Joystiq

'What's it like to have your indie game stolen?'

Jessica Conditt — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 21:00:00 EST

No journalist, friend or decent human being wants to ask that question, especially not to an 18-year-old first-time developer who recently saw success as a student finalist in IGF 2012. Unfortunately, today we asked Mattia Traverso that very thing about his game One and One Story, after the events unfolded live on his Twitter feed: Traverso alerted the community that One and One Story had been counterfieted with "THEY STOLE MY GAME" and a succession of five tweets that included seven capitalized f-bombs.

One and One Story hadn't been cloned or copied, but it was completely stolen -- code, graphics and all. The group that stole it implemented a few unused assets that were hidden in the game file, Traverso told Joystiq, and its version has completely broken animations and stretched graphics.

"It's kind of hilarious," Traverso said hours after his initial discovery. But when he first got the Google Alert and tracked down the stolen game to the App Store this morning, Traverso didn't find anything about the situation amusing.

"I panicked. I didn't know what to do, so I screamed on Twitter," he said.

His screaming didn't go unnoticed and it drew the attention of other indies, including Canabalt's Adam Saltsman. Saltsman instructed Traverso to fill out a DMCA takedown, and two hours after his discovery Traverso was able to breathe a little easier.

Continue reading 'What's it like to have your indie game stolen?'

'What's it like to have your indie game stolen?' originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 16 Mar 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EFF working to make console modding legal

JC Fletcher — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 11:05:00 EST

Your Humble Indie Bundle dollars at work! The Copyright Office is taking submissions about possible new exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation is petitioning the office to protect "jailbreaking" of consoles, tablets, and other devices to run software other than that supported by the manufacturer. A year ago, a similar EFF initiative resulted in an exemption on "jailbreaking" smartphones.

"The DMCA is supposed to block copyright infringement," said EFF Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry. "But instead it can be misused to threaten creators, innovators, and consumers, discouraging them from making full and fair use of their own property." McSherry asserted that "artists and tinkerers" who want to modify their devices to run whatever they want deserve legal protection.

The use of jailbroken consoles -- or any technology -- to violate copyright (by, for example, playing an unauthorized copy of a retail game) would remain illegal. But the act of modding a console itself would no longer be.

The Copyright Office will hold hearings on DMCA extensions in the spring.

EFF working to make console modding legal originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 02 Dec 2011 11:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony granted access to GeoHot's PayPal records

James Ransom-Wiley — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:00:00 EST

A federal magistrate has authorized Sony to subpoena PayPal for information about California-based funds sent to accounts associated with PS3 jailbreaker George "GeoHot" Hotz, reports Wired's Threat Level blog. The US District Court ruling in San Francisco is the latest development in a jurisdiction dispute to decide whether Sony can proceed with its lawsuit against Hotz in California or must instead do so in Hotz's home state of New Jersey.

Sony alleges that Hotz received donations for his PS3 hack from Northern California residents (via PayPal), and, if true, the evidence could bolster Sony's case to keep the case in San Francisco court. In a court order, Magistrate Joseph Spero defined the "limited information" that PayPal could be ordered to present as "documents sufficient to identify the source of funds in California that went into any PayPal account associated with geohot@gmail.com for the period of January 1, 2009, to February 1, 2011."

Additionally, Judge Spero ordered Hotz to consent to Sony obtaining all of his tweets dating back to Jan. 1, 2009 and to appear in California for a deposition relating "solely" to the jurisdiction matter (with Sony paying for his "reasonable" expenses).

As for Hotz's "impounded devices," a neutral third party, known simply as "The Intelligence Group" (or "TIG"), has been tasked with conducting a "forensically sound" probe of Hotz's encrypted hard drives (and a calculator) for any data related to his PS3 system circumvention hack. Hotz and Sony will split the first $7,000 charged by TIG, with Sony agreeing to pay any additional fees.

[Pictured: George Hotz (screencap); source: G4tv.com]

Sony granted access to GeoHot's PayPal records originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Federal Magistrate allows Sony to look up visitors to GeoHot site

Griffin McElroy — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 15:30:00 EST

Sony was recently awarded another minor victory in its continuing legal action against George "GeoHot" Hotz and his distribution of a workaround allowing users to jailbreak their PS3s. Federal Magistrate Joseph Spero decided Thursday to allow Sony to subpoena Hotz's web provider to acquire the IP addresses of any of GeoHot.com visitors from January 2009 through present day. Sony was also given subpoenas for information from Google, YouTube and Twitter.

Magistrate Spero explained the information obtained by the subpoena would be used to measure the extent of the "defendant's distribution" of the jailbreak files, as well as settle whether Sony must sue Hotz in New Jersey or San Francisco -- the former being Hotz's home state, and the latter being the region in which Sony argues the files were most downloaded. The jurisdiction of the suit will be settled in court during a hearing in San Francisco next month.

Federal Magistrate allows Sony to look up visitors to GeoHot site originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 05 Mar 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Github removes PS3 jailbreak files after Sony sends DMCA takedown notice

Griffin McElroy — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 17:30:00 EST

Removing files from the internet is about as difficult and futile a task as trying to remove an upsetting mental image from your thoughts -- elephants with spider faces! (Boom! That's in your mind now.) This isn't stopping Sony from trying its darndest to keep the PS3 jailbreak files from circulating. The company recently sent a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice to Github -- a site for hosting super efficient Git files, designed to assist coders in collaborating over the web -- to remove the "Custom Firmware" files authored by George "GeoHot" Hotz.

Github acquiesced, removing the files in accordance with its policy concerning DMCA notices. Of course, in doing so ... the site also highlighted the filenames of each of the removed Custom Firmware components!

