Asked about it in an interview with Eurogamer, EA Sports boss Peter Moore called that practice a bad idea. "I'm not a huge fan of trying to punish your consumer," he said. "Albeit these people have clearly stolen intellectual property, I think there are better ways of resolving this within our power as developers and publishers."

Moore went on:

"Yes, we've got to find solutions," Moore continued. "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."

I'm sure it's a lot easier for Moore to say that when his bottom line is waaaaaaay better than Atari's, or these other five. Still, it stands to reason EA titles are swapped around too, although to what extent — and what EA's threshold of pain is — I don't know. Yet Moore says he's not aware of any EA plans to join these five and "chase down consumers."

Moore Warns Against Suing File-Sharers [Eurogamer]
Computer Games Industry Threat to Downloaders: "Pay Up or We'll Sue" [The Times of London via Eurogamer]

Anascape sued back in 2006 and went for the kitchen sink, claiming Nintendo and Microsoft both infringed on controller designs they had patented. Microsoft settled with Anascape. The original suit against Nintendo covered everything from the Gamecube forward — the Wavebird and the Classic, plus the Wiimote and Nunchuk. The case decided in May found infringements only on the former two not the motion-sensing controls in the Wii. Still, $21 million is not pocket change.

Nintendo's Appeal on Reduced $21M Verdict Denied [QJ.net]

On the table? In addition to a reinstatement of the board, that controversial compensation package to executives, through which Strauss Zelnick's ZelnickMedia stood to see their monthly pay go up from $62,500 to $208,333. The compensation package also includes a bumped up annual bonus, from $750,000 to $2,500,000 per year, and 600,000 shares of common stock that the management also gets as part of the same compensation boost. Only investors who bought shares before February 19th were able to submit ballots on these issues.

Even chairman Strauss Zelnick acknowledged, though, that what most of the stockholders really wanted to hear about was EA. And he held little back in a spirited attempt to convince shareholders that, at least for the moment, they were better off not selling.

Hit the jump for Kotaku's full coverage of what went down in the meeting.

Take -Two opened with a video presentation that chairman Strauss Zelnick said would demonstrate the breadth and quality of Take Two's products, the depth of its portfolio and the strength of its staff. Given that Take-Two aims to convince its shareholders it can maintain a share price over the $26 they've been offered by EA, it's not surprising that he'd open with a focus on the positives. We couldn't see exactly what the presentation contained, listening in on an audio-only feed — all we could hear was some amped-up guitar music, the kind you'd expect to hear overlaying a montage.

Following the video, CEO Ben Feder continued on the upbeat note. "We've made significant progress over the past year on all fronts," he began, praising the progress of the company's turnaround initiatives announced this time last year. Federer said the reorganization in place, including a $25 million cost reduction initiative, is going well, and reminded attendees that the company's now backed with a credit facility to ensure stability.

"We're very pleased that we've broadened our product lineup across all genres, platforms and demographics," Feder said, and expressed confidence at the company's "robust" lineup for the coming years. On GTA's upcoming launch, Feder confirmed the game is complete and in production. "GTA... is our most profitable and biggest-selling franchise. Retail preorders for GTA IV are ahead of our initial expectations, which suggests that the launch of GTA could be defining for our company and for the entertainment industry."

Federer also promised releases beyond GTA held strong potential. He mentioned the upcoming Midnight Club, which as a franchise has sold 12 million units to date, Sid Meier's Civilizations Revolution, the 8 million-selling franchise's console debut, and the follow-up to BioShock slated to release in 2009.

In addition to praising the performance of Carnival Games, Feder called Take-Two's stable of sports titles one of its highest achievements, and expects, based on all these strengths, for Take-Two to turn a profit this year, rounding out the positive tone by expressing confidence in the Asian expansion initiative announced earlier this week.

Zelnick reclaimed the floor, reiterating what he's been saying all along regarding EA's offer: "The Board and management of Take-Two strongly believe.. that EA's offer is still at the wrong place, and still at the wrong time."

He cited "one of the strongest porfolios of intellectual properties in the business," Take-Two's suite of 17 development houses including Rockstar, 2k, 2k Sports and 2k Play, and a staff of 1400 developers altogether, and said Take-Two has 30 titles with sales of 1 million units or better — and, claimed the highest-rated titles of all third-party publishers including EA.

