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WMF Board Elections
2008-06-09 19:35:00
The Wikimedia Foundation board elections are here, again. This time, however, I'm a candidate. Voting qualifications, candidate statements, and questions can all be found on meta. You can vote at Special:Board vote for whatever project you are most active on. For most of you reading this, it will be either English Wikipedia, or German Wikipedia.Voting is based on preference, so remember, if you want me to win, make sure to rank me as preference #1.
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EVE convenes real world council, how does it affect wikis?
2008-06-09 19:30:00
According to Kotaku, EVE Online, the MMO space combat game, has convened a real world council to represent its community of players. The council meets in Iceland (home of developer CCP) and is called the Council of Stellar Management.They rep a gamer community approaching 250,000, according to CCP which bills the stellar managers as "the first democratically-elected governing body in a virtual world.""The CSM will empower players with a formal communications channel to directly impact the development of their society as it grows more and more advanced," a release says.What does this mean for Wikis ? One question facing Wikimedia right now is how to define what the community is. There are of course a multitude of plans for various Wikicouncils, volunteer councils, provisional councils, etc. None of them yet know who the community is they are representing. How EVE fares with their community council could be a good indicator of where Wikimedia's community will end up going with a counc...
More About: World , Real

Come to my panel at Penny Arcade Expo
2008-06-09 19:28:00
I’ll be doing a panel discussion on “Legal Issues in Contemporary Video Games” at Penny Arcade Expo (PAX 2008). My panel will be at the last day of the expo, Sunday, at 3pm. More info to come as I get it.Also, I may be doing a lecture for the GEEX Show in Salt Lake City. More details on that to come.
More About: Panel , Penny Arcade

Gaming: State of the industry -- April numbers
2008-05-16 02:53:00
NPD Group's numbers for the gaming industry for April are in, and its a banner month, especially compared to last year. The industry did $1.23 billion in sales in the US, up 47% from last year's $839 million. This brings the industry's YTD total to $5.47 billion. If anyone had doubts that the gaming industry can play with the big boys, they should be erased now. The breakdown by content area below. * Hardware - $426.2 million (+26%) * Software - $654.7 million (+68%) * Accessories - $154 million (+39%)Analysts are bold on the industry, especially Bruce Everiss, formerly of Codemasters and Imagine. He calls the industry "One of the most attractive areas to invest" and set to grow. He also discusses the product cycles of the X360 and the PS3 (summary: both are a good bit away from hitting their peak and have some time left in them before their parent companies start looking next-gen) and hates on the Wii (summary: it's not worth developing for and near the end of its life...
More About: Gaming , Industry , The Industry , State

Microsoft hits the 10 million console sales mark first
2008-05-15 06:12:00
Keep in mind this is "high-definition" consoles, excluding the Wii. So basically, between the X360 and the PS3.Xbox LIVE tops 12 million members globally as Xbox 360 console sales hit more than 19 million worldwide.REDMOND, Wash., May 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Microsoft Corp. today announced that the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system has sold over 10 million units in the U.S., making it the first current-generation gaming console to break the 10 million mark in the U.S. The U.S. install base contributes to global sales of over 19 million, more than any other current-generation console."This year will be the largest in the history of the video game industry, with Xbox 360 leading the charge in the U.S. and abroad," said Don Mattrick, senior vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. "History has shown us that the first company to reach 10 million in console sales wins the generation battle. We are un...
More About: Sales , Console , Hits , Mark

