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XBox (Games) Entertainment Games

UbiSoft Goof Lets Porn URL Into Rainbow Six 83

Posted by simoniker from the linkiness-next-to-godliness dept.
Thanks to CNN Money for their article revealing that an enterprising webmaster has purchased a URL featured in UbiSoft's tactical action Xbox title Rainbow Six 3, and constructed a pornographic website hub around it. According to the story, a "level set in a garage with posters adorning the wall" features a specific website address, and "Texan Tony Ashcraft was one of the early buyers of the game and noted the URL as he played. Thinking the link might feature ancillary information on the game, he told me he typed it into his browser, only to find no one owned the domain. On Nov. 22, he bought it and immediately filled it with porn links." Ashcraft, interviewed for the piece, says: "My intentions were to try to build up traffic and then sell the domain... If they ask me just to change it... they would have to have a pretty compelling reason. If they were interested in buying the domain, then we could talk."
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UbiSoft Goof Lets Porn URL Into Rainbow Six More

UbiSoft Goof Lets Porn URL Into Rainbow Six

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  • Wee... (Score:2, Informative)

    by burntpsilocybin ( 629823 )
    Linky... [interracialporno.nu]
    • I imagine the game linked to a different URL, and this guy has made that URL link to an affilate URL with the link you posted.

      What a sleazebag. :-/
    • Why's this a troll? It's informative... and its the right link.

      Mod up for truthfullness.

      • Re:Wee... (Score:1, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        No, it's not. According to the FA, url in the game should be registered on Nov/22/2003, but...

        Server used for this query: [ whois.nic.nu ]

        interracialporno.nu is [ 207.246.139.149 ] .NU Domain Ltd Whois service
        Domain Name (ASCII): interracialporno.nu
        Record ID: 32087
        Record last updated on 09-Jan-2003.
        Record expires on 06-Feb-2005.
        Record created on 06-Feb-1999.
        Record status: Active.
        Domain servers in listed order:
        Ns1.hosting.flyingcroc.net
        Ns2.hosting.flyingcroc.net
        Copyright by .NU

  • url please? (Score:5, Funny)

    by gmhowell ( 26755 ) <gmhowell@gmail.com> on Monday January 05, 2004 @07:11PM (#7885682) Homepage Journal
    Would it be asking too much for you to link to the 'offending' url? Especially for me. I can't seem to find any porn on the internet.

  • Utterly misleading (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 05, 2004 @07:13PM (#7885704)
    They didn't let an existing porn URL into the game, which is what I inferred from the article title; they just made the mistake of including an unclaimed viable URL address.

  • Cybersquatting? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Mighty Eris ( 729051 )
    Would this count as squatting? Obviously, Ubi Soft wasn't planning on doing anything with this, but they'll probably want to not advertise porn in their games. Seems like a slightly less sleazy variant on the usual squatting extortion scheme.

    • Re:Cybersquatting? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by \\ ( 118555 ) on Monday January 05, 2004 @07:26PM (#7885827) Homepage
      Why would it be cybersquatting? He's obviously doing something with the domain, and he's willing to sell it to whoever will pay his price.

      UbiSoft was stupid for not registering and controlling the domain in the first place, in this day and age they should've known better.

      I find it really sad that anyone can accuse this guy of cybersquatting when he's just being an entrepreneur, no matter how sleazy.

      • Re:Cybersquatting? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Ieshan ( 409693 ) <ieshan@g[ ]l.com ['mai' in gap]> on Monday January 05, 2004 @07:30PM (#7885864) Homepage Journal
        The reason UbiSoft has a good argument is pretty clear. Suppose JK Rowling's book became an overnight success and one of the first readers went out and bought hogwarts.com.

        Then, being an "entrepeneur", he turned it into a porn site.

        It's no different. The only reason why the URL was purchased is because of someone making cash off of someone else's work.

        • Re:Cybersquatting? (Score:3, Interesting)

          by phraktyl ( 92649 ) *
          Not the same.

          The game advertised a URL, at that time not owned by anyone, in the game. As internet-oriented as we are today, this seems very irresponsible on their part, and I think got what was coming to them.