He called EA's bid "highly opportunistic," stating, "We believe EA's decision to pursue a hostile process instead of a cooperative one is strong evidence they're trying to lock in value at the expense of [stockholders]."

Added Zelnick, "The offer also fails to take note of... positive results we're seeing from turnaround initiatives that are well underway. EA's timing was specifically designed to capture the benefit of those initiatives before they became apparent and reflected in our stock price. We've become a much more efficient company. We believe we're a much better-managed company. We're a rational company; we make rational decisions. We have a lot of hard-working, dedicated, talented people."

Specifically, he focused on 2K Sports, saying that head-to-head, 2k beats EA on every metric for sports titles. "EA's offer doesn't remotely compensate stockholders for the value of the sports business to EA," Zelnick stressed.

Zelnick's voice took on a tone of urgency, and the audio picked up what sounded like him striking the table to punctuate his speech. "Take-Two is worth more than $26 per share — and I'm being moderate because I have lawyers in here. The board believes it's worth more than $26 a share. I urge stockholders not to tender shares at this price."

However, he made it clear the door is open to negotiations in the future: "That said, I want to emphasize — this is crucial. The board of Take-Two, the management of Take-Two is one hundred percent, absolutely committed to doing the right thing by stockholders and to create value at this company. The results... are only going to get better."

He said the board would consider all its options — including remaining independent — but that the company is prepared to begin formal discussions with interested parties on April 30th. He again said that Take-Two has received "numerous indications of interest from third parties," and that they continue to receive inquiries — though when asked, Zelnick would not disclose whether he'd entered into any kind of confidentiality agreement that would protect such discussions.

Finally, Zelnick noted that both Take-Two and EA are cooperating with the FTC on its investigation of possible antitrust violations surrounding the proposed transactions, and he refused to speculate on what areas in specific the FTC might be scrutinizing the most closely.

Yesterday, we discussed the strategies Take-Two undertook to try and stall or thwart EA's bid. They've been refusing to talk with EA or explore offers, and they're doing their best to entrench the current Board of Directors with that compensation boost that features stock that takes three years to fully vest. They also implemented that stockholder's rights plan — the so-called "poison pill." As it turns out, someone who is allegedly one of Take-Two's stockholders is none too happy with these tactics — and he's ticked enough that he's taking the company to court.

Take-Two disclosed this morning in a filing to the SEC that the alleged stockholder, one Michael Maulano, filed a class action complaint on April 11th against Take-Two and it's eight-member directorial board in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, where the company's headquartered. Maulano calls Take-Two's tactics a breach of fiduciary duty, and the suit also alleges that Take-Two's responses to EA's offer contained "misleading and incomplete" information.

Maulano wants "declaratory relief, preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, damages, and reasonable attorneys' fees and litigation expenses," and it is unclear how many other shareholders, if any, are part of Maulano's class action suit. Take-Two was not immediately available for comment on the suit, but said in its disclosure: "The Company and its Board of Directors believe these claims lack merit, and intend vigorously to defend against them."

This is a different lawsuit from one filed last month by Prickett, Jones & Elliott on behalf of Take-Two shareholder Patrick Solomon. Solomon aims to sue Take-Two management over the controversial compensation boost.

Bonus info: Why take Take-Two to court rather than simply make a proposal for a vote in the annual meeting? As we learned yesterday, only shareholders who bought Take-Two stock before the cut-off deadline can submit proposals or vote at the meeting — and those that bought stock after EA's bid aren't eligible to vote. It's unclear how long Maulano has been a shareholder, but even if he is one of those able to vote, it may be that there wouldn't be enough people on his side of things at tonight's meeting.

Later this evening — 6:00 PM Eastern Time, to be exact — Take-Two will hold its annual meeting for investors. When Kotaku spoke to some analysts yesterday to help lay out exactly what's been going on regarding EA's aggressive bid to buy the company, and we learned that today might turn out be a very big day for progress in that arena.

EA also revealed this morning that the Federal Trade Commission has filed a second request for information on the proposed transaction, so that it can investigate possible anti-competition issues — though the FTC has drawn no conclusions yet, and requires more time to investigate.

We'll follow this story as it develops throughout the day and keep you posted.

BRIGHTON, England (10th April 2008) - NCsoft®, the world-leading, publisher of massively multiplayer online games such as Guild Wars®, Lineage® II and City of Heroes®, today announced that it was stepping up its fight against the growing menace of intellectual property theft. This action comes as a direct response to the rise of illegal online game servers throughout Eastern Europe, particularly in Greece and Russia where NCsoft's fantasy-based online role playing game, Lineage II, is extremely popular.

