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XBox (Games) Government The Courts News

Tecmo Sues Game Hackers Under DMCA 352

Posted by samzenpus from the no-more-cheating dept.
blueZhift writes "This Reuters report on CNet states that Tecmo has filed a federal lawsuit in Chicago under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act accusing the site owners and perhaps some users of game hacking site www.ninjahacker.net (now offline) of knowingly infringing on their game software. This should be another interesting test of the DMCA and just how far it can be pushed to restrict what end users can do with/to their software purchases. This might ultimately affect the legality of cheat devices like the Game Shark and even the mere sharing of cheats or exploits."
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Tecmo Sues Game Hackers Under DMCA More

Tecmo Sues Game Hackers Under DMCA

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  • DMCA Violations (Score:5, Funny)

    by kngthdn ( 820601 ) * on Thursday February 10, 2005 @06:01AM (#11628148)
    Considering how most American slashdotters (myself included) consider the DMCA to be a violation of our rights, I hope everyone will understand the urgency of my plight...I need somewhere to post this cheat code...

    left-right-left-left-B-A-left-down-trigger-left-B

    I can only hope Slashdot has the resources to protect my free speech. ;-)

    Really, though...the DMCA sucks, but I can't see cheat codes being a violation while game makers keep putting them in on purpose. Aren't they the ones writing code to do different things when we enter the codes in? What next, prison time for opening an easter egg in Word?

    Here's [archive.org] a link to the archived site, before it was taken down.

    • Re:DMCA Violations (Score:5, Insightful)

      by blincoln ( 592401 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @06:10AM (#11628190) Homepage Journal
      Really, though...the DMCA sucks, but I can't see cheat codes being a violation while game makers keep putting them in on purpose. Aren't they the ones writing code to do different things when we enter the codes in? What next, prison time for opening an easter egg in Word?

      The difference here is that they appear to be filing a suit against a hacking group that modified the actual program code of their games.

      This to me is an incredible abuse of the DMCA. Hacking a game is like modifying anything else you've bought. It's not like game hackers generally distribute the developer's code, just a set of instructions for modifying the code that is already sitting on other people's consoles or PCs.

      IMO this is the equivalent of a car manufacturer suing the makers of nitrous oxide systems or aftermarket body kits.

      I'm not even sure why they care anyway - when I had more free time, hacking games was in some ways more fun for me than actually playing them. I extended the play time of Soul Reaver to something like 500 hours because of my extensive hacking of the PC version, for example.

      • Re:DMCA Violations (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Babbster ( 107076 )
        I'm not even sure why they care anyway - when I had more free time, hacking games was in some ways more fun for me than actually playing them. I extended the play time of Soul Reaver to something like 500 hours because of my extensive hacking of the PC version, for example.

        Hello? This seems like exactly the reason software publishers/developers would want people to be prohibited from hacking their games - they'd much rather you buy the game and finish it in a month (or even less) so that you're jacked up

        • Re:DMCA Violations (Score:2, Interesting)

          by Zwets ( 645911 )
          they'd much rather you buy the game and finish it in a month (or even less) so that you're jacked up and ready to buy the next one.

          So Valve and ID software must be idiots to make their engine so moddable? Of course not, the more mods available, the better the game sells.

          If you buy an expensive game and are bored with it after a short time, you're not likely to buy the sequel, you're likely to go looking for a title with a little more longevity.

          • PC games versus console games = apples versus something that's clearly not an apple in any way. It's worth noting, too, that PC gamers often have little choice in the matter. It's certainly not like Valve or ID have a history of releasing a lot of games.

            Just because some companies don't mind having their code modified and then redistributed (or, at least, specific sections of their code) doesn't mean that other companies don't have a right to protect theirs. Whether you agree with it in terms of being

        • The whole thing is idiotic. These guys have an inflated sense of the importance of their products.

          I can't understand why they don't embrace the hackers/modders. All they do is piss people off, which is arguably (but not necessarily demonstrably) bad for business.

