Sony Beware

As a result of Sony's legal action against individuals like GeoHot, the online hacker group Anonymous has announced that it has targeted the PlayStation maker over what it believes is an abuse of the judicial system.

Coinciding with the announcement was word from the official PlayStation help and support Twitter account claiming, "PSN currently undergoing sporadic maintenance. Access to the PSN may be interrupted throughout the day. We apologize for any inconvenience." Whether or not that happens to be a coincidence, PlayStation.com and other sites under its domain name (including thePlayStation Blog) are currently unreachable. Sony.com, on the other hand, is fine.

After declaring that the attack is a result of Sony's litigation involving GeoHot, Anonymous'statement declares, "You have abused the judicial system in an attempt to censor information about how your products work. You have victimized your own customers merely for possessing and sharing information, and continue to target those who seek this information. In doing so you have violated the privacy of thousands of innocent people who only sought the free distribution of information. Your suppression of this information is motivated by corporate greed and the desire for complete control over the actions of individuals who purchase and use your products, at least when those actions threaten to undermine the corrupt stranglehold you seek to maintain over copywrong, oops, 'copyright.'

"Your corrupt business practices are indicative of a corporate philosophy that would deny consumers the right to use products they have paid for, and rightfully own, in the manner of their choosing. Perhaps you should alert your customers to the fact that they are apparently only renting your products? In light of this assault on both rights and free expression, Anonymous, the notoriously handsome rulers of the internet, would like to inform you that you have only been 'renting' your web domains. Having trodden upon Anonymous' rights, you must now be trodden on."

Sony is in the processing of suing George "GeoHot" Hotz, a 21-year-old hacker who uncovered (and subsequently shared online) the PlayStation 3's root key. The case has yet to go to trial, with Sony doing all it can to have the case tried in California despite Hotz residing in New Jersey. Sony hasalleged that Hotz fled to South America in order to avoid the courts and had sabotaged hard drives, claims that he has denied.

Anonymous has previously targeted the likes of anti-WikiLeaks organizations, anti-piracy groups, and more. This latest campaign against Sony appears to be a spin-off of Operation Payback, which was a retaliation against distributed denial of service attacks that were made on torrent websites. The FBI has been actively investigating the group since the United States Copyright Office wastaken down last year, if not earlier.

We've contacted Sony for comment on the situation and will report back if the company decides to make any announcements. 

Black Gamers Spend the Most Time Playing Consoles

 Owen Good — Nielsen, the folks who measure every single thing that is or could possibly be done with a television set, have released an analysis of gaming habits by ethnicity, finding that African-Americans game the most per day, on average, Asian-Americans the least.

Black gamers spent an average of 16 minutes a day using a TV to play video games, Nielsen said, according to a study conducted in November of Americans aged 18 to 49. White gamers spent 13 minutes per day, on average; Hispanic gamers 10 minutes and Asian gamers 9. Overall, Americans spend an average of 13 minutes a day using a TV to play video games.

Game time on a TV is a tiny fraction of the set's overall usage, on average, representing about 4 percent of the 5 hours and 11 minutes a TV is on in an American household each day. But it is comparable to the 15 minutes of time a day, on average, Americans spend watching a DVD through their television.

Madden Creator Suing EA

Update: EA has issued a statement to 1UP on the lawsuit. Tiffany Steckler said, "The complaint and its 20 year-old claim are utterly without merit."

Original Story: Electronic Arts already has to contend with both an NFL lockout that could seriouslyimpede sales of Madden NFL 12 and activists upset with a potential cover athlete for the game, and now one of the series' original creators has filed a lawsuit against the company alleging that it owes him millions of dollars in royalties.

Robin Antonick's lawsuit was filed this week requesting a jury trial in California, Reuters reports. According to him, he signed a contract with EA in 1986 that dictated he be owed royalties on derivative versions of the game. He claims that he helped to develop the original game, John Madden Football, which was released in 1988 for Apple II, Commodore 64, and MS-DOS. Despite the increasing complexity of the series (it might still be football, but it's a much different game), Antonick believes the series continues to build on his creation.

"Only recently, as a result of publicity surrounding the 20th Anniversary of the 'Madden' videogame did Antonick become aware that Electronic Arts did not independently develop subsequent versions of its Madden NFL software," the complaint states. "Instead, according to recent statements by Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins, the current generation of software apparently derived from software developed by Antonick."

Antonick says his last royalty payment came in 1992 and that he had been unaware "Electronic Arts decided that it did not want to share profits with him even though he was responsible for the development of virtually all of the ground-breaking technology at the heart of the game."

Confidential negotations are said to have taken place in recent years, the Reuters story notes. With those talks apparently having failed, he is now seeking tens of millions in royalties. He's also after disgorgement, which is a fancy way of saying that EA would be forced to submit profits that it has obtained illegally or unethically. 

April Fools Pranks

Just like the pranks themselves, it's become a tradition each and every year to complain about the pranks and the ensuing confusion that results from trying to determine if Pokemon Kart Wii is real. In order to make sure you aren't falling into the trap of believing that you can play StarCraft with Kinect or can throw feces in Duke Nukem Forever (actually, we're not so sure about that one), we've compiled a list of this year's pranks (along with links) below. We'll be updating the story throughout the day to make sure you stay apprised of what's a prank and what's not. If we've missed any, feel free to drop a link in the comments to let us know. Enjoy!


http://www.1up.com/news/1up-april-fools-11-pranks-round-up

Friday Night Movies

I've decided to link a few torrents to movies for Friday. Hopefully you share the same taste.

Action Themed As Well.

Enjoy!

Tron Legacy

Law Abiding Citizen

Zombieland

Predators

Red

And just for bonus here is a DVD Rip is the Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 1:

Harry Potter

New Disc Format

Microsoft is gearing up for the next Xbox 360 system update, but it needs gamers' help testing a few things out. The company today announced a new System Update Preview Program for US-based Xbox 360 owners to help test a new disc format for the system.

Are there three more exciting words in the English language than "new disc format"?

By signing up at the Microsoft Connect websiteand filling out a survey, US gamers can volunteer to take part in the preview program. Multiple thousands of gamers will be chosen to participate, with Xbox Live Gold members receiving priority over their nonpaying Xbox Live Silver counterparts.

Participants will receive a copy of Halo: Reach (and possibly other rewards as well) for their trouble, but the program is not without risk. During the registration process, Microsoft warns that due to the nature of prerelease software updates, there's a chance participants could wind up with nonfunctioning systems. The agreement makes no mention of Microsoft repairing systems broken as a result of the update.

When asked what security or storage benefits the new disc format might bring, a Microsoft representative told GameSpot there were no additional details to share at this time.

3DS Black Screen Of Death

 Luke Plunkett — Now that the 3DS is in the hands of customers across the Western world, people are finally playing the thing in large numbers. Large enough, it seems, to have found a "black screen of death" error affecting the handheld.

It doesn't seem terribly widespread, so don'tpanic. But those who have encountered the error have stated it has appeared playing a multitude of titles (including Ghost Recon, Street Fighter, Monkey Ball and Lego Star Wars) and at various times; sometimes while engaged in online play, other times using the menu system, and other times simple...playing.

While in some cases the suggested reboot has worked for some, others have reportedly had to return their consoles to Nintendo after repeated error messages.

Whether this is affecting 2% or 0.0002% of users, we don't know. All I know is, trust a Nintendo console to get a failure state that has such a cheeky, charming name.