          If JK Rowling had said, `Get your class schedule on hogwarts.com' in a book, and then fail to register hogwarts.com, *that* would be closer.

          Reminds me of a King of the Hill episode where someone was making videos of Peggy's feet for a fetish site, and they mentioned peggysfeet.com (which is not ow
        • I bet you do the same (make cash off of others work). Welcome to capitalistic society my friend.

          • Re:Cybersquatting? (Score:1, Redundant)

            by Ieshan ( 409693 )
            Yes, but I don't take things out of other people's published work and publish wihout permission them myself for the purpose of making profit, which is illegal.

            Welcome to a regulated market, my friend.

          • Not sure how the "them myself" got in there, oh well. Here it is again.

            Yes, but I don't take things out of other people's published work and publish without permission for the purpose of making profit, which is illegal.

            Welcome to a regulated market, my friend.
            • Yes, but I don't take things out of other people's published work and publish without permission for the purpose of making profit, which is illegal.

              I don't think that applies here. If someone took copyrighted material from the game, something like the story or characters, then I think your argument would apply. But I don't think a domain name counts. Well, unless it contains a copyrighted name, but even that's iffy (ex: walmartsucks.com).

              But I don't think this case would fall under the definition o
              • Well, unless it contains a copyrighted name, but even that's iffy (ex: walmartsucks.com).

                That'll never be an issue, since you can't copyright a name (in the USofA, anyway). Names are protected by trademarks [uspto.gov].

                • That'll never be an issue, since you can't copyright a name (in the USofA, anyway). Names are protected by trademarks.

                  Sigh... yes, I mis-typed. I used the word "copyright" in place of "trademark." Thanks for taking the time to point that out... it changes entire meaning of my original post.
        • I really fail to see your argument. First I fail to see anything wrong with purchasing hogwarts.com.

          If instead of a porn site, it were instead made into a fan club site, would you see a problem with it?

          of course not, there are tons of fan sites like this out there and nothing wrong with them. There is no reason that one couldn't buy the domain and do whatever one wished with it. Including HP parady porn or something which has nothing to with the books at all, such as site on warts, hogs, or a porn site

        • Re:Cybersquatting? (Score:1, Funny)

          by Anonymous Coward
          A porn site called hogwarts.com--ewwww.
      • Indeed. It still amuses me that Fox thought this one through a few years ago when Lisa Simpson visited http://www.whatbadgerseat.com/ [whatbadgerseat.com] .
      • Yes, they were incredibly stupid to put ANY URL in ANY game without checking it and making sure they own it.

        However, what this guy did was not "just being an entrepreneur" (although I agree it was sleazy).

        You can't call it cybersquatting, however, since he didn't register it in hopes that someone would want it. He KNEW they would not only want this URL, but that they would HAVE to have it once he turned it into something that would damage their brand.

        My guess is that he will win and they will pay him of

    • Re:Cybersquatting? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by El ( 94934 ) on Monday January 05, 2004 @07:32PM (#7885884)
      If UbiSoft can yank this domain away from the registered owner just because it was published in one of their games, then what's to stop them from publishing 10,000 URLs in their next game and claiming ownership of any of those that somebody tries to register? There is only one way to reserve a domain name: register it! Register it before anybody else does!
  • "Mmmmmmm Quality Control".

    Dolemite
    __________________

  • All right boys and girls ... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Kleedrac2 ( 257408 ) <kleedrac.hotmail@com> on Monday January 05, 2004 @07:33PM (#7885892) Homepage
    ... the word of the article is ... Capitolism. There is nothing wrong with this. I'm not saying I condone this guy's right to make a high-traffic pr0n portal, but I would say the fault lies with Ubisoft. And the moral of the story, always check your links before you release them to the general public!
    Kleedrac
    • " There is nothing wrong with this. I'm not saying I condone this guy's right to make a high-traffic pr0n portal, but I would say the fault lies with Ubisoft."

      The guy who said "oo a game is blasting this URL, I'm going to immorally take advantage of it" is the guy at fault. Ubisoft could maybe have just registerred the domain, but they are not responsible for his actions. Lesson learned I guess.

