Everyone knows that there’s a lot of illicit material on the internet. Everyone also knows that there a lot of enforcement efforts directed at finding the PCs that are the source for this type of content.

As you may or may not know, this has resulted in a number of criminals storing things they want to keep hidden on their XBox hard drives. According to authorities, this includes a fair amount of child pornography.

You see, the original XBox hard drive has always been able to be modified to make the console act like a PC. Interestingly, there’s no physical evidence this has been done. With current forensics software, investigators cannot examine the bit by bit information stored on the XBox hard drive, meaning that it stays hidden.

In an effort to alleviate this issue, David Collins, a computer scientist at Sam Houston State University, has created a tool that allows authorities to find these hidden files. The program, known as XFT, is the first ever developed for forensic technicians to read XBoxes. Not only does the tool read the information, it record the investigation as it takes place, and allows the recording to be replayed in court.

Now, I know some of you may want to scream about your privacy for your files, but in my opinion, anything that shows that these people are not actually gamers is fine with me. Don’t we have enough of a black eye with the general public? I think so. What we don’t need is for investigators to find a child pornographer storing files on his XBox, and publish news referring to him as a gamer.

What do you think?

Looks like we’re having a celebrity deathmatch in U.S. District Court in Seattle. This Tuesday, Valve filed suit against Activision Blizzard.

Apparently the complaint stems from a 2002 dispute over Sierra licensing Valve games without the consent of Valve. As we all know, Sierra was merged with Activision last year. Earlier this month, on April 6th, an arbitrator awarded Valve $2,391,932.

Valve said this was less compensation than they were seeking, but they agreed to be bound by the arbitration process.

As is usually the case, one of the parties wasn’t pleased. In this case, Activision challenged the award, saying that Valve was overpaid by $424,136 in the past. Valve responded saying that that Activision didn’t properly raise the issue in front of the arbitrator.

Activision reportedly cut Valve a check for $1,967,796 last week. That amount is the total awarded by the arbitrator less the disputed $424,136. Apparently, Activision has said that it would not pay the rest, and that if Valve went to court, Activision would countersue. Valve apparently ignored this warning, and has filed a suit in US District Court in Seattle.

Download the PDF of the complaint.

Thanks, GamePolitics

Realizing that the years of suing people for pirating music online have basically done nothing but waste time and money, the lovely RIAA has decided to punish you another way–but cutting off your internet.

According to a piece published by the Wall Street Journal, the move from individuals to ISPs seems like the next logical step for the RIAA since the “I’ll sue your ass off” tactics are not working (I add the last bit in there):

The [RIAA] said it plans to try an approach that relies on the cooperation of Internet-service providers. The trade group said it has hashed out preliminary agreements with major ISPs under which it will send an email to the provider when it finds a provider’s customers making music available online for others to take.

Depending on the agreement, the ISP will either forward the note to customers, or alert customers that they appear to be uploading music illegally, and ask them to stop. If the customers continue the file-sharing, they will get one or two more emails, perhaps accompanied by slower service from the provider. Finally, the ISP may cut off their access altogether.

In the piece, it states that the RIAA has filed approximately 35,000 lawsuits against people since 2002, and instead of dropping the lawsuits and going with their new tactics, they are continuing to seek monetary damages from the individuals currently in litigation. So, newbies will get their internet cut off, ones already in trouble will still get sued. Yeah, like I can see AT&T/Bellsouth or Verizon or any cable company cutting the cord until absolutely forced to. The RIAA is a trade group, and even though they have the government on their side, it is just boggling to think that they could actually be allowed to do something like this.

Point is, don’t steal. We have all done it online one time or another be it music, games, movies… just don’t do it anymore. The days of copying any of the above on CD, VHS or cassette are long gone in the technology age and where as you would not get caught–eventually you will now. It is better to save yourself the headache and just not do it. Don’t get me wrong, the RIAA reminds me of the gestapo and I do not support them, but I don’t think we should steal either.

(Thanks: GamePolitics) (Image: Inforwars)

A class action suit against Microsoft in regards to the Xbox 360 scratching discs if the consoles is tilted had some the documents presented in court unsealed and the contents revealed that Microsoft knew of the problem but pushed the console out the door anyway.

The document contains a quote from Microsoft Programmer Hiroo Umeno, that states:

“This is … information that we as a team, optical disc drive team, knew about. When we first discovered the problem in September or October (2005), when we got a first report of disc movement, we knew this is what’s causing the problem.”

Because of this, Microsoft sent some engineers out in the field to “investigate complaints that the Xbox 360 was routinely scratching discs during demonstrations” at retail stores. This is when Microsoft admitted that if tilted, discs inside became “unchucked” and subsequently would collide with the drive’s optical pickup unit. This would lead to deep circular gouges on the discs. In light of this news, Microsoft considered three different possibilities of fixed the problem, but decided against all three because all three would cost the company too much money.

Read the full article »

When your Xbox 360 gets stolen from you, what do you do? Call the cops? No, you pick up that wireless controller, and you track that sucker down. That’s what Ryan Ketsenburg of Missouri State did when he woke up one morning in his dorm room to find his beloved console missing. Someone had apparently broken in while he and his roommates were sleeping and made off with the 360, leaving a controller behind. That’s when Ketsenburg no doubt pulled out a magnifying glass and Sherlock Holmes hat:

Ketsenburg, who lives in Hutchens House, said that after his Xbox was stolen, he turned on his wireless Xbox controller and found that it was still connecting to his Xbox. Based on this discovery, Ketsenburg said he realized that his Xbox must be nearby, he said.