          The other theory is that this new paradigm includes a revenue stream from litigation.

      • Re:DMCA Violations (Score:5, Funny)

        by ThaReetLad ( 538112 ) <sneaky@blueRABBI ... minus herbivore> on Thursday February 10, 2005 @06:35AM (#11628263) Journal
        Well I personally believe this is a serious let off for people who use cheats in online gaming. I've been lobbying for a new amendment to castrate anyone caught using or creating cheats, so this seems rather tame. I'm just not sure it's a big enough deterrent/punishment.
      • Hacking a game is like modifying anything else you've bought. It's not like game hackers generally distribute the developer's code, just a set of instructions for modifying the code that is already sitting on other people's consoles or PCs.

        I supposed the exception to this would be when your game connects to a network and interacts with other people and their systems. Hacking the game can indirectly mean hacking a hosted service or corrupting an experience that's being paid for by other people. The publis

        • Re:DMCA Violations (Score:5, Informative)

          by Wordsmith ( 183749 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @09:28AM (#11629303) Homepage
          Using copyright law is NOT an acceptable angle of attack on the cracks, as copyright shouldn't govern what the recipient of IP can do with it once it's received (beyond preventing redistribution).*

          THEre's nothing to stop the server operators from using any of the many anti-cheat tools to detect modified copies, and prevent them from taking part in network play. Use a technical solution, not a legal one.

          *I'm an anti-IP nut and don't believe ideas can be owned, so I don't believe in the concept of copyright anyway. But at least keep it consistent with its intended purpose.

      • Re:DMCA Violations (Score:3, Insightful)

        by iainl ( 136759 )
        The real complaint they have is the hacking around of Dead Or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball.

        Team Ninja made a blatently sexist load of shite where the main aim of the game is to win the money required to buy the skimpiest bikini for the digital women they spent so much time accurately recreating the chest-bouncing physics for.

        However, because they like to have some semblance of decency about what they do for a living, you never actually get to see anything, and they've got plausible deniability that it's
        • Team Ninja made a blatently sexist load of shite
          And the original game was?
        • Given how practically every female main character seems to attract 3rd-party nude patches, and their advertising campaign being entirely based around "Look, Girls!!!", it's hard to believe they didn't see it coming.

          Or perhaps this was their plan all along ... [dr evil] muhahhahaa ... MUHHAHAHAHAAa ... MUAHAH AHA HA HAH AHAH A HAH AHA HAAAA.[/dr evil]
        • DOABV was just a precursor to what would have been a more adult game in the future, and the patches beat them to the punch?
      • hacking games was in some ways more fun for me than actually playing them

        Try playing CS and see if you feel the same way.

      • Re:DMCA Violations (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Eskarel ( 565631 )
        This, like nearly every single copyright issue on the face of the planet these days boils down to one thing, what are you buying.

        Consumers tend to believe that when you buy a game, a book, a car, for that matter any item where you plonk down money and take something away in your hands, that you have bought a product and are allowed to do anything you want with said product within some limitations. Copyright and patent law both restrict these rights somewhat, but they don't in and of themselves change the fa

    • No one should be made a criminal in this case. No one is getting hurt. The game makers aren't losing any money. The gamers aren't doing any harm as I can see.

  • Wonder who made those cheats in the first place... (Score:4, Funny)

    by deejaymaxx ( 253408 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @06:02AM (#11628154)
    IDDQD

    Now sue me.

    • Re:Wonder who made those cheats in the first place (Score:5, Insightful)

      by FluffyPanda ( 821763 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @06:36AM (#11628264)
      They aren't being sued for the cheats, they are being sued for making skins (including a bunch of nude ones that TECMO doesn't seem to like) for these games.

      Apparantly they had to reverse engineer the games to make these skins and therefore they are being sued under the cover of the DMCA (natch).

