Times are a little tougher than normal in Nintendo land currently, but one hardly expects to see Mario and Luigi jacking a cab driver.

Footage on the NY Daily News website shows two men dressed as the Nintendo characters—and a third tuxedo-clad man—emerging from a cab in a gas station on Staten Island in the early morning hours of November 1. Apparently the cab driver asked the men to pay up and get out, but the men ended up roughing up the driver, stealing his money and fleeing the scene…. Mama mia!


Thanks Andrew

A VentureBeat story details how Activision Blizzard was able to track down a pirate selling Xbox 360 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 bundles on Craigslist, and how the cracking of that crime led to the arrest of another individual selling illegal copies of the game.

The game in question, of course, doesn’t come out until November 10, prompting the publisher to call in IPCybercrime, a Dallas-based private investigation firm that specializes in online crimes. Turns out, employees at a retail outlet had stolen a crate of the bundles from a store.

However, the thieves had already sold a bundle to a software cracker that was able to figure out how to make illegal dupes of MW2. In what was probably not a coincidence, copies of the game started to make their way onto online torrent and peer-to-peer websites soon after.

Using an email address from a forum post, investigators were able to link a Facebook account to the poster and then, in turn, link an address to the Facebook account. Following a buy/bust sting involving a physical copy of MW2, police were able to pin the crime on 18-year old Christian Del Amo of Miami (pictured).

IPCybercrime’s owner, Rob Holmes, said Del AMo was in position to sell “thousands” of the illegal copies.

A 12-year old Canadian boy on the road to delinquency had his Nintendo Wii confiscated by a Judge in lieu of bail money.

The boy’s nine-month crime spree has included such transgressions as smashing school windows, braining another boy with a pool cue and punching classmates, reports the Winnipeg Sun. Judge Marvin Garfinkle granted the child bail in his last court appearance, but only if he put up his prized possession—the Wii—as security.

The kid risks forfeiting the Wii if he does not live up to release conditions, which include “keeping the peace, appearing for court dates, living with his grandmother and participating in a bail management program.”

The boy’s lawyer added:

I know it doesn't look good. I've never seen him enraged, I've never seen him upset. He's a 12-year-old who is generally quite scared.

Via Kotaku

A United States Postal worker has admitted in federal court that he stole 2,200 videogames addressed to Philadelphia-area GameFly customers.

Reginald Johnson, 34, was busted as the result of a surveillance mission that used test mailings after reports of missing GameFly mailings in the area reports Philly.com. When federal agents swooped in on Johnson in September of 2008, they found a total of 160 GameFly mailers in his SUV along with a slew of other game merchandise and GameStop receipts.

Johnson, a mail processing clerk at the USPS processing and distribution center, was apparently trading the stolen games in to GameStop for store credit.

GameFly is currently embroiled in battle with the USPS over what it considers preferential treatment for Netflix and Blockbuster.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is going after a Florida-based virtual reality videogame accessory maker with charges of violating federal security laws.

Filed September 29,2009 in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, the SEC named six plaintiffs from 3001 AD, LLC: Jimmy L. Barker (CEO), Robert J. Ladrach, Mark S. Rifkin, Ronald B. Bowsky, Jack Maddock and Michael Weidgans.

3001 AD ran a series of gaming installations called Beta Zones, which were first launched in theme parks around the country. These installations promised to showcase “the newest and most advanced forms of interactive entertainment” using virtual reality technology. 3001 AD also created the Trimersion First Person Shooter Gaming Accessory (pictured), a virtual reality system for use in the home with either a gaming console or PC.

The complaint alleges that 3001 AD raised around $20.0 million from 500 or more investors over the period of 1998 through April 2008 through the “unregistered and fraudulent offerings of securities.” The company also apparently utilized radio ads and telemarketers to offer and sell 3001 AD securities for $5,000 apiece, even though 3001 AD had never registered with the SEC in “any capacity.”

3001 AD is also charged with misleading investors that an IPO was imminent. Additional accusations stem from misrepresenting to investors the interest of Microsoft, Apple and Michael Eisner in using, licensing or purchasing 3001 AD’s technology.

The full complaint is available on the SEC website.

A wanted fugitive in Lee County, Florida, was having problems supporting his drug habit. So he hit his local Wal-Mart and tried to leave the store with a bunch of Nintendo DS games that he hoped to sell for some heroin, according to a news report.

A News-Press story said  Daniel Larson, 32, tried to leave the Cape Coral store with about $120 in games stuffed in his pants and shoes. He pushed a loss prevention officer who confronted him, but was subdued. The little shopping jaunt brought charges of violating pretrial supervision, larceny, resisting a property recovery retail merchant, using a false identification that adversely affects others, forgery of a public record certificate and violating parole.