The future of Wikilaw
2008-05-15 06:08:00
Wikilaw got its start as a combination blog about law school, and Wikipedia. In the process we have covered some very interesting events in the legal world, especially in the field of Biglaw.As I've progressed further in law school, and start getting an idea of where I want to focus my practice (video game law), I have decided to shift the focus of this blog more into the video games and video game law field.We will of course retain our focus in general on Wikipedia (and other Wikis) and general law school related content. However expect the stories on what the mega-firms are doing to drift away, and in the future look towards more things like our recurring content on GTA IV and the EA buyout of Take Two Interactive, as well as major developments and releases in the industry.Also, look for us to be covering this weekends Wikimeetup 4 in DC, and the development of the Wikimedia DC chapter.
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Blizzard nears $300 million revenue last quarter
2008-05-15 06:01:00
According to Kotaku Vivendi Games, via its child company, Blizzard Entertainment and Blizzard's highly lucrative World of Warcraft franchise, made around $340 million in revenue last quarter. Most of that came from Blizzard alone, the developer providing an impressive $295 million to Vivendi's games division, with a good portion of that cash coming from the MMO's 10.7 million subscriber base. Vivendi aims to have another banner year with the release of the highly anticipated Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack to World of Warcraft in the second half of 2008.
More About: Revenue , Million , Quarter

Harvard Researchers: GTA series is ok for kids
2008-05-12 22:54:00
In our continuing coverage on the Grand Theft Auto series, more research shows that Jack Thompson is full of crap.From CNet news:Two Harvard researchers have concluded that there's no data to support the notion that violent video games cause the kids who play them to act out violence in real life, contrary to the vast majority of media outlets that would have the public thinking otherwise. The $1.5 million study, which began in 2004, closely examined 1,200 children after bouts with violent games like Grand Theft Auto and not-so-violent titles like The Sims.Psychologists Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson found that for most kids, playing these games was nothing more than a stress reliever. Sure, some children displayed a playful aggressiveness after hours spent with a violent game, but this was no different than what children experience after seeing a martial arts action movie.Some researchers, including the Harvard psychologists, even suggest that video games have a positive effect ...
More About: Kids , Series

Spore to have draconian copy protection
2008-05-07 21:54:00
So Spore , which is one of the most anticipated games of the decade, and certainly one of the most technologically revolutionary, is going to have some of the most abysmally restrictive copy protection in the history of gaming.According to various news sites, it will require that you validate your copy online every 10 days, or it will cease to function until you can get online to check it.The flaw in this system is unbelievable. Broadband is prevalent, but not that prevalent. What about countries without wide broadband distribution? Does EA just write them off? Once you've activated once, why the need to do it again and again? If a copy is being warezed, after the first dozen or so attempted registrations EA can simply just shut down that ID. Is there any reality to the thought that people's copies will start off legit, but suddenly become warezed after 10 days? That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard.Anyway the post has a good comparison to Stardock's wildly popular Sins of a S...
More About: Copy Protection , Copy , Draconian

Take Two Interactive sues Chicago Transit Authority over GTA IV ad pulling
2008-05-06 19:54:00
So GTA IV released, and as expected, it's game of the year quality, with 10/10 and high 90% ratings pretty much everywhere you look. In a first for the series though, the Chicago Transit Authority has pulled advertisements for GTA IV, and Take Two Interactive is suing:The Chicago Transit Authority has allegedly pulled an ad campaign for Grand Theft Auto IV and the video game's publisher is suing. In papers filed in Manhattan federal court, publisher Take Two, claims the CTA is infringing on its first amendment rights and in breach of its contractual obligations by refusing to continue the campaign.According to Reuters, Take Two wants the ads reinstated as well as financial compensation of $300,000.The ads were removed after a news item ran on a local Fox television station questioning the CTA's decision to run the campaign after a recent crime wave hit the city. This is not the first time GTA IV has come under fire, while fans lined up in droves to get their hands on the game, va...

D.C. Madam Palfrey commits suicide in Tarpon Springs, FL
2008-05-01 21:50:00
From Washington Post:DC Madam Believed to Have Committed Suicide in FloridaALLISON KLEIN AND CAROL D. LEONNIGWashington Post Staff WritersDeborah Jeane Palfrey was convicted last month of running a high-end prostitution service in Washington. A woman who apparently committed suicide in Florida is believed to be Deborah Jeane Palfrey, convicted last month of running a high-end prostitution service in Washington, officials said.Authorities were called at 11 a.m. today to a mobile home park in Tarpon Springs , Fla., where they found a body in a residence belonging to Palfrey's mother. Few other details were immediately provided.Palfrey, 52, was free while awaiting sentencing June 25 on federal racketeering charges. A federal jury convicted her April 15 of running a Washington-area call-girl ring in the guise of "a high-end erotic fantasy service," rejecting her argument that she was unaware for 13 years that female escorts she employed were performing sex acts with clients for money.Au...

