Sony Faces Lawsuit, Regulators’ Scrutiny Over PlayStation Breach

By Cliff Edwards, Karen Gullo & Michael Riley
Bloomberg | Article Link

The Sony intrusion is the latest in a series
of high-profile online security breaches
in which customer data has been stolen.
Photographer: Robert Gilhooly/Bloomberg

Sony Corp. (SNE)’s network entertainment unit faced a legal and regulatory backlash over delays in telling 77 million subscribers that their personal account data may have been stolen by a hacker.

A lawsuit filed yesterday in federal court in San Francisco alleges the delay left PlayStation console users exposed to losses related to any credit-card data theft. Officials in Connecticut, the U.K. and Ireland began inquiries.

See also: Playstation Network Hack: Who Did It? (Wired) 

Report: Piracy a "Global Pricing Problem" with Only One Solution

By Nate Anderson
Ars Technica | Article Link

A major new report from a consortium of academic researchers concludes that media piracy can't be stopped through “three strikes” Internet disconnections, Web censorship, more police powers, higher statutory damages, or tougher criminal penalties. That's because the piracy of movies, music, video games, and software is “better described as a global pricing problem.” And the only way to solve it is by changing the price.

Over the last three years, 35 researchers contributed to the Media Piracy Project, released last week by the Social Science Research Council. Their mission was to examine media piracy in emerging economies, which account for most of the world's population, and to find out just how and why piracy operates in places like Russia, Mexico, and India.

Console Modification : The Next Anti-Circumvention Exception to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act?

By Karen Muiter

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal

IPLJ Permalink

Charges have been dropped in the federal trial of a California man charged with violating the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digitial Millenium Copyright Act (the “DMCA”). The trial revitalized the issue of whether video game console modification should be exempted from the anti-circumvention provisions of the act. Andrew “Bunnie” Huang, author of the book Hacking the Xbox and one of the most well-known video game console hackers, was set to testify on behalf of Matthew Crippen, who was charged with commercially modifying xBox consoles in violation of the DMCA.

Gamers Get Busted: 3 Starcraft II Players Sued For Selling Cheat Programs

By Christian Levis
Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal
IPLJ Article Permalink

Blizzard Entertainment, maker of various popular computer games, filed suit in the Central District of California recently against three users who made and sold “hacks” to their latest creation, Starcraft II. The lawsuit was filed shortly after Blizzard banned at least 5,000 gamers from the game in mid-September for using such programs. The hacks at issue are essentially fancier cheat codes that allow users to gain an advantage in the game. However, unlike authorized cheat codes created by the manufacturer, “[w]hen users of the Hacks download, install, and use the Hacks, they copy StarCraft II copyrighted content into their computer’s RAM in excess of the scope of their limited license, as set forth in the [End User License Agreement] and [Terms of Use], and create derivative works of StarCraft II.” In addition to copyright infringement theories, Blizzard argues that the cheat codes are harmful because they cause irreparable harm to the experience of legitimate gamers, limiting the future sales of “add on packs” due to dissatisfaction. The hacks may also cause a physical problem as well, inducing stability and performance issues on the servers that host actual game play.

Game Over: Supreme Court to Review California’s Violent Video Game Restrictions

By Joey Weiner
Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal
IPLJ Article Permalink

Following the attempts of a number of state legislatures, including those of Illinois, Michigan, Louisiana and California, to restrict minors’ rights to purchase violent video games, the Supreme Court will determine whether video games are granted the same free speech protection as other forms of expression.  On November 2nd, the Court began its review of the California Assembly Bill 1179, which Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law in 2005.[1] The law imposes a $1,000 fine on anyone who sells or rents a violent video game to a minor[2] and requires that each violent video game imported to or distributed in the state must “be labeled with a solid white ‘18’ outlined in black.”[3]

In February 2009, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision to grant the Video Software Dealers Association’s motion for summary judgment to permanently enjoin enforcement of the California Assembly Bill.[4] Though both courts ruled that the Bill would violate the First Amendment, the opinions of the district court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reflect varying perspectives regarding the inherent value of video games.  The district court ruled that despite the fact that video games are “mere entertainment” and are “base and malignant,” they are still protected by the First Amendment.[5] The Ninth Circuit, on the other hand, recognized that some games, though violent, may “have extensive plot lines that involve or parallel historical events, mirror common fictional plots, or place the player in a position to evaluate and make moral choices.”[6]