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Finland Adopts PEGI Rating System in Law

Unofficial Translation of Law
Finland has enshrined the The Pan European Game Information (PEGI) rating system as law.  According to the PEGI press release:

The Finnish Parliament passed a revision to the Act on Classification of Audiovisual Programs enabling the recognition of all PEGI age classifications into Finnish Law. From the outset, i.e. April2003, PEGI ratings have been endorsed by the Finnish Board of Film Classification on the basis of the Act on Classification of Audiovisual Programs. Article 12, however, provided for 11 and 15 age categories instead of the PEGI 12+ and 16+ respectively. By revising article 12, the Finnish Parliament has now fully acknowledged the PEGI system into its legislation. From January 1, 2007 onwards, all the PEGI age categories (3+, 7+, 12+, 16+ and 18+) will be in use on video games sold in Finland.

Sources: GamePolitics.com | GameDaily.biz | PEGI Press Release

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Forbes: Why Gears of War Costs $60

Forbes provides this article and interactive pie chart explaining/breaking down the cost structure of modern video games such as the blockbuster Gears of War:

Read Forbes Article

View Interactive Pie Chart

Here’s a Summary of the Interactive Pie Chart:

  • 25%/$15 – Art Design
  • 20%/$12 – Programming and Engineering
  • 20%/$12 – Retailer’s Cut
  • 11.5%/$7 – Console Owner Fees (to Microsoft/Nintendo/Sony)
  • 7%/$4 – Marketing Costs
  • 5%/$3 – Marketing Development Fund (print circulars/banner ads, etc.)
  • 5%/$3 – Manufacturing Costs, Packaging
  • 5%/$3 – Licensing Fees (personality rights, character and story licenses, copyrights, trademarks, etc.)
  • 1.5%/$1 – Publisher Profit
  • 1.5%/$1 – Distributor Fees
  • 0.3%/20¢ – Corporate costs (management, overhead, legal fees Wink)
  • 0.05%/3¢ – Hardware Development Costs (Developer kits, demo units etc.)
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Take Two Sends Wolfman Productions Cease & Desist Letter

Wolfman Productions was using Rockstar's GTA San Andreas logos/trademarks on its webpage promoting Jack Thompson's college detate tour. Jack Thompson is on the record for saying he is out to destroy Rockstar. Rockstar's parent, Take Two, sent a cease-and desist order to Wolfman Productions. Wolfman complied. As of this posting Master Chief, Laura Croft, Doom and Postal images/trademarks/depictions are still on that page.

Sources: GamePolitics.com | Wolfman Productions Debate Page

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China to Police Online Games

China will police online games to ensure legality and suitability of content. Game distributors must first get approval to release new games. They will be responsible for detailed monthly reporting and to ensure operators do not add illegal or improper content.

The latest crackdown was prompted by “a rash of problems with imported online games, some of which contain sensitive religious material or refer to territorial disputes,” Xinhua said. It said some were criticized as pornographic or too violent.

Sources: Gamasutra | China View | ABC News | Fox News (AP)

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PS3 vs. Xbox 360 Head to Head, PS3 Reviews and other Miscellanea

Game sites are doing head-to-head comparisons of the two Next Gen systems. They take games developed for both systems, run them side-by-side and create either side-by-side videos or pictures where you can see the differences:

Other PS3 Video Issues:

  • Joystiq (Motorstorm – What Sony promised at E3 2005 and what it delivered)
  • Joystiq (PS1 and PS2 video quality is worse on the PS3 vs. original Xbox games which look better when played on the Xbox 360)

Continue reading “PS3 vs. Xbox 360 Head to Head, PS3 Reviews and other Miscellanea”

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Microsoft Launches XNA Game Studio Express and Creators Club

I wrote about this earlier when the XNA Game Studio Express Beta 2 was launched. This should be of interest for all budding game developers. All the tools you need to develop Windows and Xbox 360 games are available for free here. XNA developers can become members of the XNA Developers Club to access other XNA developers’ games and share their games with like-minded developers for $99 U.S. a year. Frankly, this is a terrific bargain and a wonderful opportunity for budding game developers to try their hand game development. Click here to get started.