Followup: RIAA loses on shared folders
2008-05-01 01:05:00
As a followup to our previous story on the RIAA's legal woes, now one of their fundamental legal premises has been denied.From PCWorld:The Recording Industry Association of America suffered a legal setback this week in a music piracy case where a judge ruled that the sole act of making a music file available in a "shared folder" does not violate copyright laws.In Atlantic v. Howell, the RIAA made the legal assertion that a "sound recording" that is ripped to a computer and stored in any kind of a shared folder is unauthorized. This was an interesting statement because a shared folder can be a very broad category that wasn't entirely made clear by the RIAA.This RIAA theory on "making available" files in "shared folders" wasn't taken lightly by much of the Internet as many blogs and other sites provided misinformation that the act of ripping tracks from a CD to a shared folder was now deemed illegal. To be clear the RIAA doesn't considering ripping illegal, rather loading up MP3s ...
More About: Folders , Riaa

GTA IV critics ignorant to games reality.
2008-04-30 04:33:00
News.com has a great summary of the perennial furor over the Grand Theft Auto series, especially regarding its latest installment, GTA IV. GTA IV has been receiving 10/10 and 5 star scores left and right, and has been nearly universally praised for having a more likable lead character, who actually exhibits a sense of morality (at times). The lead character also is given the option at times to NOT perform heinous acts (within the first hour of the game, the player has the option to not throw a certain enemy off a roof, and instead save his life).The post also helps explain what a ridiculously poor example of a lawyer that Jack Thompson is (Thompson's license to practice is under review by the Florida Bar Association).Here's the post:To many in the video game industry, the two words "Jack" and "Thompson" engender horror and disgust.Thompson, a self-appointed uber-critic of the industry, has spent the last few years railing away at games he deems too full of sex or violence. Never ...
More About: Reality , Games , Critics

Woman wins defense against RIAA, sues back
2008-04-28 21:23:00
And good for her.From BusinessWeek magazine:After being sued by the music industry for stealing songs and winning the case's dismissal, Andersen is now taking the record industry to court. Her case is aimed at exposing investigative practices that are controversial and may be illegal, according to the lawsuit. One company hired by the record industry, she claims, snoops through people's computers, uncovering private files and photos, even though it has no legal right to do so. A different industry-backed company uses tactics similar to those of debt collectors, pressuring people to pay thousands of dollars in settlements even before any wrongdoing is proven. In Andersen's case, the industry's Settlement Support Center said that unless she paid $4,000 to $5,000 immediately, it would "ruin her financially," the suit alleges.Sounds fair enough. The RIAA is well known for having a sue first, demand settlement, investigate if there was actually any wrongdoing later attitude.Andersen ...
More About: Defense , Back , Woman , Wins , Riaa

CNN -- Wikipedia battleground
2008-04-15 15:57:00
For those of you that missed it, here's my CNN appearance regarding the presidential candidates and their Wikipedia articles being used as a battleground.

