An story on BoingBoing cites a British Labour Government source that such a move may be underway.

The article, noticed by GPer DarkSaber, reports that changes could be introduced to the Digital Economy Bill, which would enable the Secretary of State to introduce legislation without debate in order to amend the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act and to introduce a Pirate-Finder General.

Current Secretary of State Peter Mandelson's is behind the proposal, which would feature the following measures:

1. The Secretary of State would get the power to create new remedies for online infringements.

2. The Secretary of State would get the power to create procedures to "confer rights" for the purposes of protecting rightsholders from online infringement.

3. The Secretary of State would get the power to "impose such duties, powers or functions on any person as may be specified in connection with facilitating online infringement."

The Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) was equally alarmed at the news and has introduced a form of action that urges UK citizens to call their MP.

The EFF labels the ability to to introduce legislation without debate “dangerous,” adding “This bill would grant the Secretary of State sweeping powers to mess with the very fundamentals of the UK copyright system law, ignoring the voices of UK citizens to meet the needs of one set of interest holders.”

The EFF further notes that Mandelson may also target “Cyberlocker” services like Amazon’s S3, Dropbox and YouSendIt, which allow users to swap and share large files.

A few details regarding Britain’s Digital Economy Bill were touched on this morning as part of the Queen’s Speech to Parliament, in which the monarch outlines the coming legislative agenda.

Among the forthcoming actions will be a mandatory age rating on all videogames aimed at children ages 12 and above, reports the Guardian. The Bill calls for the adoption of the Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) system as the method of classifying games in the UK, replacing the current practice of using both PEGI and British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) ratings.

The Digital Economy Bill would also tackle piracy, proposing a tough policy much like France’s three-strike Hadopi Law. Those caught committing piracy will receive a warning letter, followed by a second, more stern letter that will caution the user that “technical measures” could be implemented in order to stop them from stealing files.

Failing the second warning, a pirate would be placed on a “serious infringers list” which would allow ISPs to disconnect them from the Internet. Those about to be disconnected will have 20 days to appeal their case before an independent body. They will also be able to appeal the case if they lose, again within 20 days. The Guardian has a flow chart that illustrates the full process (PDF).

First Secretary Lord Mandelson does not expect widespread disconnections as a result of the pending legislation:

Technical measures will be a last resort and I have no expectation of mass suspensions resulting. The British government's view is that taking people's work without due payment is wrong and that, as an economy based on creativity, we cannot sit back and do nothing as this happens.

The government hopes to cut piracy by 70% before April 2011.

The Open Rights Group believes the proposed disconnect laws to be illegal, adding that “Evidence cannot show who may have infringed copyright, only what connection was used.” They urge people to contact their MP to oppose “these draconian proposals.”

The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) applauded the outline of the Bill, stating:

ELSPA believes the proposed UK adoption of the Pan-European Games Information (PEGI) classification system to be an important step in ensuring child safety when gaming. The video games industry offers its full support to the Government in this.

On the other side of the fence, while noting that the Digital Britain report was announced with “grand ambition,” the Guardian calls the Digital Economy Bill “more plumbing than poetry, in many places little more than a series of disconnected tweaks to existing legislation.”

In a recent radio interview, Labour MP Keith Vaz again took videogames to task.

Vaz thinks that rating information on the front of games should be larger, reports GI.biz, and also adopt health warnings currently found on packs of smokes:

If you look to the packaging of an 18-rated videogame, it's [the size of] a tiny 10p coin. What it should be is the same as cigarettes - it should be splashed across the front: 'This has the potential to damage your health' - and that is not happening.

Vaz indicated that he would like to see 18+ rated games sectioned off at retail and put in their own section. Parents who buy games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare for their kids who are under the age of 18 are “psychologically damaging” their children added Vaz.

When it comes to keeping violent games out of the hands of children, Vaz put the onus on parents, before noting that he didn’t really know what games his own 14-year old son was playing, “I have a son who is 14 years of age - I don't know what games he looks at, but I shall ensure that in future I will look at the covers, to make sure that these games are not over the age of 18.”