Apparently the theft was one of his milder crimes, as his rap sheet included armed robbery and kidnapping. He had gotten out of an arrest on Sept. 5 using a fake ID.

The story goes into a few details on Lee County's booking procedures and Wilma Flintstone is mentioned. Gotta love some of today's legal procedures.

While Venezuela has been the (unwilling) setting for at least one violent video game (Mercenaries 2: World in Flames), lawmakers there are moving ahead with plans to ban violent games and toys.

The effort, reports Reuters, is aimed at reducing an unprecedented wave of crime and violence. According to Reuters, dozens of people are murdered in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas every week.

A measure detailing the proposed ban passed Venezuela's National Assembly this week. In order to become law, the game ban bill would need to be voted on a second time and then signed into law by President Hugo Chavez.

If passed, the video game ban would not be the first time that the Venezuelan government has targeted a form of media in response to social issues. In 2008 the government banned The Simpsons as unsuitable for children.

Last week GamePolitics reported on the tragic death of 16-year-old Deng Senshan (left). The Chinese teen was beaten to death by employees at a camp for Internet addicts.

IDG is now reporting that 13 people have been rounded up by Chinese investigators. The facility itself, the Qihang Salvation Training Camp, has been shut down after authorities found that it was unlicensed. 122 students receiving "treatment" there were sent home to their families. From the IDG report:

Conservative [Chinese] officials blame hugely popular online games like World of Warcraft for getting teens hooked on the Web, harming their grades in school and dividing them from their parents. Some of the camps have used shock treatment on students, but China banned the practice last month.

UPDATE: More at Slashdot...

It's unclear from reports whether or not Deng Senshan (left) was a gamer. It seems likely, however, given his age and the fact that many of those confined to Chinese Internet addiction camps are there for alleged obsessive play of online games.

Tragically, the Global Times reports that the 16-year-old was beaten to death by three camp teachers on Sunday for failing to run fast enough. His bereaved father, Deng Fei, spoke of his son's death:

My son was very healthy and was not a criminal. He just had an Internet addiction when I left him at the camp. The police informed us that our child had died on Monday morning. We can’t believe our only son was beaten to death.

The teachers promised me that they would not use any physical punishment on my son when I dropped him off... We’re planning to sit before the local government for a protest tomorrow. If they don’t give us justice, we will go to the camp to confront them.

Deng Fei paid 7,000 yuan - US$1,024 - for his son to spend one month at the camp.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that Chinese netizens are outraged by Deng Senshan's murder:

Many [Netizens] questioned the fairly new diagnosis of “Internet addiction” as a mental disorder.

“Internet addiction? It’s a term made up by some so-called ‘experts’, how come these parents believe what they’ve said?” said one commente... “[It] should be the parents’ problem. Why do they always exaggerate their kids’ hobbies, turning them into addictions or problems?” said another...

One netizen called for greater tolerance of Web habits: “I am sure only China has such a term: Internet addiction…. Why can’t its people accept new ideas and new things with an open mind?”

GamePolitics readers may recall that China recently outlawed electric shock therapy as a means of treating teenage video game addicts.

Via: Gizmodo

A 27-year-old college student arrested yesterday by federal agents is charged with modding video game consoles.

Matthew Lloyd Crippen, who attends Cal State Fullerton, was charged with tweaking systems from Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. The arrest was made by agents of the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), reports NBC Los Angeles.

Modifying consoles to circumvent video game copyright protection measures is a federal offense under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. The investigation into Crippen's activities came following a complaint by the Entertainment Software Association; the trade group lobbies on behalf of U.S. video game publishers.

Special Agent in Charge Robert Schoch, who heads the ICE office in L.A. commented on the bust:

Playing with games in this way is not a game -- it is criminal. Piracy, counterfeiting and other intellectual property rights violations not only cost U.S. businesses jobs and billions of dollars a year in lost revenue, they can also pose significant health and safety risks to consumers.

The government of China has implemented a crackdown against online games which feature organized crime themes, reports the New York Times: 

On Monday, the Ministry of Culture issued a notice banning online games that feature Mafioso kingpins, marauding street gangs or any sort of hooliganism predisposed to organization.

The decree, which promises “severe punishment” for violators but fails to specify the penalties, also prohibits Web sites from including links to Internet games that glorify organized crime.

Such games, the ministry said, “embody antisocial behavior like killing, beating, looting and raping,” and their availability “gravely threatens and distorts the social order and moral standards, easily putting young people under harmful influence.”

 As GamePolitics has reported, video games are a frequent target of Chinese government scrutiny.

An 18-year-old Maryland man is heading to jail for seven years for a crime which prosecutors allege was inspired by Grand Theft Auto.