Wikimedia Blog online
2008-04-15 15:54:00
The Wikimedia Blog is online. New posts are coming through kind of rapidly. Don't fret if your comments get held for pre-moderation -- they all do. But isn't the monobook skin for Wordpress so freaking cool, and well integrated? Kudos to Jay and Cary for getting that squared away.
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Hillary Clinton: What happens at 3AM?
2008-04-15 15:52:00
I really question what Hillary Clinton would be capable of at 3 AM. If, as Bill Clinton has repeatedly suggested, she was "exhausted" at 11 PM when she gave her ill-fated Bosnia comments, how is she supposed to answer a ringing phone over a crisis at 3AM?I'm completely paraphrasing a Washington Post blog on the subject, but the result is the same.In a year in Iraq, I remember every single instance of when I was under fire, sniper or otherwise. Every. Single. One. How in the hell would Hillary Clinton, who was apparently only under fire ONCE, forget?Lets compare: *1 year in Iraq, over a dozen times under fire. Remember all of them.*1 day in Bosnia, never was under fire. Can't remember exactly what happened.Does that sound at all plausible to you? See, this is why I can't vote for Clinton. Up until this point, I was ready to throw my support behind her as a Democrat if Obama didn't win. But I cannot support a Democrat who lies in such a way that trivializes the efforts of soldie...

Bill would make it illegal to feed the Obese
2008-04-02 23:17:00
You'll again have to excuse my absence, but it was our period of frantically trying to get the American Jurist to print. Well at about 7am today after an essentially 24 hour effort we finally got it finished.Anyway, on to news: According to this article by USA Today (commentary by GetFitSlowly), "three legislators in Mississippi want it to be illegal to serve obese customers at restaurants. “The proposal would allow health inspectors to yank the permit from any restaurant that ‘repeatedly’ feeds extremely overweight customers.”"GetFitSlowly surprisingly touches upon the real scary aspect of this bill: But here’s the real problem. This bill would make it legal to discriminate against people based on how they look. We’ve all seen those “owner reserves the right to refuse service” signs out there in the world. And I’m sure some of those owners refuse to serve people based on their prejudices. But those are individual business owners acting on their own accord. This i...
More About: Feed , Make , Illegal , Bill , Obese

Wikicouncil to run Wikimedia?
2008-03-17 03:50:00
So there has been a proposal lately to have a Wikicouncil, an advisory board consisting of community members, floating around on foundation-l. The actual details of the proposed council are completely lacking: how many, how they will be represented amongst the projects, and most importantly: what will it do?What will it do is perhaps the most important question lost in the shuffle. What will this community run group do, that isn't already being filled? Advise? We have an advisory board for that. Make decisions? We have the board of trustees for that. Enact decisions? We have the office for that.It seems to me that the sole purpose of the wikicouncil is to provide a level of oversight on the board and the office: to make them accountable to the community. This is a good thing, and I respect the reasoning behind it, but it's already flawed and doomed by execution. Who is the community? They don't know, but lets set it up first and we'll figure that out later. Who picks the council...

EA launches hostile bid for Take Two Interactive at $26 per share
2008-03-13 17:15:00
Just as I had predicted, game industry juggernaut EA will launch a hostile takeover bid for developer Take Two Interactive . Interestingly it will be at the same $26 per share price tag as before; however due to some moves by Take Two's major investors that deal comes to $1.9 billion instead of the previous $2.2 billion.Savvy readers will note that I predicted that the $2.2 billion bid would not be at all certain to go through. It looks like I was right and the Take Two board balked at it, and so EA is hoping that they can get it from the shareholders directly.As you may know, Take Two is going to be receiving a huge influx of cash soon with the release of Grand Theft Auto 4 this year. EA wants to snatch them up before that cash comes in. Take Two beat Wall Street earnings estimates, in large part due to higher than estimated preorders for GTA4.
More About: Share , Hostile bid

Penny Arcade gets examining witnesses right.
2008-03-12 20:33:00
Brief Prelude: I'm going to be attending the Penny Arcade Expo 2008 in Seattle, if any readers are going to be there. Let me know and we'll have frosty malted beverages of the beer-like persuasion.Also, anyone going to the ABA IP Law Division Spring Conference in DC next month, I'll be there to meet with the Special Committee on Computer Gaming and Virtual Worlds. Since it's in Arlington, VA (Crystal City), I'll definitely be boozing it up somewhere in Alexandria that weekend.Ok, so onwards to the main post, which is really just today's Penny Arcade comic, but I can tell that when I do my next oral argument practice in rhetoric (the ones where we get made up topics), I'm going to definitely use one of the lines.
More About: Witnesses