The full interview is available on SubCity’s website.

At least as a partial response to Vaz’s continued anti-game rhetoric, fellow Labour MP Tom Watson recently set up the Facebook group Gamer’s Voice, an advocacy assemblage designed to promote the rights of UK gamers.

Watson recently penned a column for The Guardian, inviting other MPs to play a game with him.  From Watson’s article:

British politicians should stop whingeing and learn to love video games. Whether the political classes like it or not, video games have changed the cultural landscape of the nation.

Thanks Andrew

Gamers’ Voice, the pro-gaming Facebook group set up by West Bromwich East Labour MP Tom Watson, has drawn support from another pair of UK politicians.

Watson, who setup the group in response to comments made by Leicester East Labour MP Keith Vaz, invited Sion Simon, Minister for Creative Industries, and Shadow Minister Ed Vaizey to check out the online group, which they both did. Both left messages of support for Watson and the group.

Vaizey wrote, “Tom, congratulations on setting up the group. It's about time gamers had a voice to represent the huge success of the UK video games industry. We spend too much time attacking games and not enough time celebrating their huge success and contribution to the economy.”

Simon added, “The government understands the importance of video games. we make games better and play games more in this country than anywhere else in the world. It’s an important industry and an important part of millions of people's lives. But it's a very young industry which is still finding its voice. I think this group is an important step in that process, and I’m glad to be a part of it.”

The group is also now fielding questions that Watson hopes to direct towards Vaizey and Simon for responses.

Watson wrote of the pair, "Sion and Ed are a little bit different to other MPs though. They both have responsibilities in Labour and the Conservatives for policies towards the Games Industry. And I think they're both genuine in wanting to help.”

Only 10% of UK videogame developers view piracy as a threat to their business survival reports a new survey from trade industry group TIGA.

While the low percentage indicates that piracy probably won’t drive any developers out of business, game makers are still concerned about having their work stolen, with 90% of those surveyed seeing piracy as a “constant or increasing problem” for their business going forward.

When queried on whether they would do business differently as a result of piracy, 50% responded “yes,” 30% responded “no” and 20% answered “don’t know.” Of the 50% who responded “yes” to the previous question, 75% indicated that digital distribution, subscription based or ad-supported free games would be their remedy against piracy.

The developers were also asked if Digital Rights Management (DRM) was “an irrelevance, a solution or a problem.” 50% responded that DRM is “an irrelevance,” 30% called it “the solution” and 20% labeled it “the problem.”

Developers were split 50/50 on the issue of whether or not people caught pirating should have their Internet connection throttled and/or cut off.

In a follow up to yesterday’s news of a brewing Boss battle between Labour MPs Keith Vaz and Tom Watson over Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the BBC has a short video online which captures the exchange between the two in Parliament yesterday.

A GP transcription of the video follows:


Keith Vaz: At midnight tonight, a new and violent videogame called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is to be released. It contains such scenes of brutality that even the manufacturers have put in warnings within the game telling people how they can skip particularly scenes. Given the recommendations of the Byron Review, specifically paragraphs 32 and 33, what steps is the government proposing to take in order to ensure that these violent games do not fall into the hands of children and young people. It’s not about censorship; it’s about protecting our children.

Sion Simon (Minister for Creative Industries): The clearest recommendation of the Byron Review is that content suitable for adults should be labeled as such and sold as such, that it should be an offense to sell such content to children. That’s the case under current law. It will be the case under the law when it changes in the Digital Economy bill. This game the honorable gentleman refers to is a certificate 18 game. It should not be sold to children and the governments job is to make sure that adults clearly labeled can get what adults should be able to and that children are not in danger of being subjected to adult content.

Tom Watson: I’ve seen the content in this video game… it is unpleasant, though no worse than in many films and books. It carries a content warning; it is an 18+ game and carries a BBFC 18+ rating as well. Does the Minister agree that it would be better for members of this house to support the many thousands of games designers and coders and the many millions of games users rather than collaborating with the Daily Mail to create morale panic over the use of videogames.

