On why [Peter Sunde] didn't personally attend SXSWi:

"If I come to the US I will get so sued that I won't get out of the US for quite a while."

On the threatening letters received from lawyers:

"You get letters from the lawyers and usually they are very used to the people who receive them just doing what they are told. Lawyers aren't always right, but people are scared of them so we decided not to be scared. Instead we decided to reply in the same manner as their letters - if they sent threatening letters we sent threatening letters back.

You remember that level in Call of Duty 2 where you're storming Stalingrad and there's a kommisar kind of dude with a megaphone berating you as you approach the city? I tried that approach, but minus stuff about the motherland and the glory of Stalin. Unfortunately, my nasally voice coming over Xbox Live saying things like, "Hey, you guys, you really should try to take the objective" and "Uh, can we get a little help over here?" didn't have the same effect as a burly Russian with a big mustache and a megaphone.

So I turned to more persuasive measures. I turned to the essential tool of the Bad Company 2 sniper cop: the tracer dart pistol. Did you know the tracer dart can stick to friendly targets? It sits there and glows. For instance, if you affix it to someone's head - say, someone with a sniper rifle crouching just behind a ridge or in some foliage - that person's head will be super easy to spot from a long way off by other players with sniper rifles. Furthermore, if you attach it to someone's face, it will shine a red glow into his line of site and maybe even obscure his vision. It's like a fantastic glowing clown nose, or the schnozz of a certain reindeer who saved Christmas. And the beauty of a friendly tracer dart is that there's no way to remove it short of dying.

People have wondered for years what Google might be up to with all that dark fiber it had bought up around the country. Now, we may have an answer: delivery of open-access, fiber-to-the-home Internet service at speeds of 1Gbps. That's right: 1Gbps.

Google has just announced a trial run of its new scheme, and it's asking city, county, or state officials to let it know if they're interested in a pilot project. In its initial phase, the fiber optic network will serve anywhere from 50,000 to 500,000 people.

As for the speeds, they make cable's DOCSIS 3.0 and Verizon's FiOS look like also-rans. Google promises 1Gbps home connections, which have previously been the province of boutique builders like Paxio in San Francisco.

Buzz integrates directly with your Gmail inbox, so updates and comments appear along side your e-mails. It bears a strong resemblance to other sharing platforms like FriendFeed or Twitter and Facebook’s News Feed – imagine all of those magically inserted into your Gmail inbox and you get the picture.

It has all the makings of a powerful, real-time social platform that’s ready to compete with, or compliment, those established players.

But for now, Buzz is a bit of a mystery. Only a handful of people are actually using it, so the sharing features don’t really feel that social. It’s as if you’re broadcasting into an empty void. In that regard, my first day with Buzz reminds me of my first few days with Google Wave, or my first few days with FriendFeed. That feeling of being in a big empty room will change once Buzz opens up and more of my friends join, just as it did for those other services.

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.

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.

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.

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.

They began by just writing and drawing a game-oriented web comic strip but Penny Arcade has since grown into hosting a massive game expo, orgazising a children's hospital charity and even helping to develop games based on their strip. Now they have moved into their next venture with the launch of the PATV web site.

In short the site hosts original videos related to games. The first show is (surprise) Penny Arcade The Series with each episode following the two creators around as they do what they do. Other shows made by others are on the way. In fact the first one, Blamimations!, is live now.

In related news, The Child'sPlay web site has revealed that the 2009 donation drive has now exceeded $1.5 million in donations, a new record for the charity that helps children's hospitals around the world.

The e-mail system of one of the world's leading climate research units has been breached by hackers.

E-mails reportedly from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU), including personal exchanges, appeared on the internet on Thursday.

A university spokesman confirmed the email system had been hacked and that information was taken and published without permission.

An investigation was underway and the police had been informed, he added.

I’ve attached a cleaned-up and commented version of the matlab code that I wrote for doing the Mann and Jones (2003) composites. I did this knowing that Phil and I are likely to have to respond to more crap criticisms from the idiots in the near future, so best to clean up the code and provide to some of my close colleagues in case they want to test it, etc. Please feel free to use this code for your own internal purposes, but don’t pass it along where it may get into the hands of the wrong people.

In fact, many of you have commented that you have cancelled your preorders in response to the design decisions made by Infinity Ward. But Activision, publisher of what will be one of the largest titles of the year, doesn't seem all that worried about the backlash from PC gamers.

"We're, of course, watching this very carefully and paying attention to it," Activision president Mike Griffith said in response to a financial analyst, as noted by Kotaku. "But we're not overly concerned about it."

"One of the problems with our PC SKUs in the past is that it has not been as friendly a consumer experience in terms of matchmaking and online play as the consoles have allowed it to be," he added. "Our solution here improves that consumer experience overall by a significant margin. And so we think that the benefits we will see are going to far outweigh any negatives that seem to be surfacing."

I've read so many posts of such a batshit, bugfuck nature about this Modern Warfare Server Thing that it's hard to know where to begin. If you are angry at this break from tradition, and if you feel betrayed by these eleventh hour revelations, these are both situated well within the reasonable and comport (by and large) to the known. Do not buy it. Your platform of choice is the most open, universal digital venue on the planet. A suitor will be along presently.

