It's crowd-source funding fever! UK game industry trade group UKIE announced this week that it will be publishing a new crowd funding report that urges the government to pass new legislation that will allow game companies to take advantage of this financing model to fund their businesses or projects. The announcement was no doubt inspired by the success of Double Fine's Kickstarter campaign - which has raised over $1.3 million dollars so far.

Google's ears must be ringing because the House of Commons seems to be saying its name a lot this week. Ministers in the UK are arguing over Google's supposed influence in UK copyright policy.

Pete Wishart, a Scottish MP from Perth, took to the floor earlier in the week to give online rights groups and companies like Google a piece of his mind. Ars Technica has a great news story chronicling the exchange among lawmakers. First up is MP Wishart:

Rocksteady co-founder and game director Sefton Hill has called on the UK government to offer tax breaks to game studios before it’s too late. Hill says it is time for the UK to support its games studios to match the benefits offered overseas or risk losing them.

"A lot of my friends have moved abroad to get work; there's a real talent drain," Hill said in an interview with CVG. "Montreal is a central place for development and it's mainly because the tax breaks they give are so phenomenal."

David Martin, a British MEP from the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) party, has been asked to draw up the European Parliament's opinion on ACTA, after French Socialist MEP Kader Arif quit the position in protest of the lack of transparency related to ACTA's progress in the European Union Parliament.

"I want the Parliament to have a facts-based discussion and not a debate around myths," Martin said in a statement. "That is why I want to have an open debate with all concerned.”

According to a developer survey conducted by UK game industry trade group TIGA, only 33 percent of developers in the United Kingdom are working solely on games for traditional retail. Only ten percent of those start-ups surveyed said that retail was their area of focus. The rest, two-thirds according to TIGA, are working on digital or social game properties. TIGA claims that just 33 percent of UK developers now work solely on retail, and based on survey results, estimates that the digital and social games sector will grow by 21 percent every year until 2015.

A story by the UK's Daily Mail newspaper and the BBC that tapped an expert claiming that games were turning children who played them in to the wee hours of the night in to zombies has been debunked. The expert cited in the story says that the quotes attributed to him were completely fabricated.

The Daily Mail and BBC reports quoted Robert Hart-Fletcher of charity Kids and Media. According to the reports he said:

UKIE is planning on launching a digital chart next month, but many wonder how on earth the UK games industry trade group will be able to get an accurate measurement of digital sales because it is missing two major players in the space. The problem is that UKIE's digital charts won't include EA's Origin or - more importantly - Valve's Steam.

"I would love every company to be involved in the project. Are we going to get every company? Probably not," UKIE's Sam Collins told GamesIndustry.biz.

UK video game industry trade group UKIE has sold its stake in chart tracking firm GfK Chart-Track, according to a report in MCV. The trade group has reserved - but still has a deal for exclusive access to its data. UKIE held a 20 percent stake, which it sold to GfK, which has had a majority ownership of Chart-Track since 2008.

British broadcasting standards agency Ofcom has given broadcaster ITV a very public verbal beating today over labeling a clip from video game Arma 2 as real-life footage of a Libya-funded IRA attack. ITV included a YouTube video featuring shooter Arma 2 footage in a documentary on how the now-deposed (and deceased) Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi gave arms to the IRA.

There has been plenty of talk on how bad bills like SOPA and PIPA are, but no discussion about what can be done about piracy. Piracy is a real problem - but the breadth and depth of that problem has never been accurately documented by the entertainment industry, which use estimates based on lost sales as the basis for their claims.

The trade group representing United Kingdom game developers expressed their concerns about SOPA in a press release issued yesterday. TIGA CEO Dr. Richard Wilson said that the bill worries the UK games industry because they could open them up to damaging legal actions and hurt online games businesses.

According to a survey conducted by Games Investor Consulting, 41 percent of jobs lost in the United Kingdom between 2009 and 2011 relocated to other countries with tax codes and incentives that favored the video game and entertainment industry.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation announced via its blog that it has begun the manufacturing process for its ARM GNU/Linux machine in Taiwan and China. Besides citing prohibitive UK taxes on electronic parts (there's no tax on products already assembled and shipped into the country), the group chose manufacturers in Asia because the turnaround will be three weeks - as opposed to thirteen weeks.

On February 2 a virtual army will descend on the United Nations headquarters to protest against bullying. The protest will be virtual - in other words, no one is actually going to the real headquarters of the UN in New York. The protest is being put together by the U.K. not-for-profit group Beatbullying.org and will take place online February 2 using cute and adorable avatars.

As pointed out by our very own Beemoh, The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense wants to update its military simulations with the latest first-person shooter technology. This, they say, will focus the concentration of soldiers that train using the software.