Sion Simon: I was in Dundee last week visiting the videogames industry. I can certainly agree with him that videogames is an industry…  a very large…  a very important industry, in which we have a national competitive advantage in this country, which it’s important that all members of this house and he government continue to support.


In response to Vaz’s public comments about the game, Watson set up a Facebook group called Gamer’s Voice, as we noted yesterday. That group has grown from 478 yesterday to almost 9,500 at the time this story was written.

GP: It appears Vaz’s comments about paragraphs 32 and 33 from the Byron Review reference the following two bits from the report’s executive summary:

32: There are some possible negative effects of violent content in games, but these only become ‘harmful’ when children present other risk factors…

33: However, we need to approach unequivocal claims of direct causes with caution – there is a strong body of ethnographic research which argues that context and the characteristics of each child will mediate the effects of playing video games. This means considering the media effects evidence in light of what we know about child development. We can use this to hypothesise about potential risks to children from playing some games….

A UK man found guilty in 2008 of installing mod chips into Xbox, PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and GameCube consoles has seen an appeal of his conviction denied.

Christopher Paul Gilham sold the hacked consoles, which enabled users to play counterfeit games, from October 2003 through January 2006.

The appeal focused on the issue of “whether the playing of a counterfeit DVD involves substantial copying of a copyright work.” Following some discourse on the term “substantial,” the Court wrote:

The various drawings that result in the images shown on the television screen or monitor are themselves artistic works protected by copyright. The images shown on the screen are copies, and substantial copies, of those works. If the game is the well-known Tomb Raider, for example, the screen displays Lara Croft, a recognisable character who has been created by the labour and skill of the original artist.

The Court concluded that:

It is not necessary in future to show that a substantial copy of the game is made in Random Access Memory (RAM), all that needs to be shown is that some copyright work contained within the videogame is substantially copied e.g. the image of a game character.

The Entertainment and Leisure Publishers Association (ELSPA) applauded the decision, saying that it welcomed the copyright clarification.

ELSPA Director General Michael Rawlinson added:

Protecting intellectual property (IP) theft is an important issue for the country’s videogames industry. This judgment strengthens copyright law and will be a significant step in helping us protect the industry.

Text from the full judgment can be viewed here.

Noted anti-game politician Keith Vaz is up in arms over Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The Leicester East Labour MP made comments to the Daily Mail about the title, saying, “'I am absolutely shocked by the level of violence in this game and am particularly concerned about how realistic the game itself looks.” Vaz said he would let his concerns be known in Parliament this morning.

Meanwhile, West Bromwich East Labour MP Tom Watson told the BBC that Vaz’s remarks had pushed him over the edge. Watson responded by setting up a Facebook group called Gamer’s Voice, which is billed as “unashamedly pro-video games.” In recruiting people to join, the group asks, “Are you sick of UK newspapers and (my fellow) politicians beating up on gaming? So am I. The truth is, UK gamers need their own pressure group. I want to help you start one up.” 478 members have already joined. Watson writes on Twitter that he’s looking for a logo for the group.

In regards to Vaz, Watson stated:

Everything that comes out of Parliament in relation to video games is relentlessly negative. There are thousands of people employed in this industry, there are 26 million people playing games. We should have a much more balanced view of the industry, indeed we should be supporting them through difficult times.

While noting that he found the MW2 content in question “deeply repulsive,” and that he would not play it himself, Watson thinks that as long as a classification is in place and policed, there is no issue.

Thanks wardrox

A piece up on The Sixth Axis website poses the question, “What if: The Tories Win” and goes about breaking down what a Conservative Party win might mean for the UK developers and gamers.

The article kicks off by describing the ways politicians can shape gaming, including tax breaks for developers, deciding how games are rated and influencing the speed of Internet connections.

Ed Vaizey, Shadow Culture Minister is the focus of most of the piece, with the author offering “WIN” or “FAIL” grades for Vaizey’s inferred stances or public remarks on topics ranging from integration of videogames into the UK Film Council (a “WIN”), ways to help grow UK game development (a “FAIL”), developments in broadband (a “WIN” and a “FAIL”) and Internet piracy (a “WIN”).

