A beta update for Steam lets gamers trade virtual items for unused digital copies of games. Released Tuesday, the upgrade to Valve’s digital-distribution platform could co-opt a thriving black market in which players swap unwanted games for prized in-game extras.

Valve introduced hats — novelty pieces of headwear for game characters — to its cartoon-styled multiplayer first-person shooter Team Fortress 2 in 2009. These hats, along with upgraded weapons, could be earned by simply playing the game or by purchasing them with real money. In 2010, Team Fortress 2 received an update that allowed...

Federal authorities are tacitly acknowledging that, despite their best efforts, it’s impossible to keep domestic aircraft safe from all evildoers. That’s because if a pilot wants to crash a plane, the pilot can crash a plane.

With that in mind, the Transportation Security Administration began a program Tuesday allowing pilots to skirt the security-screening process. The TSA has deployed approximately 500 body scanners to airports nationwide in a bid to prevent terrorists from boarding domestic flights, but pilots don’t have to go through the controversial nude body scanners or other forms of s...