Keep in mind, what the Supreme Court considered yesterday was not Thompson's case, but simply his request that they hear his case to overturn the "enhanced disbarment" the Florida Bar handed him last year. For you Scotus N00bs, he's asking for a writ of certiorari, which is pronounced SERSH-e-o-RARE-eye. Simply granting one is a big deal, because it means the Court considers it to be an important case, often one that has matters of law that need to be settled for the nation at large.

Thompson's law license doesn't really fall into that category. Then again, the Court did hear Anna Nicole Smith's case. But Court watchers are not expecting the Court to grant cert, and the Florida Bar didn't even bother to waste its time responding to Thompson's appeal to the Supremes. The results of this conference will be announced at a later date, but it's likely the final spadeful of dirt was smoothed over the grave of Thompson's legal career yesterday.

U.S. Supreme Court Considers Jack Thompson's Disbarment Today [GamePolitics]

Trident Media Group, responsible for all things Arrakis, Dune, Desert Planet, sent the C&D to Linden Lab, which runs Second Life. Linden turned around and sent it to its SL fremen, harkkonen, et al. They're complying with the letter of the letter, not its spirit. Says "Vooper Werribee," leader of the Dune roleplayers:

We've made all the compliance changes we intend to now. Basically we've removed the words 'Dune', Bene Gesserit, Atreides, etc. from as many object names and descriptions as we can find. But we still intend to keep the place as a 'generic' sci-fi desert planet with spice mining. And still intend to roleplay here.

In something of a Streisand effect, the publicity has created more interest in the Dune environs, which had counted 130 members, only 20 percent of which were currently active. Star Trek SLers have expressed interest in using them for "First Contact" scenarios. And, horror of horrors:

"Some Star Wars players are interested in using the place as a 'spice mining' base. As Star Wars has 'spice'."

I wouldn't necessarily take Trident Media's banhammer to mean that Herbert's estate has imminent plans for a Dune-licensed MMO. It's more like brand protection, and of course, protection of the potential value of licensing one down the road.

Enforcers of Dune: Frank Herbert Estate Targets Dune Roleplayers In Second Life [New World Notes via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

The two sides, Air-O-Matic, maker of "Pull My Finger," and InfoMedia, developer of iFart are in negotiations to settle the dispute. Pull My Finger was once upon a time the No. 2 selling application on the iTunes store. But then it was overtaken by iFart, which has done more than $200,000 in sales since its release. Perhaps not coincidentally, that resulted in Air-O-Matic demanding $50,000 from InfoMedia as compensation for lost sales and other, uh, shit.

iFart is about the most juvenile goddamn thing I've paid money for in the past year, which is to say I love it. You can order up a fart from a menu of disgusting ones or record your own. There's also a time-delay and a motion-sensor feature, allowing you to deploy the phone as a virtual whoopee cushion. I have no idea what Pull My Finger did or did not do, other than, of course, fart.

Naturally, someone with a juris doctor was paid a lot of money to write a C&D letter, with all of the gravity and dignity a $200/hour attorney can muster, about farting and pulling fingers. InfoMedia returned fire, asking for a declaratory judgment because "The phrase 'pull my finger' is understood to be a description of the act of passing gas, not a trademark violation."

"Believe it or not, I'm really uncomfortable with bathroom humor," Air-O-Matic co-owner Sam Magdalein told the Denver Post. "My partner is more into that kind of humor, and he pushed me a little bit into doing this as a joke. It would be pretty ridiculous to have this end up in court."

Yes it would. Wonder who took it there, Sam?

News of the legal action sent a throng of high-school sophomores to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to stake claims to other fart games, including "Two" (and its variant, "Sapes"), "Safety/Slug (The Cereal Game)" "You Ate It" and "Grenade." Bic, makers of disposable butane lighters, also filed for a patent protecting its discovery that farting on an open flame creates a giant orange fireball that is totally hilarious and impresses all your friends.

'Pull My Finger' Lets Loose Dispute [Denver Post]

Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Company paid a claim to a homeowner whose place got roasty-toasty because of an overheating Nintendo DS AC adapter. Not sure what they paid out, but the insurance company is seeking $236,000, plus interest, court costs, dinner at Ruby Tuesday's, etc.

Just so you know, not all product liability lawsuits are filed by shiftless chislers represented by two-bit ambulance chasers. Sometimes big corporations get in on the act, too. And naturally, it's an insurance company, which probably figured it couldn't get out of paying this claim and then went looking for some way to make someone else pay. And bingo, they saw that Ninty previously conducted a product recall because of overheating issues.

The [DS] was defective in design, manufacture and/or because it failed to warn consumers as to dangers associated with it... due to defects existing within the Product which caused a risk of overheating and fire, the Product was recalled by Nintendo.