More XNA Information: Gamasutra |Gamasutra 2 (interview with MS Rep) | Red Herring | XBox 365 | GameIndustry.biz 1 | GameIndustry.biz 2 (DNA of XNA)| NFHQ | XBox Solution | Digital Trends | Microsoft Press Release | Joystiq | GameSpot | CNet | Daily Tech

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Australia Copyright Reform to Explicitly Permit Region-Code Mod Chips

Text of Copyright Amendment Bill 2006
In stark contrast to American and British modding decisions and copyright law, Australia is set to amend its copyright laws to make it legal for consumers to purchase/use mod chips that circumvent anti-piracy technology (TPMs and DRM) built into game consoles when used to overcome region-coding measures that restrict the use of DVDs and games titles purchased legally in other regions. Most of the Copyright Amendment Bill 2006 passed through both houses of Parliament, will become law by January 1, 2007.

Dale’s Comment: This doesn’t really change the law in Australia because, as you can see from the related posts below, Australian courts had held that such modding did not breach Australian copyright and anti-circumvention laws. As far as I can tell, these amendments merely codify the existing case-law. These amendments may be important though because it was thought that Australia’s recent free-trade agreement with the United States may have resulted in copyright reform to explicitly overrule existing mod-chip case-law.

Sources: Gamasutra | P2PNet | News.com.au | Austrian IT | Kotaku | FAQ

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World Series of Video Games to Debut on CBS – December 30

CBS Sports is about to launch the World Series of Video Games on December 30. The New York Times indicates that Counter Strike 1.6, Halo 2 and Quake 4 will be among the games played.

Dale's Comment: I was initially stoked about this announcement. I'd love to learn some new Halo 2 moves from Fatal1ty. That is, until I got to the fine print. Apparently CBS will only show snippets of actual game play because the content of the competitions are too violent for prime-time television.  How crazy is this!?  While I gather getting network coverage IS a step forward, this is the same-old, same-old network thinking! Who would want to watch something called the "World Series of Video Games" without being able to watch the actual competitions in their entirety!  Clearly network TV is not the right venue for this. This will have to head on over to cable in order for it to be successful in the long term.     

Sources: New York Times | IGN | Next Generation | Team Xbox | Business Wire | GameDaily.biz | Kotaku

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Anshe Chung Becomes First Second Life Millionaire?

Business Week and others are reporting that Anshe Chung, a Second Life character created by Ailin Graef (a teacher born and raised in China – now residing in Germany) has grown an initial $9.95 “investment” into virtual property worth and estimated $1M U.S. based on Linden’s most recent Economic Statistics.

She did this by buying large parcels of Second Life virtual real estate, subdividing, developing it (using Photoshop and other tools to add rivers, forests, mountains etc.) and selling off smaller plots to other Second Life residents.

Second Life’s in-game currency, Linden Dollars, can be converted into U.S. dollars.

Sources: Business Week | ValleyWag.com | Gamasutra | Sydney Morning Herald | GigaOM | TheStreet.com | Red Herring | CNet Blogs | GameSpot | *CNN Money |Ailin Graef Press Release

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New Book: Business & Legal Primer for Game Development

A new book entitled “Business & Legal Primer for Game Development” (Amazon.com) has been published. It is written by Gregory Boyd and Brian Green. The CoursePTR website describes the book as follows:

Business is an important part of making games and the legal aspects have also become significant. Business and Legal Primer for Games explores the major legal and business issues involved in game development with a particular focus on starting a business. The book contains practical introductory sections on business and legal problems that members of the development community are often confronted with. These problems include business structure, contracts, employment law, taxation, and IP. Those seeking to start their own game development company will receive invaluable information regarding getting started, basic business operations, marketing, licensing intellectual property, and exit strategies. Business and Legal Primer for Games is the ideal starting point with any who has ever wanted to start a game business and an excellent reference of information for those who already are involved in game development.

Sources: CoursePTR | Amazon.com | Gamasutra

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Pointeless Waste of Time: Games Manifesto

This is a terrific article that I had to pass on. It outlines many of the pet-peeves that us gamers have with game developers – the many cheats used by developers to save time, artificially expand game play etc. Gamers hate these things. Game developers should take a serious look at this list.

I most relate to:

  • Item 6 – Save Points: Since all consoles in this generation have hard drives, there is no excuse not to have user-selectable save points. I am an adult. If I found it fun and challenging to play an entire levels without saving, I could choose to do that. But I submit that the increasingly aging gamer demographic does not find it fun to play the same thing over and over due to deficient save point planning by game developers. The lack of decent autosave points or user selectable save-points is the primary reason I abandon otherwise good games.
  • Item 12, para 7 – Unnecessarily Difficult End Levels: I thoroughly enjoyed Gears of War and had EVERY intention of playing the entire game again on the harder level until I had to fight RAAM (the final boss) over and over and over. It took me hours to figure out what was necessary to kill this guy. The arbitrariness of this fight is silly in the extreme. The game gives you no indication as to what is required to kill him and how much effort, of which type, it will take to kill him. This final boss fight was so off-putting that I no longer intend to play the game through on the harder level because the last thing I want is to finish the game and find I can’t kill the final boss on the harder level. Cliffy! Watch the end of Halo 1 for an example of a perfect ending level! Back to EB goes Gears for trade-in!