Hometown Annapolis reports that Nathan Wade Hartley, Jr. "door checked" two young brothers last August. Hartley, who had three friends in his car at the time, drove at the boys (ages 11 and 15), striking one by opening the driver's door of his Honda Civic and hitting the other with the front end of his car. The boys were critically injured in the assault.

Deputy State's Attorney John Mark McDonald commented on the case:

This was particularly disturbing... It just makes me worry about what he will do in the future... The only reason these kids are alive is luck or grace or whatever you want to call it.

Maryland radio station WTOP-FM has more:

A teenager is headed to prison for what prosecutors say was a senseless crime inspired by a video game.

 

In the popular game "Grand Theft Auto," players drive virtual cars and intentionally hit pedestrians by smacking them with open car doors. It's called "door checking," and prosecutors say 18-year-old Nathan Hartley decided to try it with a real car last summer.

GP: Is "door checking" possible in GTA? I'm having trouble locating any videos depicting it...

UPDATE: PS3 Attitude spoke to prosecutor McDonald, who denied linking the crime to GTA:

The suggestion came through the Defendant. I have never seen Grand Theft Auto, and had never heard of ‘door-checking’ until this case. It was a defense he set forth in attempting to waive his case back to the juvenile court. The State did not introduce the game into the prosecution of this case. It added nothing. My comments on the game were to rebut his reasoning for doing what he did.

I did not suggest that the game was to blame for his conduct, and would not. The blame lies entirely with Nathan Hartley. I stated as much in court. As I indicated, I have never even seen the game and I was not passing any judgment on the game. I was simply arguing why I felt his justification was not valid.

GamePolitics was in touch with Hometown Annapolis reporter Scott Daugherty, whose original article seemed to suggest that prosecutor McDonald make the GTA link to the crime. Here's what Daugherty told us:

It's been awhile since I've played GTA and the prosecutor has never seen the game. According to the prosecutor, Hartley's defense attorney referenced GTA in court as a defense... I guess the old, "it's not my fault, the video games made me do it," defense.

 

While I don't recall being able to specifically door check someone in GTA Vice City (the last one played), I do remember clipping pedestrians as I drove down the sidewalk. If you hit one they would fly off to the side.
 
That is the best I can offer.

Michael Cherry, a 38-year-old Ontario man in court to plead guilty to possessing child pornography, offered a unique explanation for his crime.

The London Free Press reports:

Admitting he possessed child pornography, a London man said yesterday he lived "in a closed box" of friendless fantasy fuelled by video games, his computer and comic books.

 

"I'd work, come home . . . lock myself in my apartment..."

 

After a difficult childhood in foster care, separated from his siblings, his client became a truck driver who lived by himself in squalor and clinical depression, Squire said. "He was in a black hole . . . a strange sort of world his computer created."

Via: Graphic Policy

There is a bizarre report from Korea today about a man who authorities say launched a denial of service attack on the nation's game content ratings board.

According to JoongAng Daily, the man, identified only as Choi, age 39, is the CEO of a company that helps game developers with the content rating process. Choi reportedly accepted an advance payment from an unnamed game developer who then complained when the rating process did not progress quickly enough.

Police say that, in order to generate an excuse for the rating delay, Choi purchased a hacking program and launched attacks on the game rating board:

[Choi] made postings on Internet bulletins... saying “MP3 files can be downloaded for free” with a link to a separate Web site. If people clicked on the site, they were directed to a pornographic video. While watching the video, the hacking program Choi had bought from China infected the watchers’ computers with a virus. These so-called zombies computers were then used for a distributed denial-of-service attack...

Choi managed to freeze the Game Rating Board 10 times between March 4 and 22, mobilizing some 7,400 hijacked computers...

Much has been written about RapeLay since the controversial Hentai game was discovered for sale on Amazon a few months back.

But while the debate thus far has largely centered around whether Japan, where RapeLay and most similar titles originate, should allow games featuring sexual violence to be published, a recent court ruling suggests that U.S. citizens who possess RapeLay and games of its ilk may be guilty of a federal offense.

Wired's Threat Level blog reports that on Monday the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to consider the appeal of Dwight Whorley, a Virginia man who was convicted in U.S. District Court of possessing actual kiddie porn. But, under what is known as the 2003 Protect Act, prosecutors also charged Whorley with possessing manga which depicted minors having explicit sex. From the relevant section of the Protect Act:

Any person who... knowingly possesses a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting, that—

 

(1) (A) depicts a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; and

(B) is obscene; or

(2) (A) depicts an image that is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in graphic bestiality, sadistic or masochistic abuse, or sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, whether between persons of the same or opposite sex; and

(B) lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value... shall be subject to the penalties provided...