      Personally I think it's a bitch that modifying something that you've paid for, to add value to it so that others are more likely to want to pay for it in the future is seen as a suable offence by TECMO. Bioware, Id, Valve and others make it as easy as possible to make mods since the community efforts can add considerable value to the product at zero cost to the developers.

      Counterstrike anyone?
      • Except reverse engineering is allowed under DMCA. Tecmo has no case here, since the defendents were not copying the game or breaking copy protection.

        "Reverse engineering (section 1201(f)). This exception permits circumvention, and the development of technological means for such circumvention, by a person who has lawfully obtained a right to use a copy of a computer program for the sole purpose of identifying and analyzing elements of the program necessary to achieve interoperability with other programs,

  • Take a stand! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mejesster ( 813444 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @06:03AM (#11628160)
    I hope at this point, some enterprising and idealistic lawyer will finally take a stand for the right of the individual to use and modify his property as he sees fit.

    • Sit back down. (Score:3, Informative)

      by Animaether ( 411575 )
      You already can't "use and modify" your property as you see fit.

      I.e. you can't drive your car at 200MPh - that is to say, you can. But it's against the law.

      You can't mod your car with a spoiler that's twice the width of your car - that is to say, you can. But it's against the law. At least driving on public roads with one is.

      What's being argued here, now, is that you can't hack the game and distribute the hack. That is to say, you can. But it may be against the law (the DMCA one).

      Btw.. the article refer

      • Re:Sit back down. (Score:3, Insightful)

        by kngthdn ( 820601 ) *
        From the Slashdot article:

        This might ultimately affect the legality of cheat devices like the Game Shark and even the mere sharing of cheats or exploits.

        The other article might not make upsurd claims like that, but this one does!

      • Re:Sit back down. (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        I.e. you can't drive your car at 200MPh - that is to say, you can. But it's against the law.

        You can't mod your car with a spoiler that's twice the width of your car - that is to say, you can. But it's against the law. At least driving on public roads with one is.

        both of these are 100% legal acts. I can remove all the emissions equipment, upgrade a yugo to 1500 horsepower and even remove all the seatbelts and there is nothing that anyone can do to me.

        at least until I attempt to drive that car on a publ

      • Re:Sit back down. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by MooCows ( 718367 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @06:37AM (#11628267)
        So?

        Of course you can drive your car at 200mph.. On a closed track.
        Just like having a massive spoiler is perfectly legal, unless you go out on the public road.

        There's (obviously) a big difference between "What you may do with your property" and "How you may use your property in the public area".

        Making a massive spoiler and selling it is perfectly legal.
        Hacking a game and distributing the hack should also be perfectly legal. (in a sane world)

        It becomes more complicated if you use a hack in a multiplayer game, which is a service with rules. Break those rules and you can lose the right to use the service. (makes sense)

        Getting sued for altering your own property in your own home is an abuse of the justice system.
        • But making bombs is illegal. You can buy all the stuff to make bombs perfectly legally, but putting those parts together is legal. I guess they're just looking out for your safety, and perhaps the safety of your unknowing family, when they arrest people for building bombs in their garage.

      • Re:Sit back down. (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Confused ( 34234 )
        you can't drive your car at 200MPh - that is to say, you can. But it's against the law.

        Here you're completely wrong. You can modify the car, and it's not even against the law to do it. There's a whole series of motor sport events that let people doing this compete with each other.

        The only thing that you may not do, is drive your modified car on public roads without having your car recertified by the authorites.

        Your analogy is good, only the conclusions you reach from it are wrong.
        • Man, I hate it that on Slashdot you have to add a disclaimer for every thinkable and unthinkable situation :)

          Sorry. You can't drive your car at 200MPh on public roads in many countries given their current laws with regards to motorvehicles and public road usage within default operating parameters - i.e. excluding special events where public roads are commissioned for racing events a la the Monaco grand prix. That is to say, you can - but it would be against the law.
          (Add disclaimers as appropriate)

          And I di

      • Re:Sit back down. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Fred_A ( 10934 ) <fred@fredshomTWAINe.org minus author> on Thursday February 10, 2005 @06:42AM (#11628289) Homepage
        The keyword here probably is nude. Aren't those US lawyers fun ?

