Sony Sues Datel, Maker of a PSP-3000 Hacking Extra Battery

Sony Europe has filed suit against UK-based Datel, maker of the Max Power Digital Battery accessory for PSP, alleging copyright infringement for Max Power's ability to circumvent Sony's encryption protection for the PSP. Interestingly, the Battery was originally sold as the Lite Blue Tool, an explicit hacking device already frozen by Sony previously. Sony believed that with the launch of the PSP-3000 piracy was "trending downward."

Changing the Name Didn't Fool Them? Damn...

The PSP has enjoyed quite a bit of hardware success but not as much software success, in part due to large amounts of piracy. It isn't surprising that Sony is going after them, especially in these lean times.

Irony: Spore the Most Pirated Game Ever

With all of the hoopla surrounding EA's inclusion of DRM technology to prevent the mass piracy of Will Wright's Spore, it is clear we have a winner in the battle against piracy: the pirates! TorrentFreak, a blog dedicated to all things torrent, declared Spore the most pirated game ever, breaking the single year record. It stated that 1.7 million copies of the game have been pirated thus far, far outranking no. 2, The Sims 2, at 1.15 million. The blog suggested that perhaps the piracy rate was so high because consumers did not want the hassle of DRM's "benefits," namely invasive software and limited installs.

Pore

This time I am siding with the fan boys: the answer to piracy is not to treat the consumer like a criminal (ahem, Xbox!), but to make it easier to pay and play than just play.

EA Faces New SecuROM Class Action Suits

Continuing the EA SecuROM debacle, not one, but two new class action lawsuits have been filed. The first involves EA's inclusion of its ultra-invasive, questionably effective, SecuROM technology with the free Spore Creature Creator software. Despite there being no risk of piracy, EA included it anyway. The second class action suit involves an avid Sims player who after installing Sims Bon Voyage could no longer access certain files on her computer. Both cases were filed in the Northern District of California and both plaintiffs are represented by the same law firm. An earlier suit was filed in September regarding the SecuROM in Spore.

Sec-Two-Wrong

If EA wasn't listening before, they should be now...

New Anti-Piracy Regulation Passes, ESA Stoked, Artists Not So Much

Congress passed the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008, or the PRO-IP Act, putting in place many provisions to help protect America's IP in the future. The Act creates an IP Czar tasked with overseeing US IP protection who reports directly to the president. It also outlines specific programs for IP enforcement, targets criminal organizations, and provides additional funding for the FBI and DOJ to crack down on hackers and pirates. While the bill is supported by the big dog media conglomerates, such as the RIAA and MPAA, consumer groups are not as happy as they see this as a victory for large media and an encroachment into legitimate fair use user's rights.

What's With All of the Czars?

Will this lead to more consumers being found by the government and nailed to the wall for piracy?

EA Sued Over Spore DRM

Melissa Thomas did what many on the message boards have threatened but none had actually done: she is suing EA for its use of SecuROM, a anti-piracy device that apparently cannot be uninstalled, alleging deceit and concealment for bundling SecuROM with Spore. She thinks that the DRM software is too invasive and is seeking $5 million in damages. EA responded that, well, Spore has sold a million copies! I cannot tell if that hurts them or not...

SuckyROM

There has been so much hoopla about this DRM, it is hard to gauge whether its is a huge deal or if it is an overreaction. My impression is that 1.) never mess with a gamer's rig and 2.) the reaction should work as more of a deterrent for future behavior, as opposed to, there being actual damage caused by the DRM technology. What do you think?

Activision Suing Call of Duty Pirate

James Strickland is being sued by Activision for allegedly pirating Call of Duty 3 (that is so a few years ago!) and distributing it, along with some other unnamed games. Activision has since discovered what the unnamed games were and is seeking to amend the complaint to include those as well. The big A is suing for $150,000 per infringing copy. Ouch!

All My Booty 3: Gone

Without the details of the case, it is hard to judge whether this pirate is one of the masses of pirates out there or whether his operation was massive and worthy of being targeted like this. My guess is that Activision has better things to do than become the Metallica of video games (aren't they partners now?), but you never know with the juggernauts - sometimes they just roll.

ESA Applauds the Capture of Pirates

The ESA would like to give a shout out to the justice system for actually catching some software pirates. Both of these criminals were found guilty of criminal copyright infringement for their extensive pirating practices. Kifah Maswadi, a distributor of consoles with 70 Nintendo games pre-loaded, got "fifteen months in prison, three years of supervised release, and fifty hours of community service, and must pay $415,900 in restitution." Bam! Kevin Fuchs, a key figure in certain warez sites, got eight months in prison, and eight months of home confinement. Still Bam!, (but not as much).

