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?

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

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)

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.

Instead, Microsoft started a disc replacement program which would give customers a new disc should they become damaged for any reason–but only if it was a Microsoft title and you were willing to pay $20.00 for the service.

An engineering consultant who issued a statement in the case, mentioned that Nintendo, Sony and other electronics makers always incorporate the possibility of a disc getting moved around inside when they are designing and making the product. What this basically means (like with the Red Ring of death issues) that Microsoft was more concerned with being the first to bring their new console to the market instead of delaying the launch to solve quality issues– or at least that is what some “upper management” people over at Microsoft believe.

If you want to read all the sordid details, Seattle Post Intelligencer (Seattle PI) has the goods over on their website. This is just one of many different suits that have been brought against the company since the Xbox 360 was released.

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.

SecuROM comes with many of the most popular titles recently released including EA’s Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 and Dead Space; Ascaron’s Sacred 2; Bethesda’s Fallout 3; BioWare’s Mass Effect published by Microsoft; Ubisoft’s Far Cry 2 and Take 2’s Grand Theft Auto IV for the PC. Of course none of these games or companies have provoked as much protest as EA and Spore. I guess its not always a good thing to be high profile. You make a bigger target.

Read the New Spore Class-Action Targets EA SecuROM As a Whole for further details and a link to the original PDF of class-action suit submitted by Finkelstein Thompson on GameCyte.
thanks to Penny Arcade for explaining SecuROM so well.

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.

• Looks like Jon Fitch and the UFC have made up despite the hoopla surrounding a contract issue regarding THQ’s upcoming UFC 2009 Undisputed, which is due to be released on the PS3, Xbox 360, and mobile in Spring 2009. Gamasutra reports that things are all hunky dory again, with Fitch back where he belongs.

• Gamepolitics has an interesting editorial on their site which I completely agree with, because the rebuttal they give is true, concise and intelligent as it talks about a article by Nick Michetti titled: How Barack Obama Can Bring the Change the Video Game Industry Needs. Michetti writes: We also need to rein in the used games market and not with DRM. It is fundamentally unfair that developers are being robbed of profits for work that they’ve done. If the ESA will not offer a mandate, then we’ll need the government to do so. Publishers and developers should be entitled to at least half of the price from the sale of every used game.— Ok. I suppose that Ford, and Toyota should also get a profit from the sale of used cars, or Ralph Lauren should get part of the sale from a used sweater of his sold at a second hand shop, and let’s not forget used music stores. What a crock.

• Major Nelson reports that premium themes for NXE have arrived.

• Square Enix has announced three new upcoming “expansion scenarios” for their MMORPG, Final Fantasy XI. All three expansions were created by series veteran Masato Kato. (Destructiod)

To find out more about any of the snipits or games listed above, hit the respective links.

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.

Remember back in February when New Line Cinema and the MKR group who own the rights to filmmaker George A. Romero’s films decided to sue Capcom for copyright infringement over their survival horror game Dead Rising? In case you can’t recall, they felt that the game was a blatant rip-off of Romero’s classic zombie movie Dawn of the Dead.

The lawsuit, however, has been thrown out of court by U.S. magistrate judge Richard Seeborg, who felt that a storyline involving survivors hanging out in a shopping mall during a zombie apocalypse was too vague to be copyright protected:

“[The MKR Group (producers of the film)] has not identified any similarity between Dead Rising and any protected element of Dawn of the Dead. Rather, the few similarities MKR has alleged are driven by the wholly unprotectable concept of humans battling zombies in a mall during a zombie outbreak. To the extent that Dead Rising may be deemed to posses a theme it is confined to the killing of zombies in the process of attempting to unlock the cause of the zombie infestation. The social commentary MKR draws from Dawn of the Dead, in other words, appears totally absent from the combat focus found in Dead Rising.”

So there ya have it. No similarities between Dawn of the Dead and Dead Rising. I suppose this also means that there are no similarities between the scientific experiments on people which turned them to zombies in Dead Rising and the movie Day of the Dead. If that were the case, there would be a lot of people being sued because it seems that the military or some rouge scientist is always genicially altering people in games and movies.

(Thanks GamesIndustry.biz)

Ever heard the phrase, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?” Well, that applies to the online world just as much as in real life. One Japanese man found this out the hard way recently when his virtual “wife” in Maple Story got so angry that she effectively killed his online avatar (via Yahoo! News).

The 43-year old woman carried out the digital murder after the 33-year old man suddenly “divorced” her in the game. She was quoted as saying, “I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry.” So angry in fact that she used login information she got from her former “husband” to access his account and then kill his character. The man notified police when he realized his avatar was dead, and the woman was arrested on “suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data.” She hasn’t been formally charged yet, but she could face up to five years in prison or a $5000 fine.