        Next time make a skin where they wear spacesuits.
      • But the point is this is not the public highway. It's helping people to modify their own personal games. If I only use the car on my own personal racetrack, I can and should be able to legally do all the things you mention. The same is true of a game I only use on my own personal computer.

        The only reason modifying your property is illegal is when it affects others, as in the example you give, or with building codes.

      • The complaint also addresses violations that include "various modifications to the source code for Tecmo games" including the creation of "several skins...designed to make Tecmo Characters appear naked." Games the alleged hackers are accused of applying their energy toward include Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive 3, Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, and Dead or Alive Ultimate.

        So uh, texture files are now "source code"? Here's a surprise guys: You make a bunch of games designed for the sole purpose of ti

      • The law restricts the use of your property on public roads in those cases, it does not restrict your use of your property on private land.

        But most important to this conversaion, you have every right to do whatever you want with the physical goods you purchased. Burn the box, microwave the CD, use it as a coaster. The CD is yours.

        The contents, however, are not yours. Software is licensed, not sold, and you do not own it. You do not have the rights you seem to think you have around it becuase of your mistak

      • "various modifications to the source code for Tecmo games"

        That should get them off right there. They didn't modify any source code. To do that would require them to recompile the game. Releasing a few image files you drop in a directory to change what the engine pulls should not be against the law. Opening a file with a hex editor should not be against the law. I dont see how telling a user to modify bits on their own pc's (for free no less, not selling or giving away the actual product) can hurt tecmo's

      • If your car was a techmo game...

        Techmo Autos'r'Us
        Legal Department
        101 Somelane Anytown USA 54321
        777-123-4567

        Sir or Madam:

        It has come to our attention that not only are you selling an aftermarket radio system for our automobiles, you have also launched a website in order to tell others how to replace the radio system in their automobiles.

        Prepared to be sued.

        - Techmo Autos'r'Us Legal Department.

        Absurd, isn't it? Dodge isn't going to sue a store for selling naked-lady mudflaps and a "don'

      • Flawed analogy. Others have already pointed out the issues with what you're saying in regards to ability to modify your car.

        In this case, it's not just about the hacking. If all they'd done was change their own code, nobody would've ever known, and there'd be no lawsuit. The issue is their distribution of how to do it.

        Are you going to argue that it's illegal to write a book or article about how to modify your car? Or to sell the parts to do so?
      • You're missing a major distinction here. The car manufacturer doesn't tell you that you can't drive 200mph or install a huge spoiler, the government does, in the interest of public safety.

        A car manufacturer can't tell you what you can or can't do with your car, once you've bought it, it's yours to do with as you see fit. If you want to paint the car an outlandish color, you can do so.

        Tecmo figures they should be able to tell you what you can do with the software you bought from them (though they probably
    • That's probably not going to happen in this reality. However, we do have something called the EFF which has the resources and will take a stand in cases like this.

      If you really believe what you say, then go join for $15-50, tell them this is why you are joining (they ask), and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see them take this case.

  • "Now offline" (Score:5, Informative)

    by FirienFirien ( 857374 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @06:04AM (#11628166) Homepage
    Hooray for google. Click on the caches. [google.com]

  • Cheats? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by cybathug ( 561017 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @06:07AM (#11628181)
    Nowhere in TFA or the ninjahacker page (Even though I only skimmed it) are cheat codes mentioned. The article says "hacking into popular games... to change their codes" which doesn't have ANYTHING to do with cheating, sounds more like cracking/reverse engineering. You guys are exactly right in saying using the DMCA against cheat codes is ridiculous - hence why this has nothing to do with it.

    • Ugh...

      I can't stand it when crappy reporters collapse computer code and 500 other things that are either binary or not understandable to them into the word "code", or worse "codes".