Github removes PS3 jailbreak files after Sony sends DMCA takedown notice originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Xbox-modder trial underway, no plea bargain offered [update: case dismissed!]

James Ransom-Wiley — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 15:22:00 EST

The landmark jury trial of Matthew Crippen, indicted on two federal counts last fall for running a side-business in which he modded Xbox 360s at his home, began yesterday with opening statements in a Los Angeles court. Wired's colorful report of U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez's colorful reaction to the prosecution's case suggested that the government could be headed toward a deal with Crippen during an early-afternoon recess.

"I really don't understand what we're doing here," Gutierrez apparently "roared," as he ripped into the prosecution. The judge questioned government prosecutors' use of two witnesses who may have broken the law themselves and prosecutors' instructions to the jury that it was unnecessary to prove Crippen had knowingly breached the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The judge apparently backtracked on an earlier ruling that had prohibited a "fair use" defense (i.e., modding for back-up or homebrew purposes). "The only way to be able to play copied games is to circumvent the technology," Gutierrez said. "How about back-up games and the homebrewed?"

However, prosecutors returned from recess yesterday determined to convict Crippen, 28, on two counts of violating the DMCA (for a maximum sentence of ten years) by proving he knew he was breaking the law. ESA investigator Tony Rosario was called to the stand to recount how he had visited Crippen's Anaheim, Calif. home in 2008 and paid the defendant $60 to mod an Xbox 360. Rosario secretly videotaped the procedure -- which the defense argues is a violation of the state's privacy law -- though he did not capture video evidence of Crippen allegedly playing a pirated game on the modded console (nor did he include this supposed fact in his original report or sworn declarations). Still, the prosecution offered up a pile of a 150 pirated games, apparently seized by authorities from Crippen's home, which it hoped would show jurors that the defendant had a clear understanding that he was involved in illegal activity.

Rosario is expected to return to the stand today, followed by two additional prosecution witnesses: a federal agent, who also allegedly paid Crippen to mod a 360, and a Microsoft employee, a so-called expert on Xbox security (and self-admitted modder in his younger days). The defense is scheduled to begin its case tomorrow.

Follow the drama on Wired's Threat Level blog. Update: Prosecutors dismissed their case today, Wired reports, saying their decision was "based on fairness and justice" (read: they made errors). "It still has not hit me yet," Crippen said outside of the courtroom.

[Pictured: Matthew Crippen; photo credit: David Kravets/Wired.com]

Xbox-modder trial underway, no plea bargain offered [update: case dismissed!] originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 15:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LGJ: Unlicensed games and the DMCA

Mark Methenitis — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:29:00 EST

Each week Mark Methenitis contributes Law of the Game on Joystiq ("LGJ"), a column on legal issues as they relate to video games:

Fans of retro games or even just videos about retro games are familiar with the "unlicensed" games that existed on bygone systems like NES and SNES. These titles include a number of "Bible games" and more risque offerings like Bubble Bath Babes (box art pictured above). What's of particular interest to me, though, is how unlicensed games were ever "allowed" in the first place, and how more recent legal requirements more or less eliminate the possibility of new unlicensed titles in the retail marketplace.

We can trace unlicensed games back to the US game industry's so-called "crash" in the early 1980s. At the time, the console market was basically an open playing field. If you wanted to make a game for an Atari console, you just made it. This led to the widely publicized over-saturation of low quality titles, which killed consumer confidence in the home games market. Remember, back then, there was no Joystiq.com -- let alone the other copious resources used to research a game before purchasing. So, when Nintendo came to the US and almost single-handedly brought the video game industry back from the dead, the company decided to take certain quality control measures to prevent repeating Atari's mistakes.

Continue reading LGJ: Unlicensed games and the DMCA

LGJ: Unlicensed games and the DMCA originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pondering UMD's value on sale

Zack Stern — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 16:41:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Portable, Sony PSP, Business

Legitimate sister site, PSP Fanboy, ponders the whimper-like ~~end~~ status of the UMD format. After finding Stomp the Yard as the last UMD available for pre-order through Sony Style, and Amazon listing a few others with a release date of 2025 (read: they may be canceled), PSP Fanboy takes a moment to mourn these movie discs.

But we wonder, having bought a fire-sale Virtual Boy after it was discontinued, is now the time to scoop up UMDs on the cheap? Or should we put our money into Memory Stick and copy our own movies over, DMCA be damned?

Update: Dave Karraker of Sony wrote to remind us, "There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that we are discontinuing the UMD format for PSP." Fair enough. MiniDisc is still around, too.

Pondering UMD's value on sale originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 27 Mar 2007 16:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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US Copyright Office grants abandonware rights

Ross Miller — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 21:50:00 EST

Filed under: Hacks, Retro, Business

Here's something abandonware enthusiasts can be thankful for: the Library of Congress yesterday approved six exemptions to US copyright. The one most pertinent to gamers is that, for archival purposes, copy protection on software no longer being sold or supported by its copyright holder can be cracked.

What does this mean? Well, those retro games -- classic or otherwise -- that you can't seem to find anywhere can now be preserved without fear of ramifications. Although it is still unlawful to distribute the old games, free or otherwise, rarely do any abandonware cases go to court. The ruling is more symbolic than anything, but a step in the right direction.

Other rulings involved the rights of consumers to crack cell phone software locks for use on other carriers, the rights of educators to make compilations of DVD scenes, and the rights of blind people to use third-party software in order to read copy-protected electronic books. These rulings come as clarifications of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). All new rules take effect on Monday and last for three years.

US Copyright Office grants abandonware rights originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 23 Nov 2006 21:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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