Charity event Play for Good has launched, with the proceeds of this initiative going to SpecialEffect, a charity dedicated to helping young people with disabilities enjoy computer games in the UK. For many disabled children, the majority of computer games are simply too difficult to play, but with the help of this charity families can learn which games are accessible, and how to adapt those games that aren't more accessible.

UK service provider Sky is the second company compelled by legal actions from Motion Picture Association to block site Newzbin. The MPA hopes that this will keep Sky customers from accessing the site. Earlier this year service provider BT was compelled to block the site after a court order, and the MPA has vowed to force other service providers in the UK like TalkTalk and Virgin Media. Newzbin's members-only pages provide links to pirated films and music, but they don’t actually host any pirated content.

UK games industry trade group UKIE last night praised the "high-profile success" of the Young Apprentice finale last night on British television (BBC One). The final for the show charged the two finalists with creating an online game and viral ad campaign to go along with it. If you haven't seen the episode yet and plan to catch it later this week, you might want to stop reading right now because we're going to reveal who won.

Dr. Jo Twist is the new CEO of UK game industry trade association UKIE. Twist is the commissioning editor for education at UK broadcaster Channel 4, a position she will leave later this year to tackle her new role at UKIE on January 9.

Watchdog groups and governments in Europe are taking a closer look at Carrier IQ's tracking software, to make sure those mobile phone vendors and operators who use it are not violating users' privacy or the law. The Bavarian State Office for Data Protection recently sent a letter to Apple asking it how it uses Carrier IQ's software.

UK secretary of state for education Michael Gove came out in support of the call for computer science to be part of the National Curriculum. Gove made his comments while talking to students at Catmose College about information technologies in schools.

"What we should have is computer science in the future, and how it fits into the curriculum is something that we need to talk to scientists, to experts in coding, and to young people about, to make sure that that part of what happens in schools which deal with technology and computing is relevant," Gove said.

Leicester East MP (United Kingdom) Keith Vaz is at it again, now buoyed by research released last week that found that violent video games change the brain in young adult males. The MP has called for a debate on the harmful effect of violent games just as parents are considering buying them as presents for their children during the holiday shopping season.

If there's one thing you can say about anti-game campaigner and UK Labour MP Keith Vaz, it's that he is tenacious in his fight against games. This week MP Vaz raised his fourth early day motion aimed at violent games, this time specifically targeting Activision's recently released Modern Warfare 3.

UK game industry charity GamesAid announced the results of its recent Gem Golf & Spa Day event for charity. According to the group, they managed to raise £62,607.56 this year. The event, which took place on June 30, invited members of the game industry to play a day of friendly golf tournaments or get spa treatments. All proceeds will be donated to GamesAid's chosen charities. This year’s take was also a 19 percent increase over the 2010 event.

MCV is reporting that the introduction of the PEGI ratings system as the standard for games ratings in the United Kingdom has been delayed even further. Last week game industry trade group UKIE announced that the ratings system wouldn't be officially used by the UK until sometime in "early 2012." Today we learn that UKIE has pushed the implementation of PEGI further back to a date to yet to be determined.

Developers joining the ranks of the UK game industry trade group TIGA will be delighted to hear that the group is hosting two events for indies and mobile studios to recieve free consultation from PR experts. In announcing it, TIGA said the initiative is part of a wider goal of supporting the new wave of independent start-up studios that seem to be emerging across the UK. Some of these new studios popping up are the result of massive layoffs by big studios.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said in a recent interview that the British Government is currently "not doing enough to actually teach the next generation of programmers."

Cameron made his comments in an interview given at a Tech City event. The Prime Minister went on to say that comments from UK businesses had highlighted the need for people who can create new programs.

Illegal downloads of game software has increased in the United Kingdom, according to new data released by research firm Envisional. The firm claims that "illicit game downloads" in the UK climbed 20 percent over the last five years and that the five top games of 2010 were illegally accessed online almost one million times. The firm did not name the five games it claimed were downloaded millions of times.

UK-based game industry charity GamesAid has announced a date and venue for its next Darts Night, the proceeds of which will go towards "a diverse range of charities." The next GamesAid Darts Night will take place on November 23 at The Horseshoe pub (24 Clerkenwell Close, EC1R 0AG) in London. MPG Universal have signed on as the event’s official sponsor.

According to InternetRetailing.net, Best Buy will close all of its stores in the United Kingdom. Best Buy has 11 retail outlets in the country. It first started opening these stores almost 18 months ago. The stores are a joint venture between Carphone Warehouse in the UK and the US electronics giant Best Buy, showed a loss before tax of £46.7m in the half-year to September 30, according to C&VG. The first Best Buy store opened in May 2010 in Thurrock, Essex. Stores in locations including Bristol, Hayes and Nottingham opened shortly thereafter.