  • Another reason (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Pan T. Hose ( 707794 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @06:09AM (#11628186) Homepage Journal
    to stop using proprietary software. There are a lot of amazing free software game projects that need our support (like e.g. WorldForge [worldforge.org]) that not only allow but in fact encourage hacking. Proprietary crap is good for uneducated people who want to have a one-size-fits-all black box. For thinking people who want to learn by tinkering, free software [gnu.org] is the way to go.

    • Re:Another reason (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Kiryat Malachi ( 177258 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @06:17AM (#11628209) Journal
      What about those of us who just want to play a fun game?

      Sorry, but most open source games are just not very good. The ones that are fun, are almost without exception the ones that are just ripoff versions of commercial software.

      Have fun with your open source games; I like to play games with production value, which (unfortunately) limits me to commercial software. There are small commercial houses that produce cool stuff (Introversion, ChronicLogic), but even they are closed-source and commercial.

      Enjoy FrozenBubble while I go play Metroid Prime. Enjoy TuxRacer while I get down to Galactic Civilizations II. And we won't even start with MMOs.

      • Re:Another reason (Score:5, Insightful)

        by dasunt ( 249686 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @07:37AM (#11628479)
        Sorry, but most open source games are just not very good. The ones that are fun, are almost without exception the ones that are just ripoff versions of commercial software.

        Amazingly, most of the commercial games that are fun are just ripoff versions of commercial software as well. :)

        • That's true enough, but at least they're well-produced, polished ripoff versions of commercial software.

          Well, after the first couple of patches have been released to fix the initial bugs, anyway...
        • Amazingly, most of the commercial games that are fun are just ripoff versions of commercial software as well. :)

          Ripped-off and polished, or ripped-off and otherwise improved. Blatant ripoffs with no tangible improvement general don't fare well in the marketplace.

      • Part of the reason open source games never have the production values of commercial games is that non-commercial open source projects cannot force their contributers to work 60 hour weeks like some game companies we know. Some will take that statement as a dismissal of open source games, others will see it as another reason to support them. Either way, it's the truth.

        And it doesn't take 60 hour work weeks to beat open source games either. How many open source games have developers who are even putting in 4

    • Re:Another reason (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Mant ( 578427 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @07:02AM (#11628344) Homepage

      How the parent got modded as Insightful is beyond me. OK, the proprietary software = bad idea is popular on /. but that post is just daft.

      People, educated and otherwise, play games primarily to play the game. A very small subset like tinkering with them, hence the mod community for games, which is big, but very small compared to the total number of people playing games.

      I'm a coder, I write software for a living, but when I come home a play a game to unwind, I want to play a game. Generally I don't want to hack and tinker.

      I followed the WorldForge link, the status of the games listed was In Development, Deprecated, Planned, Future, Status is unknown. None actually listed as finished.

      Also, giving the quality of proprietary games vs free (as in speech) ones, I'm amazed at them being called "proprietary crap". Sure, some are crap, but all the really good games are proprietary too (although some have been copied by free versions). Not just good because of graphics either, but game play.

      If your principles really don't let you run any proprietary software, fair enough. But don't pretend that for the main purpose of games, playing them, free software offers much yet, and it certainly isn't close to the proprietary stuff.

    • Re:Another reason (Score:3, Insightful)

      by tesmako ( 602075 )
      Worldforge has not been an argument for open-source game development since 1999. It is at this point rather a shining example of how dysfunctional the typical (large-scale) OSS game project is.
    • Look, its quite simple, these people modified the origional binaries and code for the game to produce modifications of their own, and in doing so they produced a DERIVED WORK of a copyrighted item. That is what they are being sued for. Its exactly the same as if they had done it for a GPLed piece of work and not licensed the resulting work under the GPL. Copyright owners have rights, regardless of whether they choose to follow the same ideology as you or not, get over it.