Details on the “WIN” grade for involving the UK Film Council in games:

One of the best ideas from the Conservatives is to integrate video games in to the UK Film Council, a body that looks after the economic, cultural and educational aspects of the UK film industry both here and abroad. The council also distributes Lottery money to finance new independent UK films and I would assume they would to the same for games. This could lead to a more PSN and XBLA games.

The author finishes with an overview of the Shadow Culture Minister:

He appears to be enthusiastic about gaming and he does not assume that anyone who plays GTA IV will go and chainsaw a nearby prostitute – this is a very good thing. The bit where he understands gaming does not turn you in to a psycho, not the chainsawing of prostitutes.

|Image via LOLMart|

The latest in a wave of gaming addiction centers has opened its doors in the UK.

Established in 1974, and located in the English town of Weston-super-Mare, Broadway Lodge has expanded its treatment repertoire to include game addiction, employing a 12-step abstinence program to help patients kick the habit. Group therapy and “therapeutic” tasks such as cleaning and vacuuming are also used in treatment, but apparently baking cookies is not part of the mix.

The center’s Chief Executive Brian Dudley tells the Telegraph that he thinks game addiction is a widespread problem, “I would stick my neck out and say between five and ten per cent of parents or partners would say they know of someone addicted to an online game.”

Broadway Lodge Counselor Peter Smith added:

It's not unusual for people to get so obsessed with online gaming that they forget to eat and drift towards an anorexic and undernourished state. You have a relationship with characters in the game that give you an artificial feeling, created by your body's natural endorphins, when you have killed some monster or solved a problem.

As part of yesterday’s London Games Conference, Shadow Culture Minister Ed Vaizey called for sweeping proposals to aid the UK’s videogame development industry.

Vaizey cited research that indicated the UK games market could shrink by 16.5 percent over the next five years, in turn losing some 1,700 jobs. Among the reforms he called for, via MCVUK, were:

• Look at extending the remit of the Film Council to cover the video games sector to give video games the national voice they need and deserve.
• Recognise that high technology companies in the UK face specific challenges when it comes to raising finance and attracting venture capital.
• Give the sector the support it needs to succeed and expand in the global economy.
• Stimulate investment in superfast broadband, vital to the future growth of the sector, through the telecoms regulatory structure.

In a speech at the conference, Vaizey said the UK had lost 44 studios already, and risked losing its current ranking of third in the world (behind America and Japan) in terms of game development. He continued:

Global competition is incredibly fierce, and high development costs in the United Kingdom are slowly killing the industry. Given what is happening, you would expect our Government to be acting urgently. After all, many others are.  Unfortunately, the UK is falling far behind.

Vaizey stopped short of endorsing a tax-break for developers, encouraging studios to “think more widely than that,” noting that, “First things first, we need to get the public finances under control by tackling our spiralling deficit.”

So, is Vaizey a gamer?

I am not a gamer. I have just got myself a Wii. So I am getting involved. It’s been the single greatest pleasure of my job to discover and learn about an industry I knew little about before this job.

MediaCityUK, a sprawling 200-acre development in Greater Manchester, England may be the future home of a videogame development center.

As part of the Digital Britain report, the North West Regional Development Agency (NWDA) commissioned a feasibility study into such a move, proposing “a model of support which combines usability testing, applied research, internship training and public interface components in a single facility to be based at Media City” reports Crain’s Manchester Business.

While the project could begin as early as next summer, there appears to be some opposition to the project, including the “the political furore that such a move could cause in Liverpool,” home to a good number of game developers already.

Eric Hobson, CEO of developer Connect2media Ltd, expressed his feeling about the proposed project:

Having a building, whether it's in Manchester or Liverpool, isn't going to make a damn bit of difference in getting a company to stay in the UK rather than relocate abroad. What would make a difference is getting graduates through the door so they can get real experience of the industry and the industry can get experience of the graduates.

Matmi Managing Director Jeff Coghlan, whose firm makes viral games, agreed with Hobson, “The problem with our business isn't the buildings, it's with things like recruiting graduates, the educational standards and quality of graduates and tax.”