  • And that's why... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by lightspawn ( 155347 ) on Monday January 05, 2004 @07:44PM (#7885978) Homepage
    if you're going to post a URL in your game/movie/etc, make sure it exists (like CSI did with http://ladyheather.com/ ) or that it can't exist (nonexistant TLD, illegal characters etc).

    It's like making sure your characters' phone numbers start with 555.

  • happened to me once (Score:5, Funny)

    by ketan ( 3574 ) on Monday January 05, 2004 @07:49PM (#7886031) Homepage
    One of my previous jobs had a link to Q&A site Experts Exchange in some sample content. The current link for that site is http://experts-exchange.com/, but they also had a nearly identical URL which was what was used in our product: http://expertsexchange.com/. At some point, its registration lapsed and it got acquired by a domain squatter who was using it as a similar porn portal. If you're not getting it, read the URL again: http://expertsexchange.com/

  • GTA (Score:5, Insightful)

    by tprime ( 673835 ) on Monday January 05, 2004 @07:57PM (#7886104)
    In the Grand Theft Auto III and VC games, many "fictional" web sites are advertised on the radio stations (pogo the monkey, etc.) All of these URLs were purchased, by TakeTwo, prior to the games being released and were realistically filled with content that corresponded to the in game advertisements. It kind of added another aspect of realism to the game, while at the same time kept anyone else from registering the web sites and using them for their own agenda.

    The Ubisoft was simply careless in their production of the game and the gamer had every right to take advantage of that mistake. This is not cybersqatting because it does not infringe upon the copyright of Ubisoft nor does it violate any fair-use guidelines.

    • Re:GTA (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Imperator ( 17614 )
      I don't know about GTA3 but in VC there are (at least) five phone numbers [ign.com] advertised in radio ads. I first thought to try calling one because it was an 866 number, and a game so faithful to the 80's would have used 800 numbers if they weren't meant to be called. (For non-US people: 800 was the area code for toll-free (callee-pays) calls for the longest time. They ran out of 800 numbers in the 90s and started handing out toll-free numbers in area codes like 888 and 866. Thus RockStar ended up with 866 number

  • Ubi soft should.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by culain ( 733686 ) on Monday January 05, 2004 @08:34PM (#7886372)
    In their first patch modify the texture so it refers to a different website. And make sure they register that site this time. From memory XBOX Live forces people to patch straight away, right, so that should completely skirt the problem, and annoy the hell out of the guy who bought the domain :)

    • Re:Ubi soft should.... (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I would guess it would work fine for the pc version. Not everyone would keep up with the latest patches, but certainly the people who are into the game enough to notice the url and actually point their browsers to it would be the type of person to patch their games.

  • Similar experience from friend (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Masem ( 1171 ) on Monday January 05, 2004 @10:17PM (#7887148)
    I have a friend that , while sick at home one day, caught a fake URL on Sesame Street (or some other children's program), and went and registered it, then put on the front page where the URL came from and that if the compare that owned the show wanted the domain, he'd gladly give it to them for free, and was only grabbing the domain as to prevent the case in this article from happening. I think he also fired an email to the company as well. I believe that the company did ask for the domain, but thanked him for his observation. Of course, some others were prepared. The episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, called 'Inter-fection', featured a URL, but Cartoon Network was ready, as the site (still active last I checked) was a perfect addendum to the episode. Hint: if you are going to post a fake domain as part of a show, make sure you actually own it before airing.

    • The episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, called 'Inter-fection', featured a URL, but Cartoon Network was ready, as the site (still active last I checked) was a perfect addendum to the episode.

      Enter the Internet! [yzzerdd.com] Be warned that this site spawns quite a few popup windows. That's a little bit surprising because it uses javascript and I still see them using Mozilla with unrequested popups turned off. Maybe someone can post it to bugzilla and they can figure out why it still works.

      • The popup ads are kinda the point of the site... if you recall, the character that shows up on that website is the source of all the popup ads.

        Another Adult Swim example, an episode of Home Movies had the soccer coach register the domain 'fentonsnakedmom.com' in the end credits; the website used to just be a picture of the characters and said "umm, what are you doing here".