The fraudulent servers in question are being used by players playing at home and in internet cafes, but such unauthorised servers often feature - or require users to download - illegally modified and potentially harmful game data, thereby changing the intended online experience.

NCsoft's European office has identified several prominent illegal servers across Europe and is in the process of taking action against individuals and corporations deemed to be in breach of international copyright laws. In a lawsuit that was commenced last year in Greece, NCsoft successfully obtained a court order against Internet Cafe business, 'e-GLOBAL' following which four of its cafes were raided and illegal software was seized. This led to the shutting down of illegal servers on which pirate copies of Lineage II software was loaded. Georgios Katostaris - Chairman of the Board and Managing Director, Constantinos Zygouras - Vice-Chairman of the Board and Managing Director, Athanassios Dobros - Deputy Managing Director and Dimitrios Koutsoukos - Administrator of the company under the name 'INTERNET DYNAMICS LLC' have all been made personal defendants to the proceedings that are continuing in the Greek Courts in which NCsoft is seeking damages as well as criminal remedies.

"Illegal game servers, such as those operating from e-GLOBAL, have a hugely negative impact on both NCsoft Europe and its customers," commented Max Brown, NCsoft Europe's Sales & Operations Director. "They seriously affect the player's experience of our products and rob the company of potential revenue that is used to further enhance the player experience on official servers. NCsoft's loss in revenue from e-GLOBAL's operation is estimated in excess of six million Euros. We are defiant in our resolve to stamp out theft of NCsoft's intellectual properties and are prepared to take the strongest measures to do so."

NCsoft has a proven track record in combating illegal servers, having worked with the FBI in November 2006 to shut down a substantial unofficial Lineage II server run by US-based website, L2Extreme.com. Following multiple raids across cities throughout the US, L2Extreme's fraudulent servers - which claimed to support 50,000 active users - were taken offline, as was the L2Extreme.com website.

According to the report, Gibson sent Activision a letter in January requesting that the Guitar Hero pub apply for a license or stop selling the game. Activision essentially responded, "We thought since you didn't say anything about it, we were cool." Then it went in for a high-five/extended secret handshake thing. It was awkward.

Activision's "Guitar Hero" violates patent: Gibson [Reuters]

CDC Games said Wednesday it has settled all legal disputes with South Korean online gaming company Mgame Corp. over their differences regarding the operation of the online game "Yulgang."

Under the agreement, CDC Games, a unit of Hong Kong-based software and online gaming company CDC Corp., will have exclusive distribution rights to "Yulgang" in China until March 2010, with an option for a one-year extension. The companies also agreed to work together to launch "Yulgang 2.0" as quickly as possible.

If I were a Korean company, I'd think really hard before entering into any sort of contractual agreement with a Mainland company, giant potential market be damned.

CDC Games, Mgame Settle Legal Disputes [AP]

The parties agreed to work together to find a mutually satisfactory result and signed an agreement to agree to negotiate in good faith over the next several weeks to resolve all differences between the parties and reach an amicable solution. "We are happy that the parties have agreed to negotiate and we are confident that we can reach a win-win solution for all in the near future," said Xiaowei Chen, Ph.D., president of CDC Games.

Apparently CDC doesn't feel like being the next Chinese company to rip off a Korean company's IP (doesn't look so good when you're trying to combat low-level piracy) and Mgame doesn't want to lose their piece of the lucrative Chinese market. We'll see how this pans out.

CDC Games and Mgame Agree to Negotiate to Resolve Differences over Yulgang [Yahoo]

Earlier this week, CDC's online gaming unit, CDC Games, sued Mgame in a Hong Kong court claiming Mgame has not been providing adequate technical support for its "Yulgang" online game and that it has not been supporting CDC in its efforts to combat piracy.

CDC Games said Wednesday that Mgame terminated its contract with the company, citing nonpayment. CDC said on Friday its games unit has "continued to make obligatory royalty payments to Mgame for its operation of 'Yulgang,' which continues to operate in China today."

I'm not sure how CDC's status as the largest outside shareholder in MGame ties into all of this, but I do know that even the brief news reports have given me headaches.