Nintendo Sued for $236K Over Faulty Adapter [GamePolitics]

Elsewhere in original reportage, the studios might be a-firing, but we're a-hiring — at least in the free labor sense, with our be-an-editor for a day (for free) contest. And if that's not a Tom Sawyer paint-the-fence bargain, I've never heard one. Hey, it's a shitbag economy, we all gotta chip in.

The news:

... ... ... Crecente Talks 2008 on X-Play
Be A Kotaku Editor For A Day: The Contest
Aspyr Confirms Layoffs, Sources Say As Much As A Third
Free Radical Shuts Down
Rumor: Free Radical In A Whole Lot Of Trouble?
Midway To Lay Off 25% Of Staff, Austin Studio Closing
Update: Layoffs Continue to Beleaguer Remaining Midway Staff
Listen In On A Very 8-Bit Christmas Album
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia Review: M-M-M-My Shanoa
A Beary Atlus Christmas Card
Video: Let's Read Famitsu With Us!
DJ Tiësto's Management Says He's Not In Activision's DJ Hero
Rock Band M.I.C. Review: The Cost Of Convenience
Rumor: Aspyr Hit With Layoffs?
Resident Evil 5 Co-op Event Part The Second: The “New” Stuff
Wii Is A "Viable Platform" For Mature Games, Says Take-Two
Valkyria Chronicles Review: World War II Gets a Girlie Makeover
Konami Confirms iPhone Metal Gear
SuperVillain Says Happy Holidays... Or Else!
Metal Gear Solid 4 Sackboys (Yes, Plural), Level Pack Arriving Soon
Midway Boss Explains Lay-Offs, Austin Studio Closure To Rank And File
I Love Katamari Micro-Review: I Don't Love Katamari
And On The Third Day, The Giant PSP Was Risen...
Splash Damage Wishes Tapirs a Happy Humbug
A Raving, Rabid Spike VGAs TV Party
Sony Wishes For Peace On Our LittleBigPlanet
iPhone Elemental Liquid Edition Gaming Case Review: Metal Gear Liquid

TechCrunch got a C&D from the retailer's attorneys, demanding they take down the fake ad and, furthermore, help them find out who shooped it and sent it around. Um, no. Besides, they already linked to their source. TechCrunch is righteously touting the two-page threat and telling Walmart to suck it. I think a great resolution to all this would be for Walmart to go ahead and sell the Wii, the three Wiimotes, three Nunchuks, three games, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree for the super-fake price, so we can all flip them for about 60 percent more on Craigslist. There's your economic stimulus.

Just to be clear, so I don't get a nastygram from some poor bastard associate (that was redundant) chained to his desk on a Saturday, this will cost $425. You read it anywhere else that it's less, that is fake.

Walmart Wants it Both Ways, We Say No [TechCrunch via BoingBoing Gadgets]

A Los Angeles arbitrator found that Boll, who brought us masterpieces of cinema such as "Postal" and "Alone in the Dark," sent nasty-ass emails to competitors that disparaged Fantastic Films, steered away from FFI the business he was obligated to provide, and failed to pay them commissions. The libel claim itself counts for $200,000. Additionally, the court on Nov. 5 confirmed the arbitrator's findings that, more or less, Boll's testimony in this dispute was, in lawyer-speak, horseshit. Sucks to be Uwe!

Judge Rules Against Uwe Boll [The Hollywood Reporter]

Roger Altmeyer and the "St. Louis Mod Shop" is barred from selling Gears of War 2 ever again. Furthermore, he'd been advertising modded Xboxes that would play it and other illegal copies of games online. He's out of that business too, for good. He also has to turn over all his remaining mod stock, any parts "capable of circumventing copyright restrictions," assist Epic in identifying others violating copyright restrictions, pay Epic some money and say he's real sorry, in public. My guess is lawyer fees is on top of that prize package too.

Epic spotted the ads and sued Altmeyer on Oct. 31. That means this sucker got resolved at the legal equivalent of warp 9. Epic's lawyer-mans said modders and pirates are increasingly a problem, but difficult to stamp out — unless they all but drive up to Cliffy B's front door and fire off a signal flare, which is about what Altmeyer did. Epic said the ads were "pretty hard to ignore." Another reason word-of-mouth is the best business.

Granite City Man Settles Case Claiming He Sold Illegal Copies of New Xbox 360 Game [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

This law student reached out and compiled lyrics for all of the game's tracks, sung by Danny Kaye, Cole Porter, Billie Holliday and, of course, the Ink Spots (who sing the title song). The winning aspect of Fallout 3's setting — for me at least — is the vestigial homogeneity of its pre-war America lingering upon the total lawlessness of life out in the wastes. That's a sophisticated context you don't find in many other games, and the music is naturally a big part of that. Doesn't mean I'll be sticking this on my iPod's workout mix. But it is an excellently scored game.

