The Super Soldiers

Sometimes, no words need be spoken.
[ GamePolitics ]

John Bruce Thompson, also known as Jack Thompson, has been permanently disbarred from the Florida Bar. The Florida Supreme Court today issued a four page written order (available here), detailing their ruling. Thompson, who has been in proceedings with the state of Florida for the past year has 30 days till the ruling takes effect. Thompson will no longer be allowed to practice law within the state of Florida once the ruling takes effect and will subsequently not be allowed to apply for reinstatement.

In their ruling, the court agreed with Judge Dava Tunis’, the referee of Jack’s November, 2007 proceedings, recommendation to disbar Jack Thompson permanently with no chance of reinstatement. If you remember, Jack stormed from that proceeding calling it a “kangaroo court.”

In their ruling, the court stated:

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…

Continue reading »

Although in recent times, EA has lowered the restrictions in regards to the limitations presented by the SecuROM Digital Rights Management included with it’s release of Spore, there is little to no doubt that the damage has been done and consumers have been left with a bad taste in their mouths. After all, Spore’s DRM did absolutely nothing to stifle piracy of the game.

In response to the unwelcome SecuROM DRM contained within Spore, a class-action lawsuit has been filed within U.S. District Court.

Electronic Arts, a leading maker of computer games, defrauds consumers through its “Spore” game, which “completely wipes their hard drive” and replaces it with an undisclosed program that prevents the computer from operating under some circumstances and disrupts hardware operations, a class action claims in Federal Court.

The class claims that “Spore,” a virtual reality simulation game, contains “a second, undisclosed program” called SecuROM, a “form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) for computer games.”

Consumers are not warned about the program, which is installed without notice and cannot be uninstalled, even if the uninstall Spore, the complaint states. The secret SecuROM program is “secretly installed to the command and control center of the computer (Ring 0, or the Kernel), and surreptitiously operated, overseeing function and operation on the computer, preventing the computer from operating under certain circumstances and/or disrupting hardware operations,” the complaint states.

[ GamePolitics ] - ^{This story is also available on Otaku Times}

Well call this one… awkward. Kimberly Jernigan, an employee of the USPS and a player of the popular Second Life MMORPG was arrested for attempting to kidnap her virtual ex. According to the police, Jernigan (human) tried to kidnap her virtual ex (No in real life connection) a 52-year-old guy who played a lion in Second Life. On top of the lack of real life connection, she tried to kidnap him not once, not twice, but three times.

I don’t have a better way to put what happened so we’ll refer to Kotaku’s hilarious methodology.

“…On her third try, driving up from North Carolina, for some reason she brought her dog, Gogi, who looks like a corgi mix. It’s not a working breed, but even if it was I doubt “kidnapping humans” would be in the job description. Somehow Jernigan managed to cut a screen and get inside Mr. Lion’s home, waiting for him to get home from work. But Gogi wouldn’t stop barking, and so Jernigan bound the dog and locked him in the bathroom.

When Simba got home, she had a pair of handcuffs and a laser pointed at him. I guess the laser made things a little too kinky, because he bolted. She fled, leaving Gogi behind. Jernigan was captured at a turnpike rest stop in Maryland (The Chesapeake House).”

[ Delaware Online via Kotaku ]

Peter Moore, former president and COO of Sega of America, Corporate Vice-President of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business division, and current head of the Sports division at Electronic Arts, said recently in a statement that he does not agree with filing suit against File Sharers.

“I’m not a huge fan of trying to punish your consumer. Albeit these people have clearly stolen intellectual property, I think there are better ways of resolving this within our power as developers and publishers.Yes, we’ve got to find solutions. We absolutely should crack down on piracy. People put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into their content and deserve to get paid for it. It’s absolutely wrong, it is stealing.

“But at the same time I think there are better solutions than chasing people for money. I’m not sure what they are, other than to build game experiences that make it more difficult for there to be any value in pirating games. If we learned anything from the music business, they just don’t win any friends by suing their consumers. Speaking personally, I think our industry does not want to fall foul of what happened with music.

