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.

Bethesda has assured Fallout 3 fans that the game has been approved for release in Australia. A neutered version of Fallout 3 will be shipping worldwide.

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.

Two Canadian teens who broke into a home, did $25,000 in damages and then microwaved a cat to death have avoided jail time, but are banned from playing violent videogames. According to the Edmonton Journal they’re also on strict probation for the next year complete with 9:00 pm curfews and limited cellphone access. The boys must attend therapy sessions and serve 100 hours of community service as well as pay for the $500 deductible on the homeowners’ insurance. They also can’t own an animal for two years leaving one of their families in the position of having to give up a dog they bought for the boy’s younger siblings just ten weeks ago.

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.

Barack Obama is selling people on promises to “update and reform our copyright and patent systems to promote civic discourse, innovation and investment while ensuring that intellectual property owners are fairly treated.” However Obama’s new running mate has a track record for voting against the consumer in tech issues.

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.

*Sigh* Another day, another story of criminals taking the “GTA Defense.”

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.

The Entertainment Software Association proudly announced winning a $282,794 check from California. The money partially covers legal fees spent over a 2005 Videogame Law that was declared unconstitutional by Judge Ronald Whyte in August 2007. The ESA had originally requested a $324,840reimbursement for legal fees last September.

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.