AU looks forward to the dance
2008-03-11 23:45:00
WCL students don't generally have much to look forward to in the way of sports, unless they're going to Georgetown games, or at the Verizon Center (and come on, who has time for that in March)?But.AU is now one win away from their first-ever NCAA Tournament berth. They advance to the Patriot League Finals for the fourth time in seven years, where they will face no. 3 Colgate Friday in Bender Arena. ESPN2 will also broadcast the game.This is coming after wins against Holy Cross and Army, after a devastating loss to Navy that almost derailed those hopes.You'll have to excuse the lack of recent posting: the potential for AU to go to the dance, as well as appellate brief, write-on, and recent illness haven't been making it easy to post.
More About: Dance , Forward

EA launches 2.2 billion dollar bid for Take Two Interactive.
2008-02-25 17:37:00
EA offered to pay $26 a share for Take-Two, a 50 percent premium over its share price of $17.36 on Friday. The offer was made publicly after a series of private offers to Take-Two were rejected by its board.Obviously, EA thinks they can cash in huge on the profits from GTA IV's release in April.A recent NY Times article on the subject implies that Activision may be interested, but frankly, Activision (despite their Guitar Hero franchise) can't afford it, especially not after investing so much time in a merger with Vivendi to make Activision Blizzard.The deal seems contingent on whether Take Two can get employees at Rockstar and 2K Boston to stick around. EA is much maligned in the games industry as an uncaring juggernaut, and many developers may choose to leave rather than work for EA.I don't see this going through smoothly, and maybe not even at all. Take Two might want the money, but GTA IV is going to be a huge cash cow for them, and I just can't see them letting EA buy them ...
More About: Dollar , Interactive , Billion

I am a Law School Slut
2008-02-25 16:54:00
Interesting essay from a UF law student that, frankly, describes most of the law students at UF.Blockquoted below, as found (critically) from Jezebel.com.From: Benjamin Straight Date: Feb 6, 2008 9:03 AM Subject: I am a law school girl To:This accounts for some 80% of the gunch at law school. Of course- if you are a chick and read this- you will say, "He's not talking about me...." Yeah, just like Lil' Jon ain't talking about you while you are in your slut outfit at the club dancing to 'skeet skeet skeet' at 2 in the morning.I am a law school girl (snatch, gunch, clam, whisker biscuit- pick your subject synonym).Let's get one thing straight up front- I am not here to learn. I am here to prove something.As you pretend to listen to me so that you can fuck me, I will probably tell you that either my uncle molested me or that I was raped when I was 15. I also never knew my father. I was high school class president, president of my sorority, student body president of my undergrad, ...
More About: Law School , School , Slut

Guns at a deposition
2008-02-24 23:42:00
According to Abovethelaw.com, Reggie Bush's bodyguard brandished a gun during a deposition.A lawyer for a sports marketer who is suing football star Reggie Bush said he and his client walked out of a deposition Tuesday after a bodyguard for Bush's attorney opened his jacket to expose a pistol."He made sure we saw it," said attorney Brian Watkins, who represents sports marketer Lloyd Lake.Watkins said Bush attorney David Cornwell told him the bodyguard had a permit to carry a concealed weapon. The bodyguard identified himself only by his first name and did not present a business card, Watkins said.But wait: there's more.The other side of this is in this ESPN story: Lake is a convicted gang member and, according to Bush's attorney Cornwell, made threats of violence including through his own attorney, Watkins."Cornwell also reported details of his first meeting with Watkins. Watkins told Cornwell that Lake was a gang member and that if the Bush camp did not pay off Lake, he [Watkin...
More About: Guns , Deposition