I would also add:

  • Escort Missions Should be Outlawed: If the character being escorted would actually accept orders from the player to hide somewhere, stay behind until beckoned, shoot at the enemy etc. it wouldn’t be so bad. But too many games require the gamer to escort a hapless character that will not take direction and repeatedly gets himself/herself killed for no fault of the gamer.

I can’t complain about the “Short-sighted Business Bull***” mentioned in item 15. If this were solved there would be almost no raison d’etre for this blog. 🙂 And, as for me, wooden crates really don’t bother me all that much!

Warning!: The author uses both humorous and explicit language in this manifesto.

Source: PointlessWasteofTime

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Federal District Court Judge Makes Louisiana’s Violent Game Bill Injunction Permanent

Text of Short Summary Judgment Ruling (November 29, 2006)
 Text of Preliminary Injunction (August 25, 2006)
Text of Temporary Restraining Order
Text of ESA Complaint
Text of Violent Game Bill (HB 1381)

Hot on the heals of the 7th Circuit’s upholding the permanent injunction against Illinois’ Safe Games Illinois Act’, Federal District Court Judge James Brady issued a bench ruling permanently (followed by this short summary judgment ruling) enjoining the application of Louisiana’s, Jack Thompson-drafted, Violent Game Bill.

ESA’s response to the ruling:

“What makes Judge Brady’s action unusual and remarkable is that he issued his ruling from the bench rather than through a written decision, a strong signal that he felt the State’s arguments were so without merit that they didn’t even require a detailed opinion beyond the Judge’s August decision imposing the preliminary injunction. In his August ruling, the Judge emphasized the State’s failure to take into consideration when passing this law the long line of previous cases holding that video games are protected speech. The ESA will immediately file to recover its legal fees from the State as it has successfully done elsewhere.”

“In nine out of nine cases, federal courts have struck down these grandstanding efforts by politicians to ban video game sales to minors. It doesn’t get clearer than that. One hopes that enough is enough. Video games are like rock and roll: they’re here to stay, and it’s about time for elected officials to focus their energies, and taxpayer dollars, on truly productive and useful programs to educate parents to use the tools industry has made available — from ESRB ratings to parental control technologies.”

Sources: GamePolitics.com | Gamespot |ars technica | GameDaily.biz | Gamasutra

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Librarian of Congress Exempts ‘Abandonware’ DRM Circumvention for ‘Preservation” from DMCA Liability

In its recent triennial rule-making with respect to exemptions from the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works, the Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington, has ruled, again, that persons making non infringing uses of older abandonware video games, as described below, will not be subject to the prohibition against circumventing access controls (17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1)) during the next three years. Specifically exempt from the prohibition are:

…video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.

Dale's Comment: Firstly, despite many reports to the contrary, this is not a wholly new ruling. The 2003 triennial rule-making contained the following very similar exemption:

… video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and which require the original media or hardware as a condition of access.

Indeed, this rulemaking is more restrictive than the previous rulemaking because it now specifically limits such circumvention for preservation purposes as I discuss below.

Secondly, I have read many blog 'interpretations' of this exemption over the last few days (not linked to here for obvious reasons) and most bloggers don't seem to understand this exemption. Most are interpretting this exemption as a free-for-all right to decrypt, copy, distribute and use any abandonware on any system.  My reading of this exemption is much more limited. 

Clearly the circumvention exemption for "archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive" doesn't apply to the average gamer.  However, the first portion of the exemption "for the purpose of preservation" would apply to the average gamer.

It appears the average gamer has the right to circumvent technological measures used to protect video games in obsolete formats that are already owned by the user for the purpose of preservation when the gaming console, for instance, is no longer manufactured or reasonably available in the commercial marketplace. 

This DMCA exemption does not exempt other provisions of Title 17 (the U.S. Copyright law) that otherwise generally prohibit copying, distributing and otherwise infringing copyrighted works.