      To all those that say 'this me
    • What utter bullshit. How many people do you think got a start in games programming, level design, art creation, etc through creating mods, maps and suchlike for "proprietary crap" such as Doom, Quake, Half Life, NwN, etc? How many more do you think will get their start playing around with Doom 3, Half Life 2, and so on?

      Don't get me wrong, open source free (and Free) software is great, but this is at most just a reason not to buy Tecmo's products. It's certainly not "another reason to stop using proprietary

  • Except as a legal test, this is an irrelevant case (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 10, 2005 @06:11AM (#11628191)
    If you look at those caches, the greatest number of people on the site was 88 in mid-2003. The lawsuit is almost certainly designed to test the boundaries of the DMCA in courts, rather than to stop 20-odd people from fucking around with their DOA costumes.

  • Brilliant! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by kyojin the clown ( 842642 )
    a couple of hundred people sharing nudey skins for Xtreme Volleyball now becomes the WHOLE INTERNET!

    way to protect your IP there Tecmo...

    Clearly, this is a pathetic attempt to stir up a bit of froth for what is essentially a dog-shit game.

    no-one will get sued, 14yr olds will break their xboxes trying to make the naked women do handstands.

  • Hold on a sec... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by zalas ( 682627 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @06:21AM (#11628221) Homepage
    I haven't been able to access the site, and the article doesn't say much, but how is hacking games to have new graphics breaking copy protection? Or is there another part of the DMCA they're using? Unless they were distributing hacks to disable CD checking, then maybe, but if they're just altering gameplay, how is that breaking copy protection? Heck, if the patches are done normally, they wouldn't even need to contain any copyrighted material.

    • Re:Hold on a sec... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by clymere ( 605769 )
      hard to say. one of the sideeffects of the DMCA has been companies putting copy protection anywhere they possibly can to protect whatever they wish. if they are invoking the DMCA, i am guessing this os one of those cases. i'm told those who've looked at CSS(and DeCSS) said essentially that its crap encryption, and only really designed to give legal recourse against those who copy DVD's..not to physically stop them from doing it. considering some kid broke it with just enough lines of perl to fill a t-sh
    • All of the games in question were released only for Xbox. The only way to get patches for these games onto your system in the first place is to have a mod chip. Most likely, the games that are being patched in the first place are installed on the hard drive (which is copyright infringement.)

      Bring on the "I only use my Xbox for playing music/movies/emulators". I'm sure all those DivX, mp3, and ROM images were all legally obtained right? Just like how you download Linux ISOs from p2p except they're cleverly
  • The DMCA notice was due to cd check removers or some other thing to allow the games to be pirated.

    That these people also have cheat codes is irrelevant.
    • I wonder how seriously would DMCA apply then :)
      I mean, 90% of users of Morrowind used the NoCD crack. Including great most of owners of the official, legal CD. Simply the CD check mechanism was so crappy that it created really serious overhead. The game with the crack, not checking for CD, ran about 30% faster.

      Definitely the "solemn purpose to circumvent copy protection" wasn't there.

    • Re:Ignore the speculation of the article (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Nuskrad ( 740518 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @06:39AM (#11628276)
      The company specifically stated that one of the things they objected to was the custom skins availiable on the site. A spokesperson said the company is seeking $1,000 to $100,000 in damages for every custom skin swapped over the website. More information in this register article [theregister.co.uk]
  • Does anyone know exactly which hacks Temco is suing over? Hacks that only affect how you experience the game is one thing, hell, I own a Gameshark myself simply because I hate the 20 hours of leveling you have to do in RPGs. Hacks that affect online play are a completely different ball game. Online gaming can be ruined when codes hit the wild. I'm sure a lot of people remember when the SOCOM gameshark codes were released and suddenly there were thousands of invulnerable players running around firing au
    • They made a game DOA Extreme Beach Volleyball, in which a bunch of digital women run around in skimpy bikinis while the XBox performs millions of calculations per second to ensure their breasts bounce in just the right way.

