...the one in which GP explains why politicians had even more fun with video games than you did in 2007.

Catch it only on Joystiq...

Okay, we now know two things about Kotaku:

1.) they've gone the GamePolitics Holiday Podcast one better, raising the bar for future online greetings

2.) these guys can't sing worth a lick

Check out their terrific Still Not Banned Kotaku Kristmas Kard...

The Recording Industry Association of America, the Darth Vader of the entertainment industry, is known for targeting average citizens who download music.

Now the RIAA has taken a new - and wildly outrageous - position. In a lawsut against an Arizona man who refused to knuckle under to a menacing letter from the RIAA, the organization asserts that it is illegal to transfer music from a CD one has purchased to one's own computer.

From the Washington Post report:

Sony BMG's chief of litigation, Jennifer Pariser, testified that "when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Copying a song you bought is "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy,' " she said...

The RIAA's legal crusade against its customers is a classic example of an old media company clinging to a business model that has collapsed. Four years of a failed strategy has only "created a whole market of people who specifically look to buy independent goods so as not to deal with the big record companies," [New York attorney Ray] Beckerman says. "Every problem they're trying to solve is worse now than when they started."  

Via: Dvorak Uncensored

Researchers in Taiwan claim that playing violent video games may damage one's brain.

Tawain Headlines reports on the work of Dr. Chou Yuan-hua, a psychiatrist at Taipei Veterans General Hospital. Chou studied 30 25-year-olds and found that playing video games caused decreased blood flow in the brain. The effect was more pronounced when violent games were involved.

Chou speculated that players who gamed for longer periods could damage the frontal lobe of the brain. From the news report:

Although no conclusions as yet have been drawn regarding what might happen if blood flow to these brain areas is diminished frequently, it is already known that frontal lobe damage can leave a person emotionally adrift, opening him or her up to odd mood changes and variations in social behavior and personality.

Political concerns over video game violence have apparently spread to South America.

El Mercurio Online reports that nearly a dozen elected officials in Chile have initiated a motion to regulate "excessively violent" game sales.

The legislative proposal, placed before the Economic Commission of the Chilean Parliament last week, would also require game consoles to have built-in parental controls (however, the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii already have such features).

Three weeks ago, a disturbed young man named Robert Hawkins killed eight people along with himself during a rampage at Omaha's Westroads Mall.

While most of those searching for a cause have focused on Hawkins' mental health history and troubled past, Miami attorney Jack Thompson sees a video game connection.

Of course.

Thompson contacted GamePolitics today to say that he was filing a lawsuit against Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren (left) in regard to the case. Apparently the cops in Omaha haven't been impressed by Thompson's video game theories and the controversial attorney wants to force the issue. In his court filing, Thompson writes:

These [rampages] have occurred, in part... because of the advent of extremely violent interactive media (video games) consumed by adolescents and teens who use these murder simulation devices to rehearse and prepare for these murderous assaults.

Any particular game in mind, Jack?

Some of the Grand Theft Auto games, which are wildly popular among individuals such as Robert Hawkins,  feature what are known as “mall rampages” by which the player can rehearse, for hours on end, entering shopping malls and shooting at random individuals therein.

But, Jack, does this lawsuit mean that the Omaha police are not buying into your theory?

Anyone in law enforcement who does not understand or care to understand the direct causal link between violent video game play and these types of random killing events is living in a dream world...

[The] Police Chief of Omaha... refuses to provide to Thompson... the inventory list of items taken, by search warrant, from Robert Hawkins’ residence.

Thompson has served a written request, pursuant to Nebraska Statute 84-712, upon Police Chief Thomas Warren, and he refuses to comply with his legal duty, under Nebraska law, to provide the inventory.

Although it's not clear how, Thompson maintains that Chief Warren's refusal somehow puts others at risk:

In refusing to comply with the law, defendant Warren demonstrably puts at public safety risk residents of Nebraska and elsewhere... 

Thompson has also been interviewed concerning this suit by Omaha's KETV-7 for its 10PM news broadcast. GP has also heard from Ryan Miller, a vice-president with Gamers, a Midwest game retailer. Miller said that he, too, was interviewed by way of counterpoint.

Meanwhile, Thompson attempted to post a message regarding the lawsuit on the comments section of GamePolitics:

I am... well on my way to destroying [GTA publisher] Take-Two. Tonight’s broadcast is just part of the plan.