Yar! Me Ships Going Down

It is good to see that the targets of these federal investigations are not average joe six-chips, but legitimately harmful targets: like targeting the drug lords and not the poor man on the street just trying to get by...

Game File-Sharer Ordered to Pay

The UK Patent Courts have ordered a British woman to pay about 16,000 pounds (approx. $30k) for illegally sharing games over the internet. The woman is paying Topware, makers of Dream Pinball 3D, for her copyright infringement of their protected work. Some believe this could be a landmark case in the VG industry's fight to control piracy.

Not Just Music Anymore!

It will be interesting to see if the industry will begin targeting file sharers a la the music industry. Personally, I do not think it is a great idea. Maybe for a littler guy like Topware, this approach would make sense, but the damage amount is so low, it would probably be a disservice to large game makers to go after individuals like this, only to have their customer base harangue them for it. Then again, you never know...

Casual Pirates - How Much Damage Are They Doing?

Gamasutra is featuring an interesting article about piracy of casual games. Starting from the mind-boggling statistic that 92% of Reflexive's Ricochet Infinity games are pirated, Russell Carroll then examines the impact of anti-piracy measures on the number of people buying the game. His conclusion: for every thousand pirated copies prevented, only one of those becomes a paying customer. Damn.

Pirates Steal Software, Not Sales

Carroll ultimately states, "a pirated copy is more like the loss of a download than the loss of a sale." This is congruent with my experience of piracy: pirates take games they would not buy (and some they would). The value of having the pirate play the game is not taken into account, and often, once the pirate can afford games, he will buy those games that are worth it (much like all of those college kids that download a bunch of music then end up buying the CDs with songs they really liked).

Square Enix Sues Sword Counterfeiter

Square Enix, as part of its anti-piracy initiatives, has filed suit in California against several defendants claiming that they are infringing on Square's IP rights by selling replica swords modeled after swords from SE's popular Final Fantasy series. With cooperation from Homeland Security, Agents seized a crate of unlicensed swords. After the retailers refused to tell SE where they got the swords from, SE initiated this action.

Nice Try Buster!

Square claims that it must enforce their IP rights or risk losing them. They are correcto!

ELSPA Claims 90 Percent of DS Users in US Using R4 Pirating Chip

John Hillier, spokesman for the UK's Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association's intellectual property crime unit, stated that "it's thought" that 90 percent of American DS owners pirate software using the R4 chip.

90...try .9

I understand Hillier's concern about the implications of such a powerful pirating tool, but seeing as how this is the first mention I have heard of the chip (thanks Destructoid for calling me out as having my "face in a first-generation, un-backlit Gameboy Advance this whole time"), I think that figure may be a bit preposterous...

ESA Joins MPA for Anti-Piracy Fight in Malaysia

The Entertainment Software Association and the Motion Picture Association have teamed up to fight piracy in Malaysia. The enforcement initiative, called Operation Games Attack, is targeting the illegal production and distribution of games. The announcement was big enough to attract the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs of Malaysia. The program will provide anti-piracy training in addition to increased resources for enforcement of international IP rights.

ESA + MPA = SAME Plan of Attack

ESA Stoked About Pirate's Arrest

The ESA, with its keen interest in stopping piracy, has begun highlighting specific instances of law enforcement stopping malicious pirates. Hailing from my hometown of San Diego, CA, Frederick Brown is facing 10 felony-level counts including, "grand theft, computer crime, and trafficking counterfeit marks." Upon raiding his house, the law found over a thousand counterfeit discs and mod chips to boot.

One Less Pirate in San Diego

Imagine going to jail for a really long time over mod chips and video games...I hope he made a lot of money for a lawyer before he got busted; apparently he made enough to post $100,000 bail.

Sony Plans to Aggressively Pursue PS3 Hackers - Is This News?

Sony, a paragon on unpredictability, vowed to pursue all hackers of its Playstation 3 console. Apparently, hackers have already figured out a way to crack PS3's firmware 1.10 and 1.11, which will allow a hacker to boot up a game but not necessarily play it. Similar to Microsoft's vow to not allow hacked systems to play on its XBoxLive service, Sony likewise could not allow any hacked PS3s to connect. In addition, hacking your PS3 violates the warranty.

Hackers Beware...Sony is After You Again

No warranty huh...the first iteration of any new console is almost always total crap, so maybe I should wait for the next model of PS3 before I hack to boot up a game; screw playing it.

US hates on Chinese IP Enforcement, Nintendo Agrees

The US trade representative has filed for formal consultations with the Chinese government over there IP protection policies, or lack thereof. China is one of the worst offenders as far as respecting world IP rights, with little or no punishment for counterfeiters who largely escape punishment or even the closing down of their operations. Nintendo has identified China as the greatest exporter of infringed software and hardware, estimating losses to the industry of $762 million. China claims to be dismayed at this request for formal consultation, but I doubt anybody takes them seriously: they do practically nothing to stop piracy.