It's not cherry-picking to say that the notion of Microsoft somehow being involved runs deep. You could be charitable and say they mean Infinity Ward was infected somehow by Microsoft's peer to peer vision, but that's not what they're saying. They're talking about literal collusion to bring about the downfall of the PC. Even though Modern Warfare 2 is launching on Steam, leverages Steamworks, and grants Steam Achievements.

Some of the rage is channeled semi-constructively into (not a boycott, per se, but) a redirection of funds from Modern Warfare 2 over to Battlefield 2: Bad Company - a notion that has been cannily seized by the would-be recipient. Battlefield 2 is going to be pretty good, so why not buy it - but let's pause for a moment and really absorb the idea that PC gamers are rallying around a DICE console port in their zeal. Nevermind the fact that you can't host your own Battlefield 2 servers, and that having a dedicated server for the game involves renting it from one of their partners. Maybe they didn't read the FAQ?

So how easy is it to pirate? Assuming you have a Jailbroken iPhone and Cydia installed, you can simply add a new package source to download the pirating software from Hackulous. This pirating software is simply a kernel patch that bypasses Apple’s DRM system (or something like that).

When you add the package source Cydia is nice enough to give you a message warning you that what you may be doing may be morally wrong (see below). Since I was only intending to pirate our apps, I added it anyway. A quick install of the software and a reboot is all that is needed to allow your phone to run pirated software.

Once the phone is rebooted, all you have to do is download a cracked version of the app from one of the MANY places on the internet, add it to iTunes, sync, and you are done. NOTE: Surprisingly this is MUCH easier than actually buying it on iTunes!!

With Dragon Age: Origins' November 3 launch less than a month away, developer BioWare has unveiled its initial downloadable content plans for the game. Unlike with the role-playing game developer's previous project, the acclaimed sci-fi adventure Mass Effect, players won't have to wait long to expand the upcoming dark fantasy.

They won't have to wait at all, in fact.

BioWare today announced that Dragon Age: Origins will get its first downloadable expansion on day one. Called the Warden's Keep, the DLC will add a dungeon-based quest to the game along with six new abilities, a variety of items, and a base where players can trade with merchants. It will feature a supernatural storyline set in an ancient--and possibly haunted--fortress once used as a redoubt by the Grey Wardens, the ancient order at the center of Origins' main storyline. (A magic suit of Grey Warden armor will be one of the items in the add-on.)

As mentioned in the Sunday Papers yesterday, there has been some controversy sparked after remarks made by Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford to Maximum PC regarding Steam, where he stated that the digital distribution service from Valve was “exploiting a lot of small guys.” This was later countered by an article on Gamasutra where Tripwire’s John Gibson retorted, “Ask the Tripwire Interactive employees if they feel exploited, as they move into their new offices paid for by the money the company has made on Steam.”

Interested to see if there were other positions we spoke to 2D BOY and Zombie Cow, who have sold their games on Steam, to find out about their experiences.

Says 2D BOY’s Ron Carmel:

The presentation starts with some basic information on the various file-sharing networks, and details how the company’s software can detect illegal downloads and automatically send out requests for damages to alleged pirates. Their setup is similar to those at DigiProtect and Logistep who run comparable operations all over the world.

After finding out the addresses of alleged file-sharers they send out requests for damages directly, usually in the range of a few hundred dollars (or in the UK, around £600) per infringement. Thus far, little has been known about the actual profits generated by these operations, but this is exactly what the last part of the DRS presentation covers.

DRS says it generally sends out emails to alleged file-sharers requesting them to pay €450 (650$) per offense. According to the company they get to keep 80% of the money, leaving 20% for the copyright holders. The anti-piracy outfit claims it uses the money to cover their IT costs, administration costs, attorney fees and other costs.

Having virtual sex in Second Life isn’t what it used to be.

The 6-year-old virtual world, run by Linden Lab of San Francisco, is apparently so littered with bootlegged sex toys that it’s hard to know whether you’re getting the right bang for your buck.

Raising the stakes on a two-year-old intellectual property controversy in Second Life, a popular seller of online adult novelties filed a federal copyright- and trademark-infringement lawsuit against Linden Lab this week. The suit claims that Linden looks the other way, while virtual residents rip off the SexGen product line, which includes specially programmed beds, rugs, sofas and even a coffin that enable consenting avatars to engage in virtual sex acts.

In just a few weeks time The Pirate Bay as we know it will be no more. There is no doubt that its demise will signal the end of an era, however, it will also mark the start of a new one. Or to use the words of Pirate Bay insider Rasmus Fleischer, “It’s time to sink the ship and move on!”

pirate bayWhether or not The Pirate Bay will end up being sold, the ship has served its purpose and is destined for Davy Jones’s Locker. Luckily for most BitTorrent fans there are plenty of alternatives.

However, in the current climate where media moguls send their lawyers after everything that could be used to infringe copyrights, a paradigm shift might be needed. This is exactly what Piracy Bureau co-founder and Pirate Bay insider Rasmus Fleischer is hinting at.

Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.

They're not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.

The new version would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental" computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for "cybersecurity professionals," and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.