So, what exactly does this exemption allow you, the owner of a video game in an obsolete format, to do. It allows you to circumvent the copy-protection scheme used to protect obsolete format video games for the purpose of preserving them (backing them up and, presumably, using the backup if the original copy becomes defective).  That's pretty much it. Indeed in the Librarian of Congress' commentary on the exemption he flatly says: 

"…the sole basis for this exemption is preservation and archival use…"

An important point here is that Billington did NOT exempt non-obsolete formated video games from the DMCA. So, it is still illegal under the DMCA's (17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1)(A)) to circumvent DRM on modern video games for the purpose of backing them up – let alone for any other purpose.

This exemption expires after three years unless the rule proponent (in this chase the Internet Archive) proves their case again. Namely, that without the exemption:

current technologies that control access to copyrighted works are diminishing the ability of individuals to use works in lawful, noninfringing ways.

Sources: Library of Congress Rulemaking | Detailed Background and Librarian of Congress Discussion | GameSpot | GWN | Joystiq

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Microsoft (Accidentally) Giveth, Microsoft (Intentionally) Taketh Region Code Work-a-Round Away

If a recent post I mentioned that some clever users found a way around Microsoft’s XBox 360 region-specific Market Place movie and video demo download restrictions. The trick was to take advantage of Microsoft’s free XBox Live Accounts. A user in one jurisdiction could create multiple silver-level (a.k.a. free) accounts by simply stating in the online sign up process that they live in a another download-frinedly jurisdiction. Paid movie downloads, trailers, game demos etc. would then be available available through the alternative silver-level account in jurisdictions that Microsoft did not intend.

After only weeks of being out in the wild, Microsoft has patched this work-around. Now only users that have credit cards with billing addresses that match the purported region can download content for that region. Happily Microsoft is not banning these extra accounts, they are simply restricting their access to region-coded content.

As a lawyer, this is understandable. As a user, this is sad. Having previously lived in the U.S.and having access to virtually anything the Internet can deliver, it is a very rude awaking to move back to a 2nd tier jurisdiction like Canada where so many Internet-based services are either not available, delayed, provided at higher price points or provided with less functionality. Microsoft’s new movie download service is a perfect example of this regrettable phenomena.

Presumably a Canadian with an American credit card and billing address could still circumvent the system for instance. Humm… as a holder of several U.S.-based credit cards, I wonder which of my U.S. buddies would allow me to use their address for credit card statement receipts? 🙂

Sources: TeamXbox | Major Nelson | Xbox 360 Fanboy | Hexus | Pro-G | EuroGamer | PlanetXbox | Gamasutra | Joystiq

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Success with Video Streaming to my Xbox 360

For years I have been looking for a convenient way to stream my videos (movies, video clips, video game trailers etc.) from PCs on my home network to my HDTV in the living room. Today I have had my first success using the new video streaming functionality built into the most recent XBox 360 Dashboard software update.

This Arne360 blog entry describes the basics of setting up the new Windows Media Player 11, sharing media directories with the 360 and setting up the 360 so it can access content from a home network. That was all well and good, but a continuing basic problem was that the Microsoft video streaming solution only supports their proprietary (but still very good) .wmv codec. Most of my video content is not in the .wmv format – or at least it wasn’t.

Today I stumbled across this Joystiq post about the freeware transcoding program called VLC (download here) (official website). This program is butt-simple to use. Drag any video in any format (or at least any format I use) onto the batch file, and it automatically transcodes the video into .wmv format. When done, the file will be accessible and playable through the Xbox 360 with no further effort. It’s THAT simple.

All is not peaches and cream though. There’s good news and bad news.

First the good news:

  • Once set up, it works like a charm.
  • Transcoding with VLC is easy-peasy.
  • The picture quality is as good as the source – in this case, most of my videos/movies look fantastic when played back through the Xbox 360.
  • All my .wmv videos are easily and instantly available for playback through the 360 – no more DVD flipping.

Now the bad news:

  • All the videos (even when sorted in different directories on my PC) end up being tossed into ONE long directory when listed on the Xbox 360. In my case there’s some 140 .wmv videos, video snippets, tutorials, video poscasts, demos, movies, trailers etc. on my computer. When I access them through the 360, they all show up in one long alphabetical list.
  • There is no way, that I can find so far, to separate them into sub-folders on the 360. This is notable because when I view my pictures or access my music through the 360, they are sorted into directories as they are on my PC. This anomaly is quite odd.
  • The fast forward and rewind seems to be busted. When I try to fast forward and rewind the .wmv files when watching them on the 360, they just stutters as if I was playing the videos back in frame-by-frame mode – there certainly is no “fast” movement forward or back.
  • I can only play and pause – though pressing the chapter forward and back buttons does seem to move me forward and back in indeterminant and varying time increments backwards and forwards through some, but not all, videos.
  • The Xbox 360 does not remember where you I left off when returning to a video that was previously viewed (as TiVo does).