China...Piracy...No Way!

Nintendo points out that over 7.7 million infringing products have been seized from 300 factories over the past four years.

Piracy? Blame Canada

The seven-member International Intellectual Property Association, whose members include the ESA, MPAA, and RIAA, have put Canada on a list of countries with the worst international copyright enforcement. Canada is a leading exporter of bootlegged films and mod chips. I guess the piracy has risen "to such an extent as to prejudicially affect the owner of the copyright." (See Japan Bans Export of Pirated material) So when is Canada going to start enforcing?

Blame Canada, Blame Canada, their beady little eyes have packed their heads so full of lies, Blame Canada

IIPA claims that software piracy had cost copyright holders $12.3 billion last year, while music piracy affected US companies to the tune of $2.4 billion. Ouch!

Japan bans export of pirated goods

While importation of private goods into Japan has been illegal for a while, today, the Diet passed legislation banning the export of pirated goods. I found it strange that the import would be banned while the export was allowed. According to the Davis Law blog, the practice is not uncommon among nations. Canada banned the importation but allows exportation if not "to such an extent as to prejudicially affect the owner of the copyright."

Japan government to ban export of pirated goods

Vista overbears on PC games...I don't believe it!

It looks like the new Windows Vista has been engineered to create a simple interface for organizing games on one's PC and has a new DirectX 10 technology, which should improve graphics. However, developers are skeptical about Microsoft's intentions. It seems that the new mechanisms in Vista have increased security which makes downloading software more of a pain of a butt, having a wet blanket effect --> nothing totally crippling, but de-incentivizing. Here are some choice quotes:

"Among St. John's other gripes are that Vista won't ship with Flash, a piece of software from Microsoft rival Adobe that is used to create many online and casual games; that parental controls can make it tough to find games outside the Games Explorer; and that the Games Explorer emphasizes retail titles over downloaded ones."

"I tell anyone who will listen to me at Microsoft that [gamers] are our most important customers." - Rich Wickham, director of Windows gaming.

"[Gamers are] really grasping at straws for reasons to upgrade the operating system." - John Carmack, technical director of id Software and programmer behind the "Doom" and "Quake" games.

To me, it looks like Microsoft using its superior position to position itself even more securely. I can't really blame them, but I wonder if the independent developer market grows enough and Vista makes those games that much harder to access, will there be more litigation? When will Microsoft link Windows to Xbox, so that all other consoles are left disadvantaged? Just a matter of time before that technology arrives...see, Microsoft makes me worry; they are so underhanded they are anti-trustworthy.

Gamers See Gain and Pain from Windows Vista

DS as a phone?

Apparently, there are hacks out there that can turn a Nintendo DS into a cell phone. Also, apparently, the technology is not very good, perhaps owing to the "craptacular" microphone. I wonder if the hacks become better, will Nintendo sue whoever provides it? Can they even stop it?

DS Phone Article

Using Micronations to Circumvent International Copyright Law

Pirate Bay, a popular bit torrent tracker, is making a bid to buy the micronation of Sealand, a platform located off the coast of the UK. All hail King Roy! Who, ironically, lives in England!

Pirate Bay plans to Buy Island

Sealand's claims to international sovereignty are stronger than other micronations, such as Lidonia and Lovely, but it is unclear whether a plan such as this can be used to get around the copyright laws. There is an internet campaign to raise money by Pirate Bay, claiming that all who contribute to the purchase can become citizens. Now this little guarantee seems a little dubious to me. Given that their permanent population is less than ten, do they have immigration policies. Frankly, I wouldnt be surprised if international refugees contributed to this island nation and then applied for asylum. I don't know much about micronation law, but it seems very sophomoric for them to think they could get away with this.

My first question is how are they going to establish internet service out on their micronation? Couldn't the service provider get hit with some sort of vicarious liability or contributory infringement? If this "country" was ever actually sold to Pirate Bay and then used more or less expressly for international copyright infringement, how would this be taken by the other governments of the world? Would they invade? Would they have the power to stop the internet providers in their own country from connecting to the Pirate Bay site? The whole thing leaves a lot of questions open. As a gamer, this sounds like a pretty cool idea, because, come on, who has not used a service like bit torrent to download a sweet game? As a lawyer, this proposal looks like an absolute quagmire (giggity-goo).

Here is some info on Sealand and other Micronations for those interested:

Sealand

Ladonia - if the Sealand deal fails, Pirate Bay is looking into using this micronation instead

Lovely - a flat in Bow, London