Longer Be Trusted To Protect The Internet From International Power Grabs

11. Executives Are Biggest Risk for Copyright Infringement

12. Finland Writes History With Crowdsourced Copyright Law

13. No Ricard on Facebook: When intrusive advertising meets online regulation

jon