smothra - Slashdot User

Copyright and the Games Industry 94

Posted by Soulskill on Friday December 04, 2009 @03:51AM from the your-super-mario-toilet-paper-is-probably-illegal dept.

A recent post at the Press Start To Drink blog examined the relationship the games industry has with copyright laws. More so than in some other creative industries, the reactions of game companies to derivative works are widely varied and often unpredictable, ranging anywhere from active support to situations like the Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes debacle. Quoting: "... even within the gaming industry, there is a tension between IP holders and fan producers/poachers. Some companies, such as Epic and Square Enix, remain incredibly protective of their Intellectual Property, threatening those that use their creations, even for non-profit, cultural reasons, with legal suits. Other companies, like Valve, seem to, if not embrace, at least tolerate, and perhaps even tacitly encourage this kind of fan engagement with their work. Lessig suggests, 'The opportunity to create and transform becomes weakened in a world in which creation requires permission and creativity must check with a lawyer.' Indeed, the more developers and publishers that take up Valve's position, the more creativity and innovation will emerge out of video game fan communities, already known for their intense fandom and desire to add to, alter, and re-imagine their favorite gaming universes."

Modern Warfare 2 Not Recalled In Russia After All 94

Posted by Soulskill on Friday November 20, 2009 @04:14AM from the it's-the-thought-that-counts dept.

thief21 writes "After claims that console versions Modern Warfare 2 had been recalled in Russia due to complaints from politicians and the gaming public over the infamous airport slaughter scene, it turns out the stories were completely untrue. Activision never released a console version of the game in Russia." Instead, they simply edited the notorious scene out of the PC version. They did this of their own volition, since Russia doesn't have a formal ratings committee.

No Business Case For IPv6, Survey Finds 340

Posted by timothy on Saturday March 21, 2009 @04:37PM from the what-about-bragging-rights? dept.

alphadogg writes "Business incentives are completely lacking today for upgrading to IPv6, the next generation Internet protocol, according to a survey of network operators conducted by the Internet Society (ISOC). In a new report, ISOC says that ISPs, enterprises and network equipment vendors report that there are 'no concrete business drivers for IPv6.' However, survey respondents said customer demand for IPv6 is on the rise and that they are planning or deploying IPv6 because they feel it is the next major development in the evolution of the Internet."

Major Rogue Anti-Virus Program Shut Down 59

Posted by timothy on Saturday March 21, 2009 @03:31PM from the now-stop-antivirus-people-from-spamming-slashdot dept.

krebsatwpost writes "TrafficConverter.biz, one of the more notorious pay-per-install affiliate programs, was dismantled this week after media attention caused Visa and Mastercard to shut down the group's payment operations. The action comes just a few days after a report by The Washington Post that showed some affiliates were making more than $100,000 USD a week installing rogue anti-virus software. The credit card industry may have been spurred by the fact that the first version of the Conficker worm told infected systems to download a file from TrafficConverter, although the story posits that this could have been an attempted Joe Job rather than a blatant attempt to drum up more installs."

Ballmer Scorns Apple As a $500 Logo 1147

Posted by timothy on Saturday March 21, 2009 @02:25PM from the upholding-shareholder-value dept.

theodp writes "Speaking at a conference in NYC, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer did his best to refan the flames of the Mac vs. PC rivalry: 'Now I think the tide has really turned back the other direction [against Apple],' Ballmer said. 'The economy is helpful. Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment — same piece of hardware — paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that's a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be.'"

Student Blogger Loses Defamation Case 289

Posted by kdawson on Saturday June 16, 2007 @05:47PM from the small-claims-is-a-bear dept.

An anonymous reader writes to tell us about Yaman Salahi, a UC Berkeley student and blogger, who lost a lawsuit brought against him by Lee Kaplan, a journalist for FrontPageMag.com. Kaplan had sued Salahi in California small claims court for tortious business interference and libel, in response to a blog Salahi had set up about him called "Lee Kaplan Watch." Salahi lost in small claims court and then lost an "appeal" — which is essentially a retrial by another small-claims judge. No written opinion was offered with either decision, though all other court filings are available. From Salahi's update on his blog: "...because [Kaplan] sued me in small claims court, I did not have the protections of the anti-SLAPP [Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Policy] statute... I will never know why I lost the initial hearing, or why I lost the appeal, because small claims judges are not obligated to release written opinions with their rulings.... I will never have the opportunity to take this to a real appellate court where my first amendment rights might be protected."

Comment Re:NOT censorship (Score 1) 913

by smothra on Wednesday July 20, 2005 @08:08PM (#13119176) Attached to: ESRB Revokes San Andreas Rating

I know this is off topic territory but it comes up so often. Censor has a very specific meaning that does not include "make it harder to get a hold of" or "make it more expensive"

When you censor something, you review and (presumably) alter the content to remove "erroneous, vulgar, obscene, or otherwise objectionable material from a work"

Ratings systems might be bad public policy, they might be ineffective, they might unfairly target part of the population, and they might be misleading. They might even *lead to* censorship - as when an artist adjusts his or her work to meet a rating. But a ratings system is not censorship and this case is not "effectively" censorship.

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