      Then some people came along and made texture patches for those with chipped XBoxes (so someone else did all the hard copy-protection-removal stuff) that removed said pieces of string. This makes Team Ninja look like the dirty little pervs they clearly are, and it's all rather embarrassin

  • Console games... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MagnusDredd ( 160488 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @06:44AM (#11628295)
    This is one of the reasons I will never buy a console. Console games are geared to be throw-away games. i.e. You spend $50 on a FPS, and you are stuck with whatever maps the publisher sees fit to let you have. Even those games on the Xbox that have downloadable mods. Mods on Xbox live see: here [xbox.com] are limited to publisher produced material. This means that you will never see a candyland map for Uneal Championship, or the gigantic burger joint map for that matter.

    I have a few hundred megs of Maps for games like Unreal Tournament, Doom 3, Red Faction, Starcraft, etc, etc, etc. that were created by fans. I have a friend who is really into Morrowind, which is over 3 years old, and mods that offer nudity, god mode, extra locations, extra equipment, skins, and anything else some fan has the imagination and inclination to produce. He has been playing this game off and on for 3 years... I'm still playing Neverwinter Nights.

    And for the game companies: attack your customers at your peril... We don't care about IP, we don't care whether you are too puritanical for nude skins, or whatever. A new game is a toy to us that will be used as we see fit. If you want to clamp down, many people simply won't buy from you. I sure as hell won't. And furthermore this makes me feel like I have made the right decision in avoiding the console market altogether.
    • This means that you will never see a candyland map for Uneal Championship, or the gigantic burger joint map for that matter.

      But at the same time it means you'll never see Tekken, R-Type Final, Metal Gear Solid, Dead or Alive, TimeSplitters Future Perfect... I could go on forever.

      The games you list are designed for the PC. The games I've listed are designed for Consoles.

      You don't seem to understand why people prefer to play games on a Console than on a PC. Try making your argument less biased next time.
      • Actually that's not entirely true. Where those specific games may not be available on Windows. There are games that are similar to them that are available. Of the above games, Metal Gear Solid is a 3rd person game like Oni. The Dead or Alive games are basically soft porn, and I'm not a teenager anymore. R-Type is kinda cool, and I have a few pretty cool side and top scrollers on Windows and MacOS. I also have a copy of MAME.

        I do wish the publishers would release more of the games you find in an arcad

    • Console games still outsell PC games, so lots of people clearly don't care about getting hold of player created content.

      For some games types it isn't that relevant anyway. New maps or models work well for multiplayer FPS, but don't make much sense for fighting games for example.

      Now I own both, and I've really enjoyed Mods for UT/UT2003, Freedom Force, FreeSpace and others. It hasn't stopped me enjoying the console games as well though.

    • So you are saying that PC game companies would never try this crap? That's just naive.

      You can like PC games better than console games. That's fine. This, however, is a problem with the government and corporate America in general that is likely to get worse before it gets better. If you think PC games are safe from this kind of crap, you're wrong.

  • Contact Tecmo (Score:5, Informative)

    by neoThoth ( 125081 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @07:12AM (#11628386) Homepage
    We are the target market for these companies and you should take your outrage to them. Here is some contact info. Remember to be polite but firm :)

    Public Relations
    PublicRelations@tecmoinc.com

    Customer Service
    CustomerService@tecmoinc.com

    Game Counselor
    GameCounselor@tecmoinc.com

    Business Accounts
    BusinessAccounts@tecmoinc.com

    Public Relations
    PublicRelations@tecmoinc.com

    Corporate Opertunities
    Jobs@tecmoinc.com

    Webmaster
    Webmaster@tecmoinc.com

    Contact Us Via Snail Mail:
    Tecmo Inc.
    PO Box 5553
    21213-B Hawthorne Blvd.
    Torrance, CA 90503

    Contact Us Via Fax or Phone:
    Phone: 310.944.5005
    Fax: 310.944.3344

    Contact Us Via Email:
    Contact@tecmoinc.com
    • I've done my part.. if you have writers block, use this as an example:

      To: Tecmo Public Relations, Tecmo Legal Department, Tecmo Employees

      I feel that the actions your company is taking against www.ninjahacker.com are both irresponsible and unnecessary. Game modification has been a part of the gaming community for years. "Hacked" (or modified) games create a dynamic game experience and allows the user to be connected to other fans of the game.