CDC Files Another Lawsuit Against Mgame [CNN]

My opinion? He needs to be sued. They need to stop selling the software. Markee Dragon believes differently, claiming that being able to bot character 24/7 is just the same as hiring a power levelling service, which is true...they both break the EULA, only in different ways. People should really start reading that thing. Anyway, I'm looking forward to a lot fewer unguilded night elf hunters once this matter is settled. Huzzah! Michael Fahey

Blizzard officially files against WoW Glider. Blizzard Vs. MDY Industries [Markee Dragon via Slashdot]

Holy shit!

Lik-Sang.com, the popular gaming retailer from Hong Kong, has today announced that it is forced to close down due to multiple legal actions brought against it by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Sony claimed that Lik-Sang infringed its trade marks, copyright and registered design rights by selling Sony PSP consoles from Asia to European customers, and have recently obtained a judgment in the High Court of London (England) rendering Lik-Sang's sales of PSP consoles unlawful.

As of today, Lik-Sang.com will not be in the position to accept any new orders and will cancel and refund all existing orders that have already been placed. Furthermore, Lik-Sang is working closely with banks and PayPal to refund any store credits held by the company, and the customer support department is taking care of any open transactions such as pending RMAs or repairs and shipping related matters. The staff of Lik-Sang will make sure that nobody will get hurt in the crossfire of this ordeal.

The lawsuits they are talking about, by the way, involve Sony's attempts to make gray market imports of console systems illegal, especially in Europe. The way they did this was by filing a suit in every single frickin' EU country... essentially bleeding Lik Sang to death. You can see the writing on the wall in Lik Sang's statement:

"Fighting multiple lawsuits in different countries at the same time and paying high premiums to expensive lawyers is an overwhelming situation for a small company like Lik-Sang. Launching separate court actions with separate claims and different judges is completely unnecessary, except for the fact that it helps reaching one single target: outspend Lik-Sang to death. 'Pay Beyond.'"

Sony. What a bunch of scum bags. Lik Sang was a fine, fine company. Florian Eckhardt

Edit: Thanks to Mallika for pointing out it gets even worse...

Furthermore, Sony have failed to disclose to the London High Court that not only the world wide gaming community in more than 100 countries relied on Lik-Sang for their gaming needs, but also Sony Europe's very own top directors repeatedly got their Sony PSP hard or software imports in nicely packed Lik-Sang parcels with free Lik-Sang Mugs or Lik-Sang Badge Holders, starting just two days after Japan's official release, as early as 14th of December 2004 (more than nine months earlier than the legal action). The list of PSP related Sony Europe orders reads like the who's who of the videogames industry, and includes Ray Maguire (Managing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Alan Duncan (UK Marketing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Chris Sorrell (Creative Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Rob Parkin (Development Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited), just to name a few.

Important Notice: Lik-Sang.com Out of Business due to Multiple Sony Lawsuits [Lik Sang]

Hi Jack! Hey, nice lawsuit there, chuckles. But I didn't come here to gloat.

As you know, all of my days spent in the murder-death-kill simulators published by companies like Rockstar have made me a remorseless killing machine. Still, watching you lose time and time again as you ignorantly stride forth on your quest to revoke artistic expression and free speech? Your losing streak is like watching the blow-by-blow of a a small, adorable, perhaps somewhat retarded puppy from another video game killing simulator I like to play (Nintendogs... add it to your "to be sued" list) get beaten by a towel full of oranges. Except instead of oranges, the towel is full of failed lawsuits.

For the first five or ten minutes, it's just funny... but then, out of nowhere, I feel a strange emotion surge in my chest. Just a flicker. I've never felt it before. Could this be the human emotion called pity?

It is! I pity your losing streak. Even to an egomaniac like you, that's got to be depressing. So now that Bully is out and it turns out that it's remarkably non-violent, I thought I'd help you out by giving you a new tack to take in suing Rockstar. Here's a little snippet I found from Gamebrink's review of Bully:

I think my favorite activity outside of the main story was getting together with both girls and boys. You see the only controversy likely to have any basis in reality is the fact that you can kiss both girls and some boys. Well that and the fact that you don't need to go to school for too long to learn everything. Not only that but if you practice at it you can actually get HP back just by smooching. Call it the teen version of GTA's hookers.

