The Lawyer, a legal industry site, reports that the U.K. firm Eversheds handled a slew of agreements for Apple Corps, the Beatles' corporation. The work included not only contracts with Harmonix for Beatles: Rock Band, but also a deal with Disney to produce a new version of the Yellow Submarine animated film in 2012.

"This is the public culmination of around six months of legal work," said Nick Valner, the partner who led the Apple Corps legal team. Valner added.

Six months may sound like a ton of work; in lawyer land, it's the blink of an eye. And if it's what is needed for all the i-dotting and t-crossing, well, it's food for thought considering there might be well more than six months of legal wrangling coming up between Courtney Love and Activision.

Eversheds Works Eight Days a Week for the Beatles [The Lawyer, via Go Nintendo]

Gamasutra dug up the docs, which indicate only that Gibson and Activision shook hands on April 17 and a federal judge in California terminated the case. A federal court had already thrown out Gibson's initial infringement claim regarding a patent for a "system and method for generating and controlling a simulated musical concert experience." That court said Gibson's argument "border[ed] on the frivolous."

Following that win, Activision asked for a declaratory judgment against Gibson, wanting its overall patent ruled invalid, among other things. I'm guessing Gibson still wants to keep the claim to whatever it really did patent - which isn't rhythm gaming - and wouldn't like to lose it by overreaching like this. So those two settled up without the judge stepping in. Who knows what changed hands, but Gibson may have paid a little money, probably legal fees.

Gibson still has a suit out there against Harmonix and Electronic Arts, but if this is any indication, that too should be dismissed, if not settled.

Activision, Gibson Settle Latest Suit [Gamasutra]

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]

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]