We'd like to suggest a new video game rating system. It's super easy to remember and, with only two different degrees of quality, we think it's something just about anyone can understand: "Games That Are Worth Getting Sued for $150,000 to Pirate" and "Games That Are Not." That's exactly the light that James R. Strickland of New York is having to see Call of Duty 3 in, as he was sued last month by Activision after he (allegedly) "copied the Copyrighted Video Game and distributed the Copyrighted Video Game to the public."

Our friends at GamePolitics did a little digging and found that these sorts of lawsuits were pretty common for Activision, with at least six examples that GP could locate. It appears that the suits are for the actual copying of games rather than just sharing files, but we bet it's probably enough to give some wrongdoers pause.

And if you are going to get sued, at least go with Call of Duty 4, OK?

Read -- Activision Sues Alleged CoD Pirate
Read -- Activision Suing File-Sharers RIAA Style?

Turns out not everybody's happy with the recently-announced formation of super-company Activision Blizzard. One particular investor group is suing Activision, claiming that the merger will leave its shareholders in an "unfavorable minority position."

Since Vivendi comes out on top in the merger -- with 52% majority ownership of Activision -- the Wayne County Employees' Retirement System believes Activision didn't think of the stockholders when accepting the deal, which it claims otherwise could have proven more lucrative. No further details of the lawsuit are known at this time. The Activision Blizzard merger is scheduled to occur sometime in the first half of this year.

[Via Next-Gen]

Sometimes, news is just dumb. You can try to spice it up or cover it in jam, but it won't change anything. It'll just make the news all sticky. Take, for example, Major Nelson's recent revelation that Microsoft can't talk about Xbox Live's status thanks to a lawsuit currently pending in Texas. You know what that is? Dumb.

We're not even sure who the dumb party is, the legal system for gagging Microsoft, or Microsoft for not just buying Texas and settling this old school. Boy, first The Alamo and now this. Will Texas ever stop letting us down?

[Via X3F]

A whole lot of people want to get a piece of the lucrative "bobble-headed cartoonish humanlike thing with a totally emasculating name" industry. Clickable Culture brings us the saga of Miis, WeeMees, and Meez, three almost-identical takes on almost-identical things with almost-identical names. Back in November, WeeWorld even sued Nintendo over their Miis, but has unsuccessfully tried to bail on the suit when it looked like Nintendo would win. Can't we/Wii/WeeMee/Meez all just get along?

More importantly, why would anyone want to create a WeeMee -- which begins life as a creepy, hairless alien with a "fig leaf" covering its crotch?