Bully promotes pedophilia and teen prostitution! I expect to see a press release in my inbox shortly, Jack! Florian Eckhardt

Bully Review [Gamebrink]

Jesus Christ, game developers. What's the matter with you? You know, most of us gamers are just trying to keep our heads low as lawmakers and professional ambulance chasers do their damnedest to lay all of society's ills at our door. Yet what do you do? You go ahead and announce a game so rife with depraved acts of sex and violence that it's set to make Postal 2 look like Mickey's Magic Castle, featuring acts such as:

a) Racial genocide
b) Simultaneous masturbation/electrocution fetishism
c) Infanticide
d) Satanism
e) Incest
f) Disembowelment
g) Castration
h) Crucifixion
i) Pedophillia
j) Bestiality
k) Slavery

And the list goes on and on! Don't you realize Jack Thompson has already smelled the waft of class action lawsuit in the air and will delight in nothing better than suing the impudent scoundrel responsible for creating such a game, thus programming all our nation's children into Murder-Death-Kill machines?

Although maybe that's for the best. After all, in this case, it's God himself who is responsible for The Holy Bible: The Game on the Game Boy Advance, and if anyone's responsible for programming children into flesh puppets of perceived but non-existent free will, it's not gaming, but my main man upstairs, YHWH. Florian Eckhardt

The Holy Bible: The Game [Video Games Blogger]

Kotaku sister site Idolator reports that former Deee-Lite singer Lady Miss Kier (a.k.a. Kierin Kirby) just lost a lawsuit against Sega Japan alleging that Space Channel 5's character Ulala is ripping off the Lady's schtick.

Says the Legal Reader:

Kirby was not interested and declined to cut a deal or give Sega permission to use her songs, likeness, or anything else. Subsequently, Kirby discovered that Sega had released the game and that it included a dancing female character named "Ulala" who Kirby felt resembled her Lady Miss Kier character in several respects. Among other "signature" characteristics, Lady Miss Kier was known for saying "ooh la la," as she does while introducing herself in the Groove is in the Heart video. Kirby thought Sega's use of "Ulala" was an obvious rip-off of her signature "ooh la la," and noted several other apparent similarities between Ulala and Lady Miss Kier.

Kirby charged misapporpriation of likeness but lost the case, partially because Sega claimed to never have heard of Deee-Lite, Kirby's band. Which is a bizarre claim if it's true they contacted her to do work for the game. How else would they have heard of her? Eliza Gauger

More here [Idolator]

Robert Summa — erstwhile Joystiq journo, now bitter Destructoid blogger — contacted The Ant Commandos, the company who released that god-awful Shredder Guitar Hero controller and are currently being sued by RedOctane for it. Which is ridiculous, since RedOctane has a history themselves of producing non-licensed controllers for musical games such as Dance Dance Revolution.

To highlight the absurdity, The Ant Commandos gave Robert this timeline of how the Guitar Hero controller was ripped-off... sorry. Born.

• 1999: Topway Electrical Appliance (part owner of TAC) patents the Magical Guitar controller for Konami's Guitar Freaks. The design had five fret buttons very similar to what Guitar Hero has now.

• 2001 and 2004: CEO of RedOctane, as well as a sales manager, made several visits to a Topway factory in China and inquired about the Magical Guitar controller.

• From 2001-2004: RedOctane purchased "several hundred" Magical Guitar controllers.

• 2005: RedOctane releases Guitar Hero with a controller that looks "exactly like" the Magical Guitar.

TAC have countersued. Damn right. Although I take exception with this explanation from Olivia on why the TAC controllers lack the "essential tilt function." She claims you have to shake the Shredder because it's aimed at younger audiences who don't know how to tilt. Is that really more plausible than the stone cold fact that the controller fucking blows? Florian Eckhardt

Ant responds to RedOctane/Activision lawsuit [Destructoid]

RedOctane, the publisher of Guitar Hero, have initiated a lawsuit against "The Ant Commandos", a California-based company that sells the one Guitar Hero peripheral everyone wants: wireless guitar controllers.

Why? Red Octane's furious about the unrepentant unlicensed-ness of it all. "Defendants have copied the packaging of Plaintiffs' products and have used Plaintiffs' trademarks and copyrighted material in its packaging and advertising of its own products in an effort to cause confusion among consumers."

Plucky words from a company that made itself known selling unlicensed, third-party dance pads for Konami's Dance Dance Rebolution games.