GamePolitics reports (via vnunet) that in wake of the incident which occured recently in Akihabara, Konami has cancelled all scheduled launch events in Japan for the release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots:

The company said in a statement to Japanese media that it called off the events because it was concerned about the safety of the public. The cancellations follow a rampage by a knife-wielding man in Tokyo at the weekend in which seven people were killed…

One of the cancelled launch events had been scheduled for Tokyo’s Akihabara district, where the stabbing took place on Sunday… [in the game] Players control a soldier armed with a knife and various other weapons who fights his way through a multitude of enemies by killing and disabling them in a variety of missions.

Launch events outside of Japan have not been affected. MGS4 will be released as scheduled in Japan.

The legal settlement between Manhunt 2 publisher Take-Two Interactive and attorney Jack Thompson continues to become ever more strained.

GamePolitics has an article up about the problems beginning between Jack Thompson and Take-Two Interactive post their legal settlement:

In June GamePolitics reported on the first sign of cracks in the April agreement between the parties (see: Take Two-Thompson Settlement Crumbling?). The relationship hasn’t gotten any smoother in the interim.

An e-mail exchange between the anti-game activist and Gena Feist, T2’s VP and Associate General Counsel, shows that Thompson was warned that the software publisher believed he was violating the terms of settlement. Thompson characterized Take Two’s e-mails as “threats”, writing:

Take-Two is threatening me because of the exercise of my rights, under our settlement agreement, to criticize the company’s practices…

For its part, Take Two declined to comment.

Continue reading »

Andrew Bub, the Gamer Dad, gave a statement on the politics of video games at the recent Penny Arcade Expo. As reported by The Stranger:

Continuing the Expo’s call-to-arms mentality, Andrew “GamerDad” Bub held court at the Politics In Gaming panel. Certainly, this was preaching to the choir at its finest, though his points were meant for an audience less hardcore than this one.

Bub encouraged the crowd to do their part against lawmakers who badmouth the games industry: “Put aside the controller. Hell, it’s wireless nowadays. Get out, educate yourself and vote.”

He also pointed to the ECA, a lobby working to end the recent wave of anti-games legislation. Granted, he also was adamant, citing the First Amendment, that “no law will ever be passed that bans games,” so…why bother? Perhaps the point isn’t about the laws but about the reputation. Having been interviewed for a TV station’s PAX coverage, Bub tuned in last night to find… no interview quotes about the changing face of gaming.

“They’re reaching out to the old crowd that still watches late-night news,” Bub says. “With those people, [to change the industry’s reputation,] you have to be earnest…”

Andrew Bub has more news about his Penny Arcade EXpo experience at Gamer Dad.

In a recent statement last Friday, Fordam Professor Paul Levinson (Pictured Right) had some words of his own to say directed towards 2008 presidential contendor Hilary Clinton regarding her views on government regulation of the video game industry.

Hillary Clinton is no friend of video gaming. In fact… she proudly introduced the Family Entertainment Protection Act in November, 2005… this law if enacted would have exacted [large fines on retailers]

Fortunately, it was not enacted… Hillary, unfortunately, comes by her disregard for the First Amendment through her husband. Bill Clinton signed the Communications Decency Act into law in 1996… Fortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court struck that one down.

…Bill Clinton and his circumlocutions fortunately can no longer threaten the First Amendment. But Hillary’s now running for President… a wise assumption would be that her election as President would bring to our nation steep fines, forced community service, and even jail time for forms of communication clearly protected under the First Amendment.

We all want to protect our children. Trampling on the Constitution is not the way to do it. We can do better than run scared with the likes of Jack Thompson, and the flawed studies he cites.

As reported by GamePolitics, Ryan Brant, former CEO of Take Two copped a plea deal and cooperated with prosecutors. He agreed to pay $7.3 Million in to federal and state agencies. He will also serve a sentence of five years probation.

Two other Take Two employee’s, Former General Counsel Kenneth Selterman and Ex-Chief Accounting Officer Patti Tay also plead guilty.

“I’m deeply sorry for my role as an executive in the company and my role in the options dating process”, Brant said to the judge.