Upcoming Streaming Through my TiVo Series 3

  • TiVo recently announced a new service about to be launched that does effectively the same thing – and more.
  • The new TiVo service will allow users to stream Quick Time, .wmv format and Mpeg 4 movies/podcasts/video content stored on the PC to the TiVo.
  • Since TiVo will also play videos coded in the .wmv codec, the transcoded video files I’m creating now for playback on the 360 will be equally accessible through my TiVo Series 3 – once TiVo rolls out that software upgrade that is.

While I don’t like the fact that all the videos are tossed into one directory on the 360, and while the fast forward and rewind functionality seems to be broken, it is still terrific to finally have all the videos I care about, permanently saved on my computer and playable at will on my Plasma TV through my Xbox 360 – no more DVD flipping! Yeah!

Note: I’m not talking about Microsoft’s new Xbox 360-based movie/tv download service that launched in the U.S. yesterday. That’s a whole different kettle of fish. For licensing reasons (Listen to Major Nelson’s Podcast #201 on this topic for more info.), Microsoft has not yet launched this outside the U.S. No doubt the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and the PS3 launch made this a high priority for U.S. roll-out before the rest of the world. I expect Microsoft to extend this to Canada, Europe and the world as their team has time to negotiate the various country by country rights. I certainly am looking forward to it.

Sources: Joystiq | Arne360

See Also:

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Newsweek Alleges Kutaragi Dropped the Ball on PS3 3rd Party Exclusives

In this third part of a very interesting 3-part “inside baseball” article, Newsweek alleges that Kutaragi dragged his feet on signing third party exclusives for the PS3 while Microsoft was aggressively pursuing exclusives from third parties such as EA (FIFA), Konami (Winning Eleven) Take-Two (Bioshock) and Ubisoft (the next Splinter Cell). Famously, Sony lost its Grand Theft Auto exclusive with Take-Two and Rockstar Games. And Assassin’s Creed, long assumed to be a PS3 exclusive, has now been confirmed to be under development for the XBox 360.

Sources: Newsweek

Discussed: 1Up.com

Related Posts:

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FBI Shuts Down L2Extreme.com’s Unauthorized Lineage II Servers

The FBI has shut down an illegal game operation that allegedly provided subscribers with fraudulent service to, and code for, Lineage II. Apparently L2Extreme.com (now seized by the FYI) had some 50,000 active users. NCSoft says it lost millions in revenue from this. The operators of L2Extreme.com face a fine of $250,000 and up to five years in jail. NCSoft has said it has no plans to pursue the users.

This case is different from the Blizzard v. BNetD case because in the BNetD circumstance, they had reverse engineered the Blizzard server software and, presumably, wrote emulating software in a “clean room” without access to the original Blizzard server software – thus no direct copyright infringement. In the L2Extreme case, it is alleged that the L2Extreme.com server software was pirated (ie: copied) NCSoft server software.

Sources: NextGen.biz | Daily Tech | Gamasutra | ars technica | GameSpot | P2PNet | GameSpy | GameDaily.biz| NCSoft Press Release | GameIndustry.biz

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Canada to Provide Seed Money to Winner of Video Game Developer Competition

Competition Rules

Today, the Canadian federal agency, Telefilm, invited new Canadian video game developers to compete for Cdn $2M (U.S. $1.8M) in financing. The ten projects voted most likely to succeed in the “Great Canadian Video Game” competition will receive $50,000 each to further explore their proposed game, seek venture capital etc.. Two months later the field will be winnowed to 4. Each of those will receive a further $250,000 to develop a prototype. At next year’s Vancouver VidFest, a finalist will be given a further $500,000 to launch their game.

Click here to apply! Applications are due by December 15, 2006.

Dale’s Comment: I am of mixed-emotions about this. I have no problem in principle with tax incentives to favor emerging industry. But I have always argued against Canada’s ubiquitous Canadian content rules and preferential treatment for Canadian-owned businesses over foreign-owned businesses. I’m also not so sure Canada actually needs these incentives because it is disproportionately represented on the global stage by its extremely successful video game development community – Montreal’s Ubisoft, Edmonton’s BioWare, Vancouver’s EA and Radical, London’s Digital Extremes, to name just a few.