Fallout 3 Song List [Legal Geekery]

Reader Robbie M. angrily wrote us after his level was taken down. "So many cases have no questionable content in sight, even ones with humorous light hearted violence have been taken down, like the popular GoW Demon Skull level," he said. "Whats the point of having a community driven game if you're not going to let your community do anything with it in an act to try and please everybody?"

It's not a case of removing the offending content and republishing the level. One's it's taken down, it's gone for good. One user posted a strategy for keeping a copy of a level offline and republishing it in case it gets deleted. But Robbie says there are instances of unpublished levels getting "moderated" too. "I've never been so infuriated over a game," he says.

Traffic on the LittleBigWorkshop discussion board seems to back him up. "This just happened to tons of levels in what seems like a matter of minutes, including my own level 'Failure To Launch.' " Says one user. "By the trend I see from the levels I can no longer play from my recent levels on my planet, its all about copyright. Some levels I've seen now unplayable due to moderation: Pacman, Batman, and Scrubs related level."

If "Failure to Launch" was taken down because it shares a title with a romantic comedy from 2006, then this is truly out of hand. The thread is more than nine pages long now, including a claim that a level based on the PlayStation 3 was taken down. Destructoid rightly points out the absurdity of a console exclusive being unable to refer to that console.

Seriously, what on earth did Sony and Media Molecule think would happen here? One of the first things you see in any decent game with a custom level editor is someone's homage to Super Mario Bros., to the point that it's become cliche. I understand that those levels are not hosted online, and that's probably what the lawyer-mans told them created risk of exposure to a lawsuit. But your freedom to create absolutely isn't as open-ended as they've implied. And this creates a huge chilling effect on user-created content for the game that was supposed to set a new standard for it.

My level was "moderated" [LittleBigWorkshop Forum, via Destructoid]
My Level has Been Moderated and I Don't Know Why [LittleBigWorkshop Forum, thanks Robbie]
Getting Moderated? READ THIS! [LittleBigWorkshop Forum]

Even though Rockstar conceded that its Pig Pen was somewhat modeled on the real life PlayPen — I assume both are located in strip malls in really bad parts of town — the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said there's not enough for an infringement claim. And it did so in an opinion that took every opportunity at snark. How dare they! Are they jurists or bloggers? Writes Judge Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain (note to self: New Warcraft name):

"Both 'San Andreas' and the PlayPen offer a form of lowbrow entertainment; besides the general similarity, they have nothing in common. The 'San Andreas' game is not complementary to the PlayPen; video games and strip clubs do not go together like a horse and carriage or, perish the thought, love and marriage."

I hope he was popping his suspenders with a spinning bowtie when he wrote that.

PlayPen lawyer-mans Ken RosenbergRobert F. Helfing wasn't happy with the outcome.

"This ruling now permits people who create artistic works that purport to convey the look and feel of a particular geographic location to use any trademark that appears on any building in that location in the name of art. When you use a trademark or logo of an existing business, as was done in our case, you create the impression that our client is somehow associated with the game, which is not the case."

Helfing hasn't discussed the possibility of an appeal, but that would naturally be to the U.S. Supreme Court. I'd love it if they granted cert for this. Jack Thompson would shit an exact replica of himself.

Whatever you think of the law or those who practice it, this guy's out there lawyerin' and lobbyin' for your rights to play — well, Take Two games, at least.

According to the profile, Krauss came on board when Strauss Zelnick took control in 2002. Other fun facts:

• When Krauss took over as general counsel, Take Two had only two in-house attorneys. In the six years since, they're up to 15, handling the company's never-ending concerns with intellectual property and First Amendment cases.

• Even after beating a case he still finds it has strong replay value. "Take-Two operates in 20 different jurisdictions, so every legal issue 'has to be replayed over and over again,'" the profile says. These include global jurisdictions, of course, but surely they also cover some U.S. state-level cases. Some lobbying is a part of his duties, Krauss says.

• Quoting the profile: "Take-Two has had to defend itself against those who consider this form of entertainment scary and dangerous. Krauss works with his counterparts at other game companies and other allies to meet criticism by politicians and critics "who try to politicize the video game industry."

• Krauss' dad was a Broadway producer; he considers his job "a happy and welcome return to working with creative people." He's a Duke undergrad and Washington University J.D. Krauss also worked for the Manhattan D.A., where he probed the financial institutions implicated in Enron's collapse.

Start Game [Law.com, via Gamepolitics]