      The damage being done on your company's image by continu
  • I figure its worth pointing out that the statement that this will be a test of how far the DMCA can be applied to software people purchase is inaccurate. Its a test of how far the DMCA can be applied to enforce the fact that people have purchased media and an associated license for the software, and as such have no rights beyond what are granted by the software owner. I'd doubt very many people on /. have ever really bought software.

    The publisher can't tell you that you can't use their CD as a coaster, or

    • Its a test of how far the DMCA can be applied to enforce the fact that people have purchased media and an associated license for the software, and as such have no rights beyond what are granted by the software owner. I'd doubt very many people on /. have ever really bought software.

      That's what the software vendors want you to believe, but I don't believe it's true in law anywhere; certainly not here in Scotland. Unless you physically signed -- on the paper -- the agreement before you paid your money, it

      • How much bandwidth do you have available to you in Scotland? If thats the law there, that means you could rip every CD and DVD you get your hands on, and put them online for the rest of us.

        Got the rest of the season one episodes of Battlestar Galactica taped? I assume you weren't forced to sign anything before buying a product with a tuner in it, right? Those should be free game, too, then.
    • And in other news, authors of books are now filing suit against readers who dare read their books backwards or in random order, or even reassemble the words present in the book in their minds.

      The whole concept of intellectual "property" sucks. I had an idea - pay me. I'm glad I don't live in the US. But I wish the US would stop trying to impose its laws on other countries.

      You can't copyright a story - only the particular words that you choose to describe that story. The order of those words als

      • What? (Score:3, Informative)

        by tgd ( 2822 )
        If you think car companies don't sue each other left and right constantly, you're living with your head in the sand. They sue from things as trivial as naming (Porsche 911 has a "1" in the middle digit because Peugeot owned car names with zero as a middle digit -- the original 911 was a 901)

        Car makes sue over grill designs, interior designs, ergonomic innovations, brake system designs, motor design. The lists go on and on.

        And clearly nearly 200 years of industrialized history has demonstrated your conente
  • ...like it wouldn't have been "offline" anyway after getting front-page mention on /.!
  • If you provide software on a disk to your customers then someone somewhere will hack it, fact of life.

    Of course the difference is when the people who hack it post details on the Internet. I have a problem with current titles being hacked and details posted on the net, but not with old games.

    I guess when the DRM pushers have their way we will all be prevented from hacking code. Maybe sometime in the future people won't be able to repair, resurrect or emulate old systems. The machine code debugger will be a
  • The point of DMCA is to restrict what end users can do with/to your software purchases...
    Note: *YOUR* software purchases.

    The way it is going, it seem that in the future, you will not own what you pay for anyomore, you will just pay for the right to use somebody's product, what you can do with your stuff depends on the manufactor's good will.

  • In other news... (Score:3, Funny)

    by tgrigsby ( 164308 ) on Thursday February 10, 2005 @12:37PM (#11632202) Homepage Journal
    ...Japanese automobile manufacturers have launched a coordinated legal attack against car owners that modify their vehicles.

    "Adding nitrous systems to the fuel injection and 'coffee can' mufflers to the exhaust systems are clearly actions that violate the DMCA," said Hiroshi Yagasaki, lead attorney for Toyota.

    Taking a page from the RIAA, investigators have been hired to watch for teens entering automotive parts stores to purchase after market parts for compact vehicles. Fake auto parts websites have been set up to net offenders who would order parts online.

    "These young hooligans are clearly stealing from the car companies by circumventing our state-of-the-art protection schemes, which we call 'The Hood'."

    Commander Taco was not available for comment.

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