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Week 1 – 9/4/13: “Introduction”

By Jon Festinger on September 4, 2013

Thanks to all for a fun first class. Sorry for my scratchy voice. Was not auditioning for a post midnight FM radio gig. Working on getting better. The video and slide links below are: 1.Click-through to full size MediaSite player (video & slides); 2. Embedded MediaSite player (video & slides) but not expandable to full size – particularly great in background for audio only; 3. YouTube version (no slides); 4. Slides download. Please note that the first 23 seconds of audio are missing for some reason.

jon

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News of the Week; August 28, 2013

By Jon Festinger on August 29, 2013

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

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News of the Week; August 21, 2013

By Jon Festinger on August 21, 2013

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

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News of the Week; August 14, 2013

By Jon Festinger on August 15, 2013

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

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Conan takes on the Atari 2600

By Jon Festinger on August 11, 2013

Conan takes on the Atari 2600 | Joystiq.

Not much here that has a lot to do with the law (perhaps the rumoured landfill of ET games can be seen as an environmental law issue ?). Still, for sheer humour and quite a bit of historical perspective on how far video-games have come, this piece is hard to beat.

jon

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News of the Week; August 7, 2013

By Jon Festinger on August 7, 2013

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

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End User License Agreements (EULA’s) are always fun to read

By jliang on August 1, 2013

10 Ridiculous EULA clauses that you might have agreed to: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-ridiculous-eula-clauses-agreed/

5 Most ridiculous EULA clauses: http://h30565.www3.hp.com/t5/Feature-Articles/5-Most-Ridiculous-EULA-Clauses/ba-p/657

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News of the Week; July 31, 2013

By Jon Festinger on July 31, 2013

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

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News of the Week; July 24, 2013

By Jon Festinger on July 25, 2013

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

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Coming Soon

By Jon Festinger on July 24, 2013

The current digital form of the Video Game Law course began with the notion of producing an iTunes U course this summer for fall launch. Here is the opening animation produced by Alana Thorburn-Watt of the Centre for Digital Media, our editor: