December 23, 2005
U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte has blocked a California law that would have made it illegal to sell or rent violent video games to minors, saying he doubted whether such sales could be banned even if the games were proved to cause violent behavior among children.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had signed the bill by Assemblyman Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, to ban the sale or rental of especially violent video games to children under 18 years old unless there is parental approval. The law was to take effect Jan. 1 reports Sfgate
In his ruling, Judge Whyte wrote that "games are protected by the First Amendment"--worthy of the same protection of free expression as books, films, television, or the press. He granted the preliminary injunction on the grounds that the terms of the law, which would include mandatory labeling of games deemed unsuitable for minors, would "likely" be ruled unconstitutional. The decision comes amid a political and cultural war over the content of video games, which last year accounted for $7.3 billion in U.S. sales and rivaled Hollywood box office receipts reports Reuters.
The motion for the injunction was requested by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) game-industry lobby and Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association (IEMA), a game-retailer trade association reports GameSpot
"We are extremely pleased by today's announcement," said ESA President Doug Lowenstein. "For the sixth time in five years, federal courts have now blocked or struck down these state and local laws seeking to regulate the sale of games to minors based on their content, and none have upheld such statutes."
read More at Reuters
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December 21, 2005
ACME Game Store CO-owners Jason Jones, 34, and Jonathan Bryant, 44, as well as Pei "Patrick" Cai, 32 could face up to five years in prison for hawking hacked Microsoft Xbox systems.
According to reports, the men sold Xbox systems that Mr. Cai had modified with chips and hard drives that allowed users to copy rented or borrowed games onto the console for future play. Prices ranged $US225 ($300) to more than $US500 for the modifications, depending on the extent of the modifications and the number of games preloaded onto the hard drive reports Reuters
US prosecutors charged the three men with one felony count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and to violate the US' Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Mr Jones and Mr Bryant demonstrated the modified Xbox game consoles in their
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December 17, 2005
Visto Corp, a maker of software for wireless e-mail, said on Thursday it filed a lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. for infringing Visto patents for technology that support e-mail on mobile devices. The suit, filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, was made a day after Visto licensed patents belonging to NTP, the company that is engaged in a patent challenge to Research in Motion. The NTP case could shut most service to the BlackBerry communications device reports New York Times.
Visto said it is seeking a permanent injunction to stop Microsoft from "misappropriating" technology from Visto and its co-founder developed nearly 10 years ago. Microsoft's wireless e-mail product, Windows Mobile Direct Push Technology, will be introduced in the spring.
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December 13, 2005
Microsoft and MCI announced Monday that they will work together to develop a network to allow people to place phone calls from personal computers to virtually any landline phone by using Windows Live software with its Voice over Internet Protocol capabilities combined with MCI`s global phone network reports M&C.
The deal will allow consumers to place calls for as little as 2.3 cents a minute -- undercutting rates MCI offers existing customers . For Microsoft, the partnership puts it in competition with a growing field of major Internet companies offering free or low-cost Web-based calling services -- from international Web-calling company Skype, a unit of eBay Inc., to Time Warner Inc.'s America Online and Yahoo Messenger reports Reuters. "The intent is to be very price competitive with who is out there," Patty Proferes, senior vice president of Mass Markets and Corporate Advertising for MCI, said in a phone interview.
The two companies said the new service, to be known as MCI Web Calling for Windows Live Call, will be available through Windows Live Messenger -- Microsoft's recent name change for its MSN Messenger, which counts 185 million active users worldwide.
The companies are presently testing the service as part of a Windows Live Messenger limited beta available only in the US. They plan to deliver the beta to France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom in the coming weeks. With the beta version, customers can place calls to some 220 countries.
Further details can be found at http://ideas.live.com/.
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December 8, 2005
Software giant, Microsoft Corp., has launched a beta version of Windows Live(TM) Local, an
online local search and mapping service that combines unique bird's-eye
imagery with advanced driving directions, Yellow Pages and other local search
tools. Powered by the Virtual Earth mapping and location platform, Windows Live(TM) Local, gives users useful new ways to map and find directions to various locations and better visualize their surroundings from multiple aerial vantage points.
"We believe Windows Live Local sets a new standard for what people can do with maps, directions and local search," said Christopher Payne, MSN Search Corporate Vice President.
"The combination of immersive aerial imagery, customizable map annotations, innovative driving directions and the ability to share local search information with others gives users an incredibly powerful and easy way to find what they want and get where they want to go."
The most visible of these features is a new 45-degree bird's-eye view of major
U.S. cities such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle and
Las Vegas. Covering about 25 percent of the U.S. by population, these bird's-
eye images are captured by Pictometry International Corp. via low-flying
airplanes and then integrated with road and satellite maps to simulate 360-
degree panoramas that can be viewed from four compass directions. On-screen
navigational tools and preview tiles enable navigation between directional
views or zooming in closer to a destination. Now people will be able to
experience what it's like to be there, whether they are evaluating a new house
to buy, choosing the exact location to meet someone, or just taking a virtual
vacation.
The new service, is located at http://local.live.com . Over the next couple of years, Microsoft plans to continuously
update bird's-eye, aerial, and road map data and imagery as well as local
listings and information.
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