The BBC is scheduled to move five departments to MediaCityUK in 2011.

In light of France officially approving a tough, three-strike law against illegal downloaders, the European Parliament has exorcised an amendment to its Telecoms Package that would have made it more difficult to disconnect pirates from the Internet.

France’s “Hadopi” law was passed last week following a revision which added a provision that a judge must approve disconnecting a user from the Web. A first offense will result in an email, while a second infringement will result in a letter being sent to the person who illegally downloaded material. A third strike would result in disconnection, now subject to a judge’s ruling.

Amendment 138 to the EU Telecoms Package was dropped, meaning that “individual countries would be able to ask internet service providers to remove users deemed to be persistent pirates without needing a prior court order,” writes the BBC, which believes that this is a lead up to the UK introducing its own disconnection policy for pirates next month.

Forrester analyst Mark Mulligan thinks that any legislation is too slow to do much to affect pirates, “Technology just moves quicker. Already we are seeing around 20 different alternatives to peer-to-peer piracy.”


|Thanks Hreinn, Image via DeviantArt|

The British Board of Film Classification has bestowed an 18 (Adult) rating upon Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City, the bundle which features both The Ballad of Gay Tony and The Lost and The Damned.

In doing so, their report contains a few spoilers from both games, which we won’t detail here. The BBFC noted that “at least four uses of very strong language that crop up in some of the cut scenes” bounced the rating up from 15 to 18. “Strong sex and violence and hard drug use” also contributed to the higher mark.

There is also sex scenes, which are “quite strong, but always masked and the characters concerned are invariably fully clothed (no nudity).” Portrayals of cocaine, in addition to references to drug trafficking, are also spread liberally throughout the game.

Additionally:

“There are blood spurts as people are shot and stabbed etc. and pools of blood form on the ground. However, there is never any discernible injury detail and it is not possible to inflict post-mortem injuries, although there is considerable ragdolling as dead bodies are shot.”

Click through to see the whole BBFC report, and don’t worry, sections that contain spoilers must be expanded to be read.

|Via EuroGamer|
 

Activision’s latest entry in the Call of Duty series has received an 18 rating from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).

MCVUK notes that all the previous entries in the series were rated wither BBFC 15 or PEGI 16+. The only statement made in the BBFC’s rating memo was that the game “contains strong bloody violence.”

In related news, it appears the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 will no longer be the beneficiary of dedicated servers. A EuroGamer story states that developer Infinity Ward will roll out a new proprietary service, called IWNet, which will focus on matchmaking.

This news served to irritate PC-based fans of the series, who immediately started an online petition demanding dedicated servers. At the time of this post, there were more than 96,000 signatures on the petition.

Update:  A 13-page thread on the Infinity Ward forums details the cancellation of many pre-orders for the game by those upset over the lack of dedicated server option for the PC version of Modern Warfare 2.

A sampling of comments:

I also cancelled my preorder. I've got better things to spend my money on than that. A great Singleplayer? that's no comfort to me. -.-

I work at EB games in a shopping center here in Australia. We got hit with an onslaught today, 193 total preoders for Modern warfare 2 on PC, today alone we lost 78!

Four of my co-workers went to GameStop at lunch yesterday to cancel their pre-orders. They said the guy working told them that there had been a slow but steady stream of people coming in to cancel pre-orders throughout the morning.

And, just to be fair:

I walked into my local game store and... ...went ahead and paid for MW2 in full after putting $5 down on it a couple of months ago. You people that are canceling are going to miss out on a great game.

Update 2: Infinity Ward developer Robert Bowling has taken to his blog in an attempt to further explain/clarify some aspects of the online experience PC users will face.


Image via Cheezburger.com

A lack of fiscal autonomy could affect Scotland’s bid to stop Ireland from poaching game development companies.

While Sir Gerry Robinson previously proposed that Ireland try to lure Scottish developers with a five-year tax holiday, Michael Russell, Scottish Minister for Culture, External Affairs and Constitution, lamented to Inc Gamers that Scottish Parliament does not have the ability to alter its own tax structure, making it difficult to entice companies to stay. Russell hopes to secure full fiscal powers from the UK in order to “respond to the needs of our industry."

