A man serving life in prison for first-degree intentional homicide lost his legal battle today to play Dungeons & Dragons behind bars.

Kevin T. Singer filed a federal lawsuit against officials at Wisconsin's Waupun prison, arguing that a policy banning all Dungeons & Dragons material violated his free speech and due process rights.

Prison officials instigated the Dungeons & Dragons ban among concerns that playing the game promoted gang-related activity and was a threat to security. Singer challenged the ban but the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld it as a reasonable policy.

Mules, long noted for stubbornness, would seem to have nothing on either the music labels or Jammie Thomas-Rasset. Both sides have dug in deep and are prepared, almost unbelievably, to have a third trial on the question of whether Thomas-Rasset was a dirty P2P pirate... and of what she should pay if she was.

Thomas-Rasset was the first US defendant of the RIAA lawsuit campaign to take her case all the way to trial. That first trial in 2007 found her liable for copyright infringement and fined her $222,000. She was then granted a retrial by the judge on the grounds that he had been misled on one particular jury instruction that described simply "making available" a copyrighted file as copyright infringement. Citing Eight Circuit precedent, the judge decided that this wasn't good enough and that only actual proof of a file transfer could be counted.

At the second trial, in 2009, Thomas-Rasset was again found liable, but the jury this time fined her $1.92 million. Last week, federal judge Michael Davis decided that this was "monstrous" in its disproportionality and slashed the damages to $54,000. The recording industry could either accept his decision or request a third trial.

At the end of last year, we saw a lot of lists of best games of the decade. But we didn’t read about the turkeys. The games that really flopped. The games industry’s equivalent of Waterworld. Or Ishtar. Or Heaven’s Gate.

I’m not just talking about games that were bad. There are lots of those. I’m talking about games that took down companies. Some of them were never released. Some of them came out and no-one cared. Some of them even made decent sales — just nowhere near enough to cover the costs.

And all of them were costly for someone. Several of them destroyed companies. Some destroyed careers. Others were, in my view, brave and sensible gambles that didn’t pay off.

As the practice of high-frequency trading continues to become more widespread, concerns are growing that erroneous trades carried out by "algos gone wild"–a sort of digitally amplified version of the "fat finger" phenomenon–could cause a market crash at Internet speed, a meltdown that no one could stop. Two recent market glitches could provide a preview of what's to come.

On Monday night, I tried my best to look like a respectable member of society and popped along the Houses of Parliament to attend Labour MP Tom Watson’s discussion about the place and perception of videogames in UK society. A gathering of politicians, educators, games industry folk and random interested onlookers (hullo!), it was a fascinating few hours. Given the knee-jerk hullabaloo we’re so used to from mainstream media coverage of games, it was surprising to the point of surreality to be amidst politicians, hearing discussion of the form on the sort of level we have, say, here. Obviously, games have some distance to go to obtain to achieve full societal acceptance — even though that has clearly little-to-no effect on the ever-escalating success of the bigger titles — but that this kind of discussion is at least happening is a cheering sign.

Lead brains in the discussion were Watson himself (though he was clearly pro-games, he was more an MC than active participant); journalist, author and World of Warcraft gonk Tom Chatfield, one half of the legendary Oliver twins (creators of Dizzy, now running Blitz Games), Philip, and Guardian columnist Sam Leith. While the Tory’s Shadow Minister for Culture ED Vaizey showed up late in proceedings, sadly the debate lacked anyone who seemed especially concerned that there might be negative moral and social implications to gaming. Don’t get me wrong — I’m enormously glad to hear politicians being rational and positive about the industry, but given the opportunity of the event, it’s a little disappointing that it seemed to be a matter of preaching to the converted.

Sure, the iPad's got a much larger screen, and a faster processor, and even 3G, but it's just a bigger iPod Touch.

The killer application for the iPhone, was in fact, its ability to fit right into your pocket. Can you see yourself grabbing an iPad while you dash out your front door? Not me. It's big. And I already have my notebook, which also happens to be a MacBook Pro. Sure, call me an Apple fanboy, I don't care. My main desktop is in fact, a custom built PC. But even someone like me who has an Apple product, I can't vouch for the iPad.

The most critical point about the iPad, is the fact that it can't multi-task. Like the iPod Touch and the iPhone, it can only run one application at any given time. Despite having a powerful CPU on the inside, the iPad is crippled because of its operating system, the same operating system behind the iPhone. Fundamentally, if you already have a notebook and an iPhone, the iPad will have a difficult time finding a place in your daily routine.

Ubisoft have taken their senses and posted them into outer space. Responding to the public outcry for more draconian, inconveniencing copyright management, they have announced their new PC-only DRM system. One that requires you be permanently online in order to be able to play.

The attempt to sell this new system begins with what it doesn’t do. There’s no CD check, and there’s no installation limits. A good start. And then, GameSpy reports enthusiastically, it will support cloud saving. Well, I love cloud saving — it’s something Valve promised ages ago (although with sadly little movement since). When I choose to use it. Which with this DRM, the current reports suggest, you cannot.