Fellas, let this be a lesson to you: never EVER give out your personal info to people you meet online. No, not even to your virtual spouses.

The Florida Bar has finally had enough of Jack Thompson’s antics in and out of court. The Florida Supreme Court has affirmed the Bar’s recommendation to have him permanently disbarred from practicing law in Florida, effective in 30 days. The according to GamePolitics, the June, 2008 report of Judge Dava Tunis was heavily referenced in the four page document issued by the court.

“In her report, the referee states: Over a very extended period of time involving a number of totally unrelated cases and individuals, [r]espondent has demonstrated a pattern of conduct to strike out harshly, extensively, repeatedly and willfully to simply try to bring as much difficulty, distraction and anguish to those he considers in opposition to his causes.

He does not proceed within the guidelines of appropriate professional behavior, but rather uses other means available to intimidate, harass, or bring public disrepute to those whom he perceives oppose him.”

Never one to accept the rulings of any authority other than himself, Thompson is fighting back with a law suit of his own. Kotaku has more on his conspiracy theory response to the court’s ruling.

“Miami attorney Jack Thompson, nationally and internationally known by virtue of his effective and successful opposition over the last 20 years to the broadcast, marketing, and sale of adult-rated entertainment to children, has just been informed by the Florida Supreme Court that he has been disbarred from the practice of law today.

…It appears that the State of Florida will be paying Thompson more damages this time around for its illegal, now repeated, use of “discipline” to punish a Christian lawyer for his activism in the public square.

The timing of this disbarment transparently reveals its motivation: This past Friday Thompson filed a federal civil rights action against The Bar, the Supreme Court, and all seven of its Justices. This rush to disbarment is in retribution for the filing of that federal suit. With enemies this foolish, Thompson needs only the loyal friends he has.

Thompson looks forward to successfully litigating his federal claims, now before US District Court Judge Marcia Cooke in the Southern District of Florida.

Thompson always wanted to own a Bar. Now, armed with multiple US Supreme Court rulings that no state bar can do what it has done to Thompson, he is set to own that Bar.”

Did anyone not see this coming? Given Thompson’s track record as a plague on the games industry with a penchant for frivolous lawsuits it was inevitable. It’s also highly entertaining.

Australia’s highest video game rating is MA15+, so the idea of players shooting up virtual morphine didn’t sit well with its ratings board. Bethesda simply removed the problem from all versions of the game to head off any other regional protests.

According to GamePolitics, we should have seen this one coming.

Fallout 3 has been cleared for sale in the U.K. with no content edits required…

Curiously, a “consumer advice” note posted with the rating decision does not mention the drug use which got Fallout 3 banned in Australia earlier this year. The only reference to content is “Contains very strong bloody violence and gore.”

Gaming Today posted an article on videogame regulation in individual nations eventually forcing global censorship. Oh how I wish we hadn’t seen this ill omen fulfilled so soon. This could be a very disturbing trend in the making.

For me, this raises a few questions other than why on Earth parent’s would bring a new pet into a home when their son had already gruesomely killed another animal just six months before. These kids break into a former friend’s house twice during Christmas break, steal a guitar and trash the house to the tune of 25K in damages and nuke Princess the family cat. What do videogames have to do with their behavior or is the ban considered a harsher punishment than jail time? The answer is nothing really, it just seemed like a good idea at the time.

According to court ordered psychological assessments, video games were not found to have directly encouraged the boys’ actions. But barring their access to such games was nonetheless a recommendation put forward in the assessments.

I’m with the judge on this one. It’s been nine months since the incident and these two 16 year olds still can’t say why they cooked the cat. Most people are stable enough to be able to tell the difference between reality and fantasy. The vast majority of gamers can play violent videogames without any problems. These two boys have proved that they have an incredibly destructive streak and shouldn’t be exposed to anything that might exacerbate it.

However I have to ask why only violent videogames? These two should be banned from violent television, books and films as well. They shouldn’t be exposed to anything more violent than the Little Mermaid. Maybe their parents should look into the new Petz Rescue Series.

According to CNet’s Declan McCullough, Joe Biden traditionally has supported the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)’s draconian measures against consumers.

Biden became a staunch ally of Hollywood and the recording industry in their efforts to expand copyright law. He sponsored a bill in 2002 that would have make it a federal felony to trick certain types of devices into playing unauthorized music or executing unapproved computer programs. Biden’s bill was backed by content companies including News Corp. but eventually died after Verizon, Microsoft, Apple, eBay, and Yahoo lobbied against it.

A few months later, Biden signed a letter that urged the Justice Department “to prosecute individuals who intentionally allow mass copying from their computer over peer-to-peer networks.” Critics of this approach said that the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America, and not taxpayers, should pay for their own lawsuits.