All that said, if one of these new developers requires a place to spend this money on first rate legal services – look no further! Laughing

Sources: Reuters/Hollywood Reporter | City News | ZDNet | Washington Post

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Mark Bragg File’s Virtual Property Complaint Against Linden Labs

Text of Bragg v. Linden Labs Complaint (Oct 4, 2006)[.zip format]
Jurisdiction and other Interim Court Filings
While I was converting this blog to WordPress over the last 8 weeks, Mark Bragg sent me his updated complaint against Linden Research Inc. ("Linden") that was filed on October 4 in the Chester County (Pennsylvania) Court of Common Pleas.  Mr. Bragg is seeking a jury trial. On November 7, Linden petitioned the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to take jurisdiction of the case. 

I'm just now getting the time to review the claim and post this blog entry about it. 

The complaint contains a terrific history (frankly, the best I've read) of Linden, its MMORPG Second Life and describes how Linden differentiated Second Life from its competitors by granting "ownership rights" to in-game property (most MMORPG publishers claim/retain ownership in all related virtual property). It also contains a history/description of virtual property generally in the context of the growing MMORPG phenomena.

The 239 paragraph complaint alleges violation of Californian and Pennsylvanian unfair practices and consumer protection laws, fraud, violation of California's Civil Code concerning auctions, conversion (theft), interference with contractual relations, breach of contract, unjust enrichment and tortuous breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing. He discounts many of the provisions of the Linden Labs Terms of Service ("TOS") as being unenforceable due to unconscionably. Suffice it to say, when this case is over, I suspect Linden will be updating its TOS! Laughing

This Law.com article provides a good summary of the facts. The complaint, itself, is worth reading if only for its best-in-class description of the MMORPG industry and related virtual property issues. Excellent job Mark!

Dale's Comment: Given that many courts in many countries have upheld the validity of extremely one-sided Internet-service click-wrap/shrink-wrap agreements, I think Mark will have a tough time overcoming the clear provisions contained in the TOS. But he makes many compelling arguments pertaining to the contradicting public statements of Linden representatives, rights in and to virtual property purchased from other Second Life users, and the right to recoup the real $U.S. dollars he paid into the Second Life economy and not returned when Linden booted him from the game.

Bragg is claiming ownership to his in-game property. I am quite sympathetic to his arguments and have advocated, here, for the the recognition, at law, of rights in and to virtual property. But, if analogies to real-world and intangible property are taken to their logical extreme, Second Life players could argue that Linden would never have the right to shutdown their MMORPG and deny virtual property owners of their "right" to access, use, sell and other wise deal with their virtual property when, as will inevitably be the case one day, Second Life ceases to be a profitable game for Linden. 

This could be a very important, precedent setting case if it goes to trial. It could set the ground rules for the application of laws to virtual property going forward. Needless to say, I'll be following this one closely.

[Dec 13, 2006 Update: Mark has sent me this link where the most recent court filings in the case can be found. At the moment the parties are fighting over the most appropriate jurisdiction for further proceedings.] 

Sources: *Law.com | Blogger News Network | MMORPG BLog | Pilly.com

Related Posts:

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Users Find Work-a-Round to Defeat 360 Marketplace Region Coding

If you follow Major Nelson’s (Larry Herb’s) day-to-day missives about what is available for download through the Xbox 360 Marketplace, you’ll note that many arcade games, game demos, trailers and other downloadable content is only available in certain regions of the world. This has lead to much consternation among Microsoft’s international customers. But the issue was brought to a head recently when, for the first time, North American XBox Owners were initially restricted from downloading a Rainbow Six: Las Vegas demo that was available for download by European users. This doesn’t happen very often to U.S. customers.

As a result, some clever users found a way around Microsoft’s XBox 360 region-specific MarketPlace download restrictions. You can read about them in the linked articles below.

Dale’s Comment: Just as Sony had legitimate legal reasons for opposing Lik-Sang’s import of PSP systems into the UK, no doubt Microsoft has legitimate legal reasons for restricting access to content on a country by country basis. For example, game publishers/developers that provide downloadable content to Microsoft probably have granted exclusive distribution/marketing and other rights to that content in the prohibited regions to others. My hope/expectation is that over time licensing and distribution deals will be structured to recognize the increasingly globalized nature of the market so as to anticipate and, indeed, facilitate global distribution/downloads without this kind of constraint.

Sources: Gizmodo | SAGN