Egypt bans Wall Street Journal over Muhammed: Danger for Wikimania?
2008-02-20 21:48:00
Egypt has just banned 2 German Newspapers (Die Welt, and Frankfurter Allgemaine), the Wall Street Journal , and The Observer over posting the Muhammad cartoons, which was followed withdemonstrations by university professors, deans, and students chanting"Jews, Jews, watch out, the army of Muhammad will return!".This is really the kind of environment we want to host a Wikimania in?I'd have much more respect for people who BOYCOTT Wikimania in thename of free speech, freedom of the press, and journalistic integrity.As someone said on Foundation-l, the jury erred in selecting Egypt for Wikimania, especially given the amount of protest lodged over Egypt's treatment of LGBT individuals. I think now we're seeing even further into the depths of Egypt's intolerance: not only are LGBT Wikimedians unwelcome in that country, but neither are Jewish Wikimedians. Or any Wikimedian that believes in the concept of freedom of the press and free speech.It's time the Foundation wakes up and realiz...
More About: Egypt

Clinton Shows Her True Colors by Targeting Obama's Pledged Delegates, Raise
2008-02-20 20:57:00
As if Hilary Clinton were not enough of a corrupt political insider (more of the same), she's also anti-democratic. In her hell-bent quest to steal the Democratic nomination from come-from-behind frontrunner Barack Obama, Clinton is now planning on stealing his pledged delegates.What does that mean? Well delegates come in two kinds: pledged delegates who are won in the primaries and caucuses, and superdelegates, who are party insiders free to vote for any candidate. Clinton has already come under a lot of fire for trying to win the election based on superdelegates, whose decisions can be swayed by political promises, and are completely irrelevant to the will of the people (who have overwhelmingly been in favor of Barack Obama.)However, now the word is getting out that Hilary Clinton is trying to steal Obama's PLEDGED delegates, the delegates that he won in the state primaries and caucuses. Those delegates, despite their name and their pledges to vote for the candidate who they are...
More About: Colors , True , Delegates , Targeting

Wikileaks Shut Down in Shocking Exercise of Prior Restraint
2008-02-20 20:45:00
I don't need to pontificate here. I'll let a wide array of preeminent law professors and legal scholars do it for me.Privacy and civil rights advocates are expressing their dismay over a pair of decisions made by a California District Court judge last week to shut down Wikileaks.org, a controversial Web site that allows whistleblowers to anonymously post corporate and government documents online.Several called the decision unprecedented and a violation of Wikileaks' First Amendment rights. Others said the rulings were an unnecessarily provocative action that would do little to curtail the publishing activities of Wikileaks, which is mirrored on servers in several countries."I would say my initial reaction is shock that any judge or district court would issue an injunction that would take an entire site down," because it published documents that someone else claimed it shouldn't have, said David Ardia, director of the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard Law School. "It's contra...
More About: Exercise , Shut

Frivolous lawsuits: from 54 million dollar pants to 54 million dollar lapto
2008-02-15 01:57:00
Remember the drycleaning suit where the judge sued for $54 million for his pants? That must be a popular number, because a DC woman is suing Best Buy for the same amount for losing her laptop on a warranty fix. Personally, I see no problem with screwing the incompetent fucks at Best Buy, and they can actually pay. If she turned it into a class action, hell, I might join in.abovethelaw.com for the scoop. Better: details on her blog.
More About: Lawsuits , Pants , Dollar , Million

Blank Rome pay raise to 160K(ish)
2008-02-15 01:57:00
Blank Rome has announced their 1st year pay-raises, up to 160K for NYC, 150K for DC, and 145K and less for Philly, Boca Raton, Cincy, and HK. Abovethelaw.com had the scoop.While the email notes that it is aimed at ensuring that Blank Rome is competitive in those markets, it is in fact a failure: it puts them below market in DC, below market in NYC, and unsure everywhere else. Given that sometime in the next year or so NYC will start moving up to 170's (I doubt that it will make 190 like everyone hopes), Blank Rome will quickly lose that "competitive" edge they so illusively had.
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