"Pot? This is Kettle, you black son of a bitch..." Florian Eckhardt

RedOctane sues guitar manufacturer [Gamespot]

Gamasutra holds up the mirror to the acne-pocked, wolf-whistling face of the gaming industry in Where's Our Merchant Ivory, an article that addresses the lack of intellectualism in video games and what it means for the reputation of the genre as a whole.

And it explains, quite nicely, why we need serious, artful games with valuable content.

Elite forms of a medium help to legitimize that medium. They provide status symbols that people who want to be thought of as important and respectable can support. That's why big corporations and wealthy families give money to ballet companies and symphony orchestras: Publicly sponsoring the elite forms of these arts reflects well on the givers. The lite forms also create shelter in which the less "worthy" forms of the medium can operate more safely. Once an lite form of video games exists, nobody can ever again say, "video games are just a silly waste of time." Nobody would dream of saying that about music, even if they thought it was true of bubble-gum pop.

The author, Ernest Adams, goes on to explain what this hypothetical Merchant Ivory game would entail (exquisite art and music, meaningful content, excellent writing, moving performances, and like all truly great art, it would be vastly entertaining. Captivating, in fact.

Adams also posits that the Merchat Ivory of gaming is currently Sid Meier, a position I disagree with strenuously. I venture the opinion that Halflife 2 is closer to the gaming-art ideal; a tantalizing mixture of moving content and impressive execution. Eliza Gauger

Where's Our Merchant Ivory? [Gamasutra]

Ooooh hoo hooo! Catty!

Following the leak that Asustek has started shipping PS3s to Sony, Asustek has issued a stern rebuke to the media: if you damage our relationship with our clients, we will sue you.

To which we reply, beating our chests in feverish rage: "BRING IT ON!" We stand atop the peak of our Scarface style staircase, white powder dusted upon our wide lapels, sweat oozing from our face, an AK47 hanging limply from one arm. "We not afraid of joo."

In fact, we'll help the imminent case of Asustek Taiwan vs. Kotaku along. You say you don't want the media damaging your relationship with Sony? Hey, Sony! Guess what? Asustek called us and told us your mom's a whore. Florian Eckhardt

PS3 Manufacturer Warns Media [Next Generation]

1up reports that art firm Massive Black is pursuing legal action against the head and a former employee of its Shanghai devision, James Xi Zhang and Jenny Chen, respectively.

A job at Massive Black is a student illustrator's wet dream; they handle art for high-profile games and movies, and their roster of character and environmental artists is second to none. I go to their forums and stare at the threads crammed with 16-year-old Corel Painter prodigies whenever I really want to feel like shit about my own drawing ability. The image at right is by Massive Black boss Jason Manley.

But enough about my trembling self-loathing, let's see what those crazy Massive Black peeps are up to:

Massive Black Inc. vs. James Xi Zhang is a civil complaint for injunction and damages. The complaint outlines 11 claims alleged against Zhang and his co-conspirator, Jenny Chen. The other named defendant in the case is "Studio Takeover" — a term the court instituted to indicate the studio Zhang and Chen planned to form from Massive Black Inc.'s clientele. The case also names Does 1-50, preparing for the inclusion of other conspirators, if the ongoing investigation yields more than just Zhang and Yiqiong behind the alleged plot. Among the claims: Fraud, Unlawful Access to Computer Network/Tresspass, Interference with Contract, Breach of Contract and Interference With Prospective Business Advantage.

To sum up, Zhang and Chen skimmed money via "expenses accounts", secretly accepted clients personally that had contacted the company itself, and hired their own artists to work on the sniped properties, using Massive Black's own studios and equipment. Now THAT is ninja'ing most foul. Eliza Gauger

Read the entire article here [1up]

A definitely fake Grand Theft Auto 4 screenshot popped up on the Web this week. We questioned it's credibility, then were handed some proof of how easy something like this is to fake. My rule for determining authenticity? I reflect on all the other leaked screenshots of GTA4 to come from Rockstar. All zero of them.

Like Geometry Wars but hate digital distribution? You're in luck! Microsoft's Peter Moore wants to bring your favorite Xbox Live Arcade titles to brick and mortar stores.

Nintendo boss Iwata says it's time for the industry to re-examine how it handles pricing (and pronto!). Citing slash and sell pricing practices and inappropriate dollar to value schemes, Iwata wants to stabilize the biz. I couldn't agree with him more.