Last year, Biden sponsored an RIAA-backed bill called the Perform Act aimed at restricting Americans’ ability to record and play back individual songs from satellite and Internet radio services. (The RIAA sued XM Satellite Radio over precisely this point.)

So far Biden has refused to comment on his current stance on tech issues. According to GamePolitics Biden’s strong support of Intellectual Property rights is ironic in that he’s been nailed twice for plagiarism himself.

Biden’s past choices call to question what stance the potential Vice-President might take as the video game and electronic entertainment industries are weathering continual discussion regarding governmental regulation and the potential limitation or censoring of products made available on the US market. His traditional anti-consumer stance could mean he’d favor regulation over self-policing.

CNet’s Digital Home asks a compelling question, “Does it matter who buys video games?” In this recent article, the author sites a survey that finds 17% of the GTAIV videogames sold were bought by or for kids ages 6-17. Given that 80% of the kids of the kids that didn’t buy it themselves got it from their parents or older siblings the author takes a stance against regulating the sale of M rated games. His point is that these kids’ parents are likely to go get it for them anyway.

The original intent of not allowing underage kids to buy video games was to stop them from picking up a violent title that their parents didn’t want them to play and bring it to a friend’s house where they wouldn’t know. And while that is an admirable idea, it simply doesn’t hold up.

To think that ID’ing kids for a video game will somehow stop violence and the proliferation of violent video games is extremely foolhardy. If they’re turned down, they’ll simply go to the next place and see if they can win someone over there. And if all else fails, they can enlist the help of an older person.

Stopping underage children from buying video games may be a great PR stunt, but that’s all it is. Children are getting their hands on M-rated games and there’s no changing it. So we have one of two options: ignore it or just forget about age limits altogether. I vote for the latter.

I have to say that I’m going to have to agree to disagree. As a father, I feel it’s important to have those ratings and prohibitions in place. I reserve the right to decide which mature rated videogames… if any my children can play. I also should have the right to purchase those titles which I approve of for my children.

Many parents seem not to be as involved with their children or aware of their activities as they should be. Having an age limit in place serves as a protection to children who might not be able to handle a mature title when parents fail to do their job.

In Milton, Georgia, three teenagers were arrested after several cars were firebombed with Molotov cocktails on the evening of July 24th. The teens were caught when police pulled receipts from a local Wal-mart and found one listing Sprite bottles, red rags, and lighter fluid. From there, they looked at the store surveillance tapes and were able to identify the ones involved. When confronted, what explanation did the teenagers give for their actions? Why, that “Grand Theft Auto” taught them “how to do it” of course. Each teen is now being charged with 19 felony counts, including arson, criminal damage to property, and possession of explosive devices.

What happened to the good old days when teenagers would blame The Anarchist Cookbook or Che Guevara’s Guerrilla Warfare on these sorts of things. Kids just don’t read enough it seems.

Via WSBTV

Ubisoft has filed a lawsuit against Us-based Optical Experts Manufacturing which is the company they hired to reproduce discs for the PC port of Assassin’s Creed. The lawsuit has a monetary worth of over $10 million and sites breach of contract, negligence, lawyer fees, and an undisclosed sum for damages due to copyright infringement.

The lawsuit stems from allegations of an OEM employee taking home a copy of Assassin’s Creed and uploading it onto the internet six weeks before the game shipped in April 2008. Ubisoft has accused OEM of ignoring a number of security protocols which would have prevented this leak, which led to over 700,000 pirated downloads of the title, as well as claiming the breech caused “irreparable harm” to its reputation.

If this was not enough, according to GamesIndustry, Ubisoft also claims that “a bug which was purposely introduced to the unfinished code (which was what was pirated) caused the game to crash partway through – but that this bug found its way into some reviews” which as we are all well aware, caused may a negative review of the game. The subsequent reviews, according to Ubisoft, called into question the reliability of the game thus causing gamers to not purchase the game.

We will be sure to keep you up to date on the progress of Ubisoft’s lawsuit against OEM as more information becomes available.

Undaunted by this set back, not only is California’s Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appealing the injunction he intends for the ESA to pay back the check if the state prevails in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court appeal.

According to GamePolitics, the arrangement between the ESA and the state of CA was reached in November 2007. An excerpt from the agreement reads:

If, after all appeals have been exhausted or the time for all remaining appeals has expired, plaintiffs [the video game industry] are no longer the prevailing party in this case, the plaintiffs shall pay back the amount stipulated in paragraph 1 within thirty (30) days of the disposition of the final appeal or the expiration of time for all remaining appeals.

Given California’s budget crisis, it’s easy to see how the state could hope to recover the dues paid to the ESA. However it’s more likely that the already stressed state budget will have to cover more of the ESA’s legal fees.