Bookmark Xbox 360 Elite (everygamersblog.com)
Submission + - Ace Combat 6 Missile-Locks Xbox 360
Evan Lahti writes: "IGN has revealed, through the latest Famitsu magazine, that Namco plans to release its next Ace Combat title for the Xbox 360, but makes no mention of PS3 release? Will AC6 go the way of Ridge Racer 6, and leave Sony in the dust?"
Submission + - Toshiba Drops HD DVD MSRP
hax0r_this writes: "At just about the one year anniversary of the format war, it looks like Toshiba is throwing the next punch. HD DVD will be one step closer to that magic price point of $299, with that latest update of the MSRP of their HD DVD players."
http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/20/toshiba-drops-h d-dvd-msrp-effective-4-1-07/
Feed Devil May Cry: No PS3 Exclusive (wired.com)
EU Commissioner Slams Music Lock-In 293
Nonu writes "EU Commissioner for Consumer Protection Meglena Kuneva has come out against DRM lock-ins like Apple's iPod-iTunes combo. Kuneva said she believes the tie-in that keeps music bought from the iTunes Store from playing on MP3 players other than the iPod was unreasonable. '"Do you find it reasonable that a CD will play in all CD players, but an iTunes song will only play on an iPod?" asked Kuneva. "It doesn't [seem reasonable] to me. Something must change."' The EU is in the midst of an effort to harmonize its consumer protection laws, and along with the question of DRM tie-ins it is also looking at mandating cooling-off periods during which customers could 'return' downloaded music."
Submission + - RIAA sues paralyzed stroke victim
Waylon writes: "It seems the RIAA will sue anyone, anywhere, even if you're a paralyzed stroke victim. Yes, Warner Music and the RIAA are suing a retired railroad man in Florida whose left side has been paralyzed by a stroke and whose sole source of income is his disability check.
From the article: "Although the defendant John Paladuk, an employee of C&N Railroad for 36 years, was living in Florida at the time of the alleged copyright suit, and had notified the RIAA that he had not engaged in any copyright infringement, and despite that the fact that Mr. Paladuk suffered a stroke last year which resulted in complete paralysis of his entire left side and severely impaired speech, rendering him disabled, and despite the fact that his disability check is his sole source of income, the RIAA commenced suit against him on February 27, 2007.""
Submission + - EFF Reveals Plot to Cripple European Televison
poopie writes: From BoingBoing:
Read the EFF DVB briefing paper Who controls your TelevisionEFF has just published a long-awaited, brilliant paper on Europe's proposed digital TV DRM system.... EFF is the only consumer group admitted to the DRM negotiations — closed door, secretive meetings that you had to pay EU10,000 a year to attend — and then only because it came as the representative of some open source manufacturers. Speaking of which, the DVB spec requires that devices be built to resist end-user modification, which means that open source and free software are right out.
Feed Video Games: Sony to Add Online Bells and Whistles for PlayStation 3 (nytimes.com)
New online capabilities are meant to allow gamers to share content they have created, à la YouTube.
Submission + - Scientists say Louisiana has less than 10 years
editor.b writes: "According to a new series by the Times-Picayune, south Louisiana has much less time than expected. Scientists say that coastal land is now disappearing at the rate of one football field every 45 minutes. In ten years or less New Orleans will be in the Gulf of Mexico."
Submission + - Election candidate faces EUCD charges in Finland
An anonymous reader writes: The Open Life blog reports that activists in Finland have partly succeeded in challenging the EUCD's constitutionality, that is, they have succeeded in getting themselves tried in court:
The blog also informs us thatMikko Rauhala and Einar Karttunen have on February 13th, 2007 been charged with breaking [...] the EUropean Copyright Directive, our equivalent of the DMCA. The charges are that they participated in an online service organised by Mr Rauhala to provide advice on how to circumvent DRM and in addition Mr Karttunen has published online a computer program written in the Haskell programming language. The charge is especially serious because Rauhala paid Karttunen 0,05€ for this program. Rauhala, Karttunen and 37 others did these supposedly criminal actions in January 2006, the first week that the new law was in force. [...]
Mikko Rauhala and the organiser of the 2005 demonstration Mikko Särelä are both running for parliament in the elections to be held on March 18th, 2007. [...] some of the momentum really might still be there [...] this week [...] they put out a website to collect pledges and within 24 hours had collected 8000 to buy a full page ad in Finlands main newspaper.
Under current Finnish laws, the maximum penalty for filesharing is higher than for simply stealing an actual music CD from a shop
Feed Hi-Def South Park Plays on Xbox (wired.com)
Submission + - Gundam Musou first day sales surpass 100,000
Jake writes: "While not giving specific numbers, according to the Game Tsutaya Blog, Gundam Musou became the first PS3 game to sell over 100,000 copies in its first day of release.
Edit: Shinobi No Enmachou reports Gundam Musou sold about 70% of its 170,000-180,000 first shipment, beating Virtua Fighter 5's 30,000 first day sales four times over. It also instantly becomes the 3rd ranking PS3 game in overall sales behind Ridge Racer 7 (Around 130,000 copies sold to date) and Gundam: Target In Sight (120,000). But unexpectedly, even this wasn't enough to drive PS3's system sales as it's said the majority of people bought the game separately rather than with the bundle.
http://aeug.blogspot.com/"
Feed Your Money: Using the Web to Get the Boss to Pay More (nytimes.com)
Most employees have little ammunition going into a meeting to talk about their pay, but a few Web sites are trying to level the playing field.
Submission + - Copyright Royalty Board Terminates Internet Radio
An anonymous reader writes: News of the new Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) rates retroactive to January 1st 2006 have leaked out today.
The new rates amount to well over the total revenues of all internet radio stations.
If the new rates are allowed to stand, every United States based webcaster will immediately owe more in back licensing fees to SoundExchange than the combined total of all revenues they have ever received.
More details are on Kurt Hanson's website here: http://www.kurthanson.com/archive/news/030207/inde x.shtml