The price we pay for not requiring the CD in the drive, and for being able to install a game we’ve legally bought on as many machines as we want, is to be permanently online when playing Ubi games. It will authenticate itself online each time you load it, and then save remotely every time you save.

“I would strongly recommend that no donation drives be conducted unless there’s an existing organization on the ground, in Haiti, that has asked for the help,” Rothe-Smith said. “It does pile up very quickly.”

Donations of old clothes, canned goods, water and outdated prescriptions are accumulating, said Brooks. While such items sound useful, they’re actually expensive to sort, to transport and to distribute, she said. Cast-off drugs can be dangerous.

Oftentimes, the household items donated are simply not useful to the disaster victims they’re intended to help.

“I guarantee you someone is going to send a winter coat or high-heeled shoes,” Brooks said.

"The spread of multimedia communications and its rich 'menu of options' might make us think it sufficient simply to be present on the Web," but priests are "challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources," he said.

The message, prepared for the World Day of Communications, suggests such possibilities as images, videos, animated features, blogs, and Web sites.

The rental feature, which goes live this Friday, will apply to the five Sundance films until the end of January. YouTube says that other films and programs will be made available for rental in the near future, but has not yet named which partners will be involved outside of mentioning that the health and education industries will be included.

Going forward, YouTube is inviting what it calls a "small group" of partners that will be able to apply the new rental model to videos they have hosted on the service. And similar to what YouTube did with paid video downloads around this same time last year, owners of these videos will be able to set their own pricing, as well as duration of how long that rental can be accessed.

In order to rent videos, users must have a Google Checkout account. The company has not said whether it will allow other payment platforms, such as PayPal, to be used as as a payment option.

The new title should be "very close to reveal by now,” according to an unnamed source speaking to VG247. Bethesda's official response was no comment, but the anonymous mole confirmed that the new game will be set in the "Elder Scrolls" universe.

As reported by Duck and Cover, testimony from a preliminary injunction hearing held on December 29 between Bethesda and Fallout yielded information relating to Zenimax Online's project. Duck and Cover reports that the studio has "tens and tens of millions of dollars" as well as "close to a hundred people" wrapped up in crafting a "World of Warcraft"-style MMORPG. Bethesda reportedly has been trying to keep the project under wraps in an effort to stave off competition.

James Cameron's completely immersive spectacle "Avatar" may have been a little too real for some fans who say they have experienced depression and suicidal thoughts after seeing the film because they long to enjoy the beauty of the alien world Pandora.

On the fan forum site "Avatar Forums," a topic thread entitled "Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible," has received more than 1,000 posts from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope. The topic became so popular last month that forum administrator Philippe Baghdassarian had to create a second thread so people could continue to post their confused feelings about the movie.

"I wasn't depressed myself. In fact the movie made me happy ," Baghdassarian said. "But I can understand why it made people depressed. The movie was so beautiful and it showed something we don't have here on Earth. I think people saw we could be living in a completely different world and that caused them to be depressed."

1983: Apple releases the Lisa, the first commercial computer with a graphical user interface (GUI) – the advance that would finally make computers usable by people with no special training. It doesn’t sell well, but it does get Apple on the right development track, sparks the first of many brawls with perpetual rival Microsoft, and sets in motion the animus between Steve Jobs and John Scully that would frame the company’s history for a decade.

There have been rumors for years that Microsoft planned to buy Japanese game maker SEGA. But did you know SEGA hoped to make the original Xbox compatible with Dreamcast games?

The SEGA Dreamcast was launched in late 1998 to great fanfare. The console – featuring dial-up online – was years ahead of its time. Then the Sony's PlayStation 2 launched, and the SEGA console never recovered.

SEGA Chairman Isao Okawa was not willing to go down without a fight. "Before Mr. Okawa passed away," tweets former Microsoft exec Sam Furukawa, "he visited Gates several times, to see if it would be possible to add Dreamcast compatibility into the Xbox." According to Furukawa, Okawa was offering the SEGA assets to Xbox, it seems, which would create a path for Dreamcast customers to migrate to the Xbox.

In October 2007, the release of Halo 3 gave Hollywood honchos a reason to be concerned. The third installment of the popular X-Box computer game series had already generated over one million pre-order sales and there were worries that the cinema-going demographic would stay at home playing the new game instead of spending an additional USD$24.50 for popcorn, soda and seeing either Ben Stiller's Heartbreak Kid or William Sean Scott's Mr. Woodcock.

They were right to be worried. Both films seriously underperformed while Halo 3 raked in USD$155 million on its first day sales. In comparison, the first Spider-man film had an opening weekend of USD$151 million.

Ever since, film studios have been wary about releasing films during the same weekend as anticipated video game releases, and nothing could have been more highly anticipated than Modern Warfare 2.

Late-night traffic on one of the Russian capital's busiest roads slowed Thursday as a couple's explicit escapades appeared on the 9-by-6-meter display.

Some people took pictures of the sight with their mobile phones and posted them on the Internet.