GP: We're a bit puzzled by Thompson's action since Nebraska's public records disclosure law appears to specifically exempt police investigation files. The following are not subject to public release according to the statute:

Records developed or received by law enforcement agencies and other public bodies with duties of investigation or examination when the records are part of the examination, investigation, intelligence information, citizen complaints, informant identification, or information used in law enforcement training. 

UPDATE: Thompson has advised GP that in place of the lawsuit he originally forwarded to us, he has filed a writ (MS Word format) with the Fourth District Court of Nebraska. His intent remains the same: to compel Chief Warren to reveal the results of the Hawkins search.

Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul's rampant Internet popularity is about to take an amusing new shape.

WoW Insider reports that a World of Warcraft guild will march from the Alliance cities of Ironforge to Stormwind (GP: that's a helluva long walk!) on New Year's Day in support of Paul's candidacy. From the WoW Insider story:
 

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul's internet regiment has come to World of Warcraft - a group of his supporters are planning to form a guild on Whisperwind and do a march from IF to Stormwind (which means they'll probably be Gnomes or Dwarves, which is too bad, because I liked the idea of "Trolls for Ron Paul") on New Year's Day at 8:30pm EST.

The Ironforge to Stormwind route was probably selected because those cities are close to starter locations. That gives Ron Paul supporters who may not have a character on the Whisperwind server the opportunity to quickly create one and jump right into the march without the need to spend time leveling up.

The question now becomes: will Horde players mount a raid in an attempt to disrupt the march?

GP: Actually, no. I just took a quick look and found that Whisperwind is not a PvP server.

Yesterday on GamePolitics we covered Miami attorney Jack Thompson's accusation of an unholy alliance between the defense department and the video game industry.

We think Thompson's argument is a weak one.

If there is a truly controversial aspect regarding gaming and the military, however, it typically centers around the use of video games as a tool for attracting impressionable young men to the service. The Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), for example, have protested against the use of the freely distributed America's Army game for recruitment purposes.

That scenario is playing out in Chandler, Arizona today as recruiters sponsor an America's Army tournament. As reported by the Arizona Republic:

Military recruiters are becoming increasingly creative as they work to boost enlistment rates... a local Army recruiting office is sponsoring a video-game tournament that is expected to draw more than 100 people. Recruiters will promote the benefits of the Army as video-game buffs play America's Army... 

Staff Sgt. Morgan Self, a Chandler recruiting officer, told the newspaper:

In the media, all you hear about is soldier's stories from Iraq and Afghanistan. We're trying to put out the word that it's not all about deployment.

The game is more or less just to have fun. If everyone that was playing was actually joining the Army, then recruiters wouldn't have a job.

Arguing against the event was Arizona State University student Rosela Martinez, who considers military video games a form of propaganda:

Is there an "unholy alliance" between the video game industry and the U.S. Defense Department?

There is in the mind of Jack Thompson.

The anti-game activist sent out a press release this morning claiming that he would turn his attention in the New Year to the U.S. military's foray into the video game space. From Thompson's press release:

One of the consequences of this collaboration [between the DoD and the game biz] is the increasing number of commando-style assaults by young video gamers, such as the recent “mall massacre” in Omaha, Nebraska. 

GP: ...ummm, evidence? Any basis whatsoever for such a sweeping condemnation?

Virginia Tech’s Cho was an obsessive high school player of the military-themed CounterStrike, according to the Washington Post. 

GP: Gov. Kaine's blue ribbon Virginia Tech Review Panel reported that there was no evidence that Cho played anything more sinister than Sonic the Hedgehog. The Washington Post deleted its initial reference to any supposed Counter-strike play on Cho's part. Thompson is well aware of that, but continues to cite the initial - apparently erroneous - report.

….another in an occasional series of reports about gamers who gave their all:

The Californian reports that Army private George Howell, 24, died last week in Iraq when an IED detonated beneath the truck he was riding in. From the newspaper account:

[George's sister] Chardell, 33, remembered her brother for his sense of humor, thoughtfulness and love for his family. An outgoing person, George loved playing football and video games, she said...

“Georgie could not find [a job]… so he went into the service,” Doyle Howell said.  “...he was a special kid … I just wish things could have turned out different.”

Also lost: New Hampshire gamer Justin McDaniel, 19, who died in Baghdad.