  • URL (Score:2, Informative)

    by Luigi30 ( 656867 )
    At least the URL wasn't goatse.cx...
    • well he could make it a mirror or a redirect...
    • I think if it was goatse.cx, then that would be an indicator of the quality of said game, or at least what it would do to my pocket..
      • ...or at least what it would do to my pocket.

        "bulge"?

        :-)
        • uhh.... just because my name is female, doesn't mean I am. this is slashdot after all, and I'm still scarred from the evil horrid cgi script running trolls around here who use them to redirect from harmless sites to goatse.cx *shudder*
          • uh.... I don't know of any females capable of having a bulge in their pocket (okay, so it's been a few years since I left San Francisco.)

            So, is that a goatse.cx in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
            • the implication here was that my pocket would wind up in the same state as my psyche... a poor shriveled shell of it's former self.
  • I haven't seen the site but I have to wonder why it would be so bad. We have so many games that showcase extreme violence that even a kid's parents will let them play but oh no...not nudity or sex! Not that violence and sex should be associated with each other. We can see someone getting blown to pieces in a game but any nudity would be horrific. Is sex worse than violence? Oh, and I'm not trying to denounce gaming or anything because I do play them.
    • I don't know who has called it "bad" really but I'll try to answer the issues you raise all the same. I have not played Rainbow Six 3 but am familiar with the earlier games in their PC incarnation. The depictions of violence are relatively tame - well, as tame as head shots can be - and especially in comparison to the graphic depictions of violence that, say, Manhunt has. I don't think the story is really saying this is an awful thing that needs to be fixed right away BUT there is a difference between a vid
  • I'm just wondering... is it the parents' fault for allowing children to play a ESRB mature rated game? Is it UbiSoft's faulf for being asleep at the wheel? Or is it the guy who set up the porno portal? He did knowingly buy a domain that minors will see a reference to in a video game and then set it up with porn links.

    I suppose it doesn't matter since it is rated mature by the ESRB and any responsible *cough* game retailer wouldn't sell it to a kid anyway.

    Hmmmm... naybe when it comes down to it, the issue
  • I am far from an xbox fan, but this is another example of GREAT MARKETING. Not so much for the porn URL, but for UBIsoft and rainbow six. Do you know how many people actually went out to buy aladdin the vhs movie when the found out one of the church chapels was shaped identical to a huge penis. Thousands! During the pre-internet days teenage girls were lining up to buy aladdin to see some cock. You think I am kidding, but this is great marketing facts.
  • Hmmm...the guy buys an unused domain that shows up in a game and puts porn there. Most of his visitors will be gamers who find the site in the game, and many of those will be underage.

    A prosecutor looking to boost his "I'm tough on porn!" reputation could probably find some theory under which he could nail this guy.

    Yes, I know net porn is generally legal, but in this case you've got porn that is especially likely to be found by underage people, and also probably less likely than normal to be found by p

    • The way I look at is this: If the domain name posted in the game was unregistered, then boo on UBIsoft for not securing it prior to the release of the game. I dont see how it is this fellas responsibility to adhere to any laws since this domain name was registered prior to the game release. Since this game is played by minors, then the ultimate responsibility lays with the parents to control what their children are exposed to. I would have done the same thing; although, i dont know about the porn...

  • Possibly not UbiSoft's fault (Score:3, Insightful)

    by zero_offset ( 200586 ) on Tuesday January 06, 2004 @09:14AM (#7890122) Homepage
    All but the largest interactive multimedia companies get their artwork done by external graphic arts companies on a contractual basis. Granted, someone at UbiSoft is probably responsible for reviewing those assets, but even then it isn't too surprising -- I've been in that environment and I know how things can slip through when the deadline is looming.

  • It's legal (Score:2, Insightful)

    by spotteddog ( 234814 )
    Just look at WARNING PORNO SITE http://www.whitehouse.com [whitehouse.com] vs WARNING US GOVT SITE http://www.whitehouse.gov [whitehouse.gov]

    If Billy and Dubya couldn't get this changed, UbiSoft shouldn't be able to either.

  • I believe the website in question is http://www.carrodoleao.com/, I went and had a look when I first saw it in the game - and there is no porn there whatsoever! There might be soon, however, as the guy who owns the domain seems to be willing to sell...

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