It’s been a hot season for PC gamers, with the recent releases of games like DiRT 2, Modern Warfare 2, and Dragon Age: Origins. To get the most out of these games — to play at the best frame rates, at higher resolutions, and with the most eye candy turned on — a graphics upgrade might be in order, and, for some of your readers, that prospect may be a bit daunting.

Not to fear. For those who might find upgrading tricky, AMD’s here to prove otherwise. In fact, AMD thinks it’s so easy to install a graphics card that even a monkey can do it, and they brought in their primate pal Louie to show everyone.

Bayonetta's hardly a realistic woman. Her legs are probably twice the length of her body, she's disproportionately slender and yet possesses a butt that her character modeler confesses to having spent a lot of time getting "perfect."

Nor is she demure; Bayonetta fights enemies with the same magical hair she wears as clothing, which means vigorous combat leaves her naked. She blows kisses to break through magical barriers. She's constantly nursing a small lollipop, suggestively, for little apparent reason. Oh, here we go, video games are exploiting female sexuality again, right? Not so fast.

Game director Hideki Kamiya is known for distinctly stylizing his action games. The Devil May Cry franchise has always been about flair that often goes comically over-the-top, and characters that make players feel powerful just by virtue of how cool the heroes look.

Simon Glik, a lawyer, was walking down Tremont Street in Boston when he saw three police officers struggling to extract a plastic bag from a teenager’s mouth. Thinking their force seemed excessive for a drug arrest, Glik pulled out his cellphone and began recording.

Within minutes, Glik said, he was in handcuffs.

“One of the officers asked me whether my phone had audio recording capabilities,’’ Glik, 33, said recently of the incident, which took place in October 2007. Glik acknowledged that it did, and then, he said, “my phone was seized, and I was arrested.’’

The charge? Illegal electronic surveillance.

"The internet has allowed a lot of crooks, thieves and squatters to become millionaires. Normally, they wouldn't get a job washing dishes. I have a lot of problems with the internet and with identity theft. It has happened to me twice with my bank account, so I am not a big fan."

Jeremy insisted that the industry only caters to the over-18 crowd. "We don't want kids to watch porn," he told the crowd. Though if they do, he added, there are far worse influences out there – like video games. "[Studies have] found that violent video games are much bigger a negative influence on kids."

If you want to play the latest mech game, you're going to need a copy of Crysis. Your latest option to stomp around in a giant robot is a Crysis mod called MechWarrior: Living Legends. Stomping around in giant robots is a dying art, often relegated to parts of larger games, such as Riddick, Avatar, and F.E.A.R. Here it's the centerpiece for a mix of gameplay styles.

Over the last few years, a couple of enterprising fellows named Joel Musch and Daniel Bass, together with a not insignificant number of cast and crew, have been making a fan-film based on Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. But rather than call it that, they've called it Hero of Time. You know, the avoid any legal complication. You can follow the updates here, where you'll note the movie was finished last June. It was screened at a few public events. It was posted on Dailymotion.com on December 14th for its world-wide release.

Just when you thought Microsoft wasn't freakishly interested in nabbing timed exclusivity for high-profile game add-ons -- wait, why would you ever think such a thought? -- we find out at CES that the company has made sure Xbox LIVE will receive the initial Modern Warfare 2 DLC packs first.

We'll have to wait until we get closer to the DLC's spring release to find out more details, but for now, we can look back at what's been said by Infinity Ward on the add-on front. Have you guys been clamoring for some additional Spec Ops missions? I hope so, because that'd be something I can get behind.

It seems like a lot of fans also want multiplayer maps (duh), although interestingly enough it sounds like many would opt to pay for their favorite Call of Duty 4 maps in order to relive the fun in Modern Warfare 2. There are two add-ons announced so far, so these guesses might not be too far off base.

EVE Online player Curzon Dax scammed investors out of 374.4 billion ISK, the sci-fi-themed, subscription-based MMORPG's currency, with an in-game IPO that promised to reward backers with high returns and expensive ships before the player left the game.

CCP Games's EVE Online is no stranger to controversy, as its player-driven economy and corporation/alliance structure have been the source of several high-profile but fascinating virtual heists and wars. In fact, it's this open, lawless setting that's helped attract so many devoted users to the MMORPG.

While Dax's ISK haul is likely less than the hundreds of billions stolen by the player-run EVE Intergalactic Bank in 2007, it's more than four times what Dynasty Banking (80 billion ISK), another player-run in-game bank, embezzled in January of this year. Comparing the amount to current ISK rates at third-party real money trading services, 374.4 billion ISK would fetch around $14,601 in real-world money.

Two African drums stored at the United Campus Ministry in Durham have tested positive for anthrax, the state confirmed yesterday as it continues to investigate the nation's first known case of gastrointestinal anthrax.

The young woman with the disease, who attended a drum circle at the center, remains in critical condition, state Public Health Director Jose Montero said.

The state ordered the ministry, which serves but is not part of the University of New Hampshire, closed for further testing. As many as 30 drums are stored at the 15 Mill Road building.