(c) Nonrequired Element of Offense.— It is not a required element of any offense under this section that the minor depicted actually exist.

Threat Level also cites a similar conviction against Christopher Handley, a comic book collector who imported sexually explicit manga containing illustrations of child sex abuse and bestiality. Unlike Whorley, Handley possessed no actual child pornography.

So how does this connect to the RapeLay situation? A [NSFW] review of the game posted on Something Awful describes graphic, forced sex with a mother and her two minor daughters, the youngest of whom appears to be about ten years old. Save for the fact that it's interactive, RapeLay is not much different from the type of hardcore manga which earned federal time for Whorley and Handley.

We should note that a single judge on the 4th Circuit dissented from the opinion upholding Whorley's conviction and urged that the case be sent to the U.S. Supreme Court. But for now, at least, owning a copy of RapeLay seems like a risky legal proposition, indeed.

Cleveland's Fox 8 has a video report (not embeddable, unfortunately) - including courtroom footage - on yesterday's sentencing of Daniel Petric.

The 17-year-old was sentenced by Judge James Burge from 23 years to life in prison for the 2007 murder of his mother and wounding of his father. The incident was apparently sparked over the parents refusal to permit their son to play Halo 3.

The subject of game consoles in prisons is invariably a controversial one.

Some think that convicts don't deserve what might be considered a luxury. Others believe the relaxation afforded by gaming might make prison a safer place.

But U.K. newspaper The Guardian reports that officials at Britain's Rye Hill prison have removed PlayStations 3s from the inmate population over fears that prisoners will use the system's built-in WiFi capability to communicate with those on the outside. A prison official told The Guardian:

PlayStation 3 consoles are barred on the grounds that they have the capability to send and receive radio signals as an integral part of the equipment.

Some inmates were said to be chatting with friends. No information is provided on how those inmates obtained access to a WiFi signal, which might seem to be at least as important an issue, if not more so.

GamePolitics readers may recall that a similar issue was raised last month by Britain's Serious Organized Crime Agency.

UPDATE: IncGamers contacted the British Ministry of Justice and learned that Internet-capable consoles are already banned. This is not the first time that there has been confusion in the U.K. on this issue.

A social game for web-capable mobile phones parodies rogue financier Bernie Madoff's long-running Ponzi scheme, reports CNNmoney.

Made Off, available from publisher Cellufun, allows players to create virtual scams of their owns, promising other players investment returns of up to 20%. Player need to continually attract new "investors" in order to pay back the older ones, lest their Ponzi scheme collapse. No real money is involved. Instead, players trade "cellupoints."

Cellufun CEO Neil Edwards, who says his game pokes fun at the jailed Madoff, not his victims, told CNN/money that Made Off has an educational component:

When your fund goes broke, you go, 'Holy crap, I didn't invite enough people... There is a lot of misconception and confusion on what happened. People don't really understand a Ponzi scheme."

A blurb on the game's website describes the action:

Play as a slimy Fund Manager, a savvy Investor, or both. The game will end without warning when the Feds finally crack down on the Cellufun community, and people managing Funds will get to keep all the Cellupoints invested in them. Investors will keep all the Cellupoints they've acquired through interest payments as well. And we'll give trophies to those who have "made off" with the most profits...

In a time when pedophile cases in which suspects contact their victims through online video game networks are on the rise, Alabama Governor Bob Riley (R) will consider legislation that seeks to protect children from high-tech predators.

WAFF-48 reports that SB 120 is headed to the Guv for his signature after the Alabama House passed the bill on Friday. The measure, proposed by Sen. Myron Penn (D, at left) had previously gained the approval of the State Senate.

SB 120 makes illegal any use of an electronic device to solicit a child and includes cases in which law enforcement personnel are posing as children. From the WAFF report:

The bill outlaws many new ways that predators try to solicit minors... predators can be prosecuted for luring text messages from cell phones, PDA's and even video game systems...

The flight sim community suffered a terrible blow recently as malicious hackers essentially destroyed a longtime website which catered to aircraft game devotees.

The BBC reports that Avsim, launched in 1996, was devastated when hackers trashed both of its servers. Founder Tom Allensworth said in a statement:

The method of the hack makes recovery difficult, if not impossible. AVSIM is totally offline at this time and we expect to be so for some time to come. We are not able to predict when we will be back online, if we can come back at all.

Derek Davis, editor of PC Pilot magazine, told the BBC:

It looks like 13 years of hard work on Tom's part could have been wiped out. Avsim is an important site, because it services the whole community as a source of community developed terrains, skins, and mods - its contribution has been immeasurable....

Via: Ars Technica