Despite the competition, Russell said Scottish developers were opting to stay put:

I am pleased that many companies that are based here are choosing to stay here, despite the financial incentives that might be on offer elsewhere.  We are committed to supporting them and creating the infrastructure to enable to them to thrive.

TIGA, the UK trade association for game developers, continues to lobby for tax breaks throughout the region.

Big brother may or may not be watching, but a new form of interactive entertainment will allow participants to leverage Britain’s 4.0 million plus closed circuit cameras in a bid to catch criminals and win money.

According to the Daily Mail, Internet Eyes is scheduled to launch next month and has already drawn the ire of civil rights groups, who worry the activity could lead to civil rights abuses.  One member of the opposition, Charles Farrior, labeled it “an appalling idea,” and worried it would create a “snooper’s paradise.”

Those watching cameras—in real-time—will be able to click a button every time they witness something they deem suspicious. Then, a message will be relayed to a camera operator, along with a still image from the camera. The operator will decide whether or not to take action and will notify the “player” if a crime has taken place or not.

Those participating will be blocked out after three incorrect alerts in a month, though additional alert opportunities can be purchased. As a further safeguard, actual locations of the cameras will not be known to those watching at home.

The article notes that Britain has 4.2 million CCTV cameras—one for every 14 inhabitants.

The Irish government thinks highly of the game development industry in Scotland. So much so that they are considering offering tax breaks to developers to lure them in an effort to jumpstart the economy in Ireland.

According to a report in Herald Scotland (via Gamasutra), the Irish government is targeting Realtime Worlds, creator of the upcoming MMO APB and based in Dundee, Scotland, with the possibility of a five-year tax "holiday." Other Scottish developers that could be affected by the incentive would be Rockstar North (developer of Grand Theft Auto), Ruffian (maker of Crackdown 2), Denki, Dynamo Games, Firebrand Games, and Outerlight.

Colin Macdonald, studio chief at Realtime Worlds, told the Herald:

“If the package on offer in Ireland was attractive we’d have to give it serious consideration. Dundee is a great place to be based, one of the main hubs for ­computer games in Britain, but at the end of the day we’ve got to look after our bottom line.”

Macdonald also said that Canada had made serious overtures to the company and Realtime had actually lost some of its key people to the Great White North.

Scotland is apparently monitoring the situation. Tiga, the UK trade body for game developers, urged the Scottish Parliament's support for a 20 percent tax break for game developers earlier this year, according to Gamasutra.

In order to drive the development and implementation of “superfast broadband” throughout the country, England is set to introduce a tax on every phone line in the country.

According to the Daily Mail, Stephen Timms, Minister for Digital Britain, is attempting to initiate the levy ahead of the next elections. Digital Britain is the British government’s “strategic vision for ensuring that the UK is at the leading edge of the global digital economy.”

The tax calls for a 50p per-month, or £6-per-year (approximately $9.82 a year U.S.), additional charge on all phone lines. It’s estimated that the tariff could raise between £150 million and £175 million  (approximately $245 million to $286 million U.S.) a year.

The British government defines “superfast broadband” as the transfer of over 40 megabits per second.

TIGA, a UK trade association that represents game developers and associated businesses, has called for a national Games Tax Relief to spur growth and aid current interactive developers.

Labeling the current system of assistance as “incoherent and insufficient,” TIGA seeks a single, region-wide policy that would eliminate the current “post code lottery.” TIGA’s comments came following a report on actual funding from nine English Regional Development Agencies (RDA) disclosed a large gap in assistance provided based on region.

TIGA’s CEO, Richard Wilson explained:

... while many other countries provide generous tax relief for games production there is no similar tax benefit for game developers in England. More funding should be made accessible through national programmes that developers, irrespective of their geographical location, can benefit from.

TIGA sees Games Tax Relief assisting 60-80 titles per year and creating more than 1,400 jobs over five years.