The controller connected to the Xbox on the fourth, fifth and sixth floors of Hutchens but not on the third floor and seventh floor, so through process of elimination, Ketsenburg said he figured out that the stolen Xbox must be on the fifth floor. Following the controller’s signal, Ketsenburg said he was able to pinpoint the room where his Xbox was stolen.

The Xbox 360 wireless controller has a 30-foot range, according to the Xbox Web site. When looking for his Xbox, Ketsenburg said the light-emitting diodes of the controller flashed when he was out of range. The 5th floor resident assistant checked the alleged room where the stolen Xbox was and was able to find the Xbox.

I have to admit, that is one impressive and creative way to recover some stolen goods. The student has said that he intends to prosecute the thief “to the fullest extent of the law,” which should be quite the surprise to that person, since they were not in their room when the console was recovered. Still, at least he got his Xbox back, though the bastard had already formatted the hard drive.

Oh, sweet irony. It seems every other time we hear about a politician being brought up on some sort of criminal charges, they also happen to be lobbyists for strict video game legislation. Well, now you can add the now-infamous governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, to that list as well. It’s been all over the mainstream news lately how he essentially tried to pull all sorts of corrupt scams while in office, from asking for bribes for a replacement in Barack Obama’s senate position to trying to fire Chicago Tribune editors who criticized him.

Well, guess what? Turns out he’s also one of those who have tried (and failed) to impose strict video game laws. In 2005, he helped impose a video game sales law in his state that was eventually ruled unconstitutional in a matter of months. This move ended up costing Illinois tax payers over half a million dollars to reimburse the video game industry for legal fees. He also lobbied for GTA: San Andreas ads to be removed from buses in 2004.

The word “hypocrite” barely does justice here. Personally though, I’m still waiting for an anti-gaming politician to be somehow linked to a WoW gold-farming scheme.

Electronic Arts is being targeted by another class-action law suit over the DRM included with Spore, SecuROM. This time, California resident Alex McQuown is hoping to use Spore to take down SecuROM once and for all.

The grievances listed in Alex McQuown’s class-action suit against EA are much the same as the other suits with three big differences. His lawyers at Finkelstein Thompson claim that SecuROM damages computers costing consumer time and money to repair the havoc caused by its installation. The suit also asserts that EA has needlessly caused its customers grief. The figures prove that piracy of games that carry SecuROM has risen dramatically. The biggest difference in McQuown’s suit is that he invites every U.S. citizen that has purchased an EA product with SecuROM to join the class.
Read the full article »

Wow. Talk about a loss.. I hope he can write it off (tax benefits I am sure) because Sumner Redstone has sold his majority stake in Midway Games for $100,000. You may recall just a while back on November 21 the New York Stock Exchange threatened to delist Midway Games if their stock did not rise from under $1.00 per share within six months. As of last Friday, stock in the company was going for 38 cents a share.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Redstone’s controlling interest was sold to Mark Thomas for $0.0012 per share and he is now the new owner of the $70 million in debt the company has incurred along with the rumors, lay-offs and trying to get the company back on track.

Shacknews stated that at one time analyst Michael Pachter estimated that Redstone spent between $500 and $700 million on Midway stock since 1983. Yikes.

At least now he has one less problem to worry about. We wish him and Midway all the best.

Here are just some gaming related stories floating around on the web from yesterday and today:

• Want to know how to obtain the M1A1 Carbine from Call of Duty: World at War without ranking to level 65? Well fret not, because thanks to a pal of theirs at Treyarch, the folks over at MonsterVine have all the answers (thanks William Saw!).

• According to GamesIndustry.biz, GameStop expects there to be more Wii shortages at Christmas this year. Is that really surprising? Maybe it is time I pulled mine out of the closet and put it up on eBay. With the outrageous prices people are asking for the console, I think if I went $100 less I could make a sale and put it towards finally getting a PS3 (wakes up from her daydream).

• VG247 has posted a link to a video called Immersion that The New York Times has a posted by photographer Robbie Cooper which shows the vacant and sometimes scary looks on kids faces as they play videogames–and most likely ones they should not be playing in the first place from what I could hear. If you watch the video though, you may come away with the impression that a lot of these were staged–especially that one kid who keeps saying “Let me kill you”. Then again, maybe he is just a dork.

• Ubisoft will release downloadable content for Far Cry 2 sometime before the end of the month. “The Fortune’s Pack” will will include multiplayer maps, some new weapons and vehicles. You can expect it to hit the PSN and XBL for around $10.

• In case you haven’t heard, The Killers, Yngwie Malmsteen, Soundgarden, Lamb of God will hit Rock Band on November 25.

• Shacknews has a lovely list of upcoming game releases posted on their site. The list is for releases during the week of November 23-29. Looks like no PS3 titles though, and the only ones worth noting are Sonic Unleashed for the Xbox 360 and Age of Empires: Mythologies for the Nintendo DS. You think I am joking? Then hit the link and see for yourself.

Read the full article »

According to a post on GamesIndustry.biz, The New York Stock Exchange has informed Midway Games that since their stock prices have fallen below the set standard, the company may be up for delisting.

This warning came after the company failed to achieve the minimum closing price of $1.00 per share for over 30 days in a row. In addition, Midway now has only six months to improve share prices to keep from being delisted.

With losses exceeding over $76 million doubled with the fact that Midway has laid off approximately 30 staff members, things look pretty grim for the gaming company. The cherry on top though was when their company chairperson stepped down–which makes you wonder if they can recoup their back luck and financial loses and start anew in 2009.

On the bright side, if you are a gambling man (or woman), and you are looking to get into trading stock, Midway is about as cheap as they come. Who knows, you may get lucky. Then again, you could lose your ass too depending on how much you purchase.

Put me down for 5 shares–I spend that much at McDonald’s once a month anyway. Skipping one month would be no big deal.