Force feedback tech company Immersion's lawyers are still on the prowl, still scrapping with Sony and firing up the lawsuit machine, ready to take on Nintendo. Lots of posturing and digs at Sony's PlayStation 3 controller decisions follow.

And speaking of Sony's PS3 controller, the lads at PlayStation Magazine just want to show you how the two great tastes of force feedback and motion sensing taste great together.

In equally exciting law news, the UK Court of Appeals passed judgment on Sony's attempt to have the PS2 classified as a "computer" not a games console. Verdict? Sorry, Sony! Fork over that hefty tax check.

Congress tackled the burning issue of violence in video games, clearly our nations number one priority. Fortunately, greying Daily Show anchor Jon Stewart and gifted pool of writing talent took them to task on their total stupidity. Do not miss.

Prey, the long time vaporware FPS, became much more tangible this week, as the game went gold and took on the form of a downloadable demo. Expect the Xbox Live demo any minute now.

Finally, we got into a bit of a pissing match with IGN over some hilarious pranks pulled by the editorial staff. We're still angry about it too. And for the record, we're better pissers.

Although the words 'class', 'action' and/or 'lawsuit' are never mentioned, Sokolove has posted up a page on his website clearly testing the waters for a potential class-action lawsuit against the gaming industry for triggering epileptic seizures.

Sokolove writes:

If your child or the child of someone you love has suffered an epileptic seizure during or shortly after playing video games or computer games, please fill out this form for a free evaluation of your case - or call us at 1-800-275-0192 for an immediate response regarding your rights and information about compensation for injuries.

We can help you understand your rights and options, and seek compensation for your injuries.

Sokolove likes to use the Pokemon epilepsy fiasco as an example of epileptic seizures triggered by video games... ignoring the fact that the seizures in question were generated by a television show. Not that facts ever stopped anyone from suing, prosecuting or legislating the games industry. Thanks to William F. for the heads up!

James Sokolove's Video Games and Seizures Page

The lawsuit filed by Shapiro Haber & Urmy of Boston charges that an animator who worked for Activision's internal studio Luxoflux between 2001 and 2004 was forced to work unlawful unpaid overtime. The class action lawsuit asks not only for the animator's unpaid wages, but for Activision to pay penalties and punitive damages current and former Activision employees who were similarly sweatshopped.

"Excessive overtime is endemic in the videogame industry, but we hope that this and other lawsuits will spur major changes in the way employers treat their employees," Thomas Urmy, one of the lawyers involved, said. You tell 'em. Sock it to 'em, Tommy boy!

Activision Sued for Unpaid Overtime [Next Generation]

Anyway, Lucent's suing Microsoft again, this time over the MPEG 2 decoder in the 360. Lucent apparently ordered Microsoft to cease-and-desist selling 360's, which Microsoft proceeded to laugh off.

In other words, another frivolous lawsuit from a company trying to milk money out of an overly vague patent they slipped through. The sooner we nuke the entire patent system to the ground and put together something sensible, the better. Considering the fact that 70% of your genetic material is now patented, it's way past time to dose the US Patent Office with a few hundred mils of common sense.

Lucent Sues Microsoft in XBox 360 Patent Clash [RegHardware]

Starforce is sleazy, no doubt. Their first transgression was programming and marketing a highly-invasive form of copy protection to begin with. Then they began threatening their critics with frivolous lawsuits. And as icing on the cake, they decided to post torrent links to Galactic Civilization 2 on their website in response to Stardock's criticism of copy-protection in general. It's enough to make a gamer want to break a Starforce-infected cd in half and jab the shards through the vitreous humor of Starforce CEO's eyeballs.

Well, Starforce is still sleazy, but we have to give them props: they have apologized to Stardock for the entire "Everyone warez this game!" fiasco. But it's too little, too late — what else can you say when an anti-warez company squanders its credibility by openly endorsing warez?

Starforce apologizes to Stardock for torrent link [GalCiv2 Forums]

Roller Coaster Tycoon creator Chris Sawyer is taking Atari to court for $4.8 million in overdue royalties. According to Gamasutra, the amusement ride franchise for PC has raked in approximately $180 million. Sawyer has already pocketed $30 million in royalties and has probably purchased loads of cool stuff. However, Sawyer still claims that Atari's math was bad and that the software publisher owes him cash. A court case is due to start in London sometime in the near future. Expect finger-pointing and sketchy excuses.

Full Story Here [Gamasutra]