Month: February 2007

Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean MMORPG

Disney is planning to release a Pirates of the Caribbean MMO to coincide with the third Pirates film later this year.

The game is getting some press because it will be free to download and play in an ad-supported model (think a windowed game with ads on the top or periphery of the window) or $9.95/month for the no-ad version.

MMORPG.Com has a preview of the game which doesn’t sound like it will be as child-oriented as Toon Town is, but probably not something that is going to rock the world of the World of Warcraft devotees either.

Frankly, as long as it doesn’t outright suck, the more pirate games the better.

Blackboard Tries Divide and Conquer Approach

Color me unimpressed with Blackboard’s latest move in its ongoing war to kill innovation in the courseware market by patenting obvious CMS features in the education market.

Blackboard is now promising that it won’t go after non-profits and universities who develop their own internal or open sourced courseware. But it is still pursuing actions against its competitors, which will detrimentally affect the courseware market by stifling innovation there.

Fortunately, several groups opposed to the awarding of the overly-broad patents to Blackboard have teamed up with the Software Freedom Law Center to challenge the patents. In November 2006, the UPSTO agreed to re-examine all 44 of the claims of the Blackboard patents in question.

Richard Fontana of the Software Freedom Law Center isn’t buying Blackboard’s latest gambit, noting that Blackboard has confused the issue by suggesting it might still sue open source projects that are bundled with proprietary code.

CNET News.Com’s Stephen Shankland quotes Fontana as saying,

Blackboard could have acted responsibly by making a clear and unqualified commitment not to assert its patents against open-source software. Instead, Blackboard has produced a convoluted document in which, for example, it reserves the right to assert the patent against open source software that is “bundled” with other software, an ill-defined concept that could potentially cover most circumstances in which open e-learning software is used.

Hopefully the USPTO will do the right thing and render this debate moot by invalidating the patents it awarded to Blackboard.

Source:

Education software firm OKs open-source patent use. Stephen Shankland, February 1, 2007.

Jack Thompson Headed for Disciplinary Hearing?

GamePolitics.Com reports that anti-video game idiot Jack Thompson has a disciplinary hearing coming up in Florida on several counts including three related to his ongoing war against videogame violence.

Those ethics counts relate to Thompson’s role in an Alabama lawsuit against the makers of Grand Theft Auto. According to GamePolitics.Com,

In upholding a pair of complaints against Thompson by [Alabama] Judge James Moore, the Florida Bar alleges that the outspoken attorney violated numerous professional standards both before and after his Pro Hac Vice status was revoked in Alabama. Among the misconduct alleged by the Bar is Thompson’s assertion that a local Alabama attorney claimed he could fix cases before Judge Moore.

Apparently not only did Thompson privately allege that Moore was crooked, but he also sent e-mails to the judge to that effect, such as one Thompson allegedly sent to Moore in July 2006 that included this claim,

You’re the guy who wants to give (Grand Theft Auto publisher) Take-Two my scalp. You chose to believe people that you knew were thieves and liars, and now you are their useful SLAPP Bar complainant… These are your corporate criminal buddies, Judge Moore. These are the folks with whom you made your bed, the folks whom your good friend said he could fix the case.

It is bad enough that Thompson was able to make his empty threats and charges, but remember despite it being blatantly obvious how unhinged he was, Thompson was the go-to guy that media outlets such as CNN went to whenever they needed commentary or analysis on video game violence even though he clearly knew nothing about the very games he was commenting on.

Source:

Jack Thompson Faces Florida Supreme Court Disciplinary Hearing. GamePolitics.Com, February 3, 2007.

Godzilla vs. Cthulhu

Sometimes my wife sends me the strangest links, like this Godzilla vs. Cthulhu fanfic by C. L. Werner with flourishes like,

Suddenly our launch was swamped by a tremendous wave as a gargantuan form emerged from the deep waters off our starboard. Our cheers were drowned out by the monster’s mighty roar as the reptilian titan glared in disapproval at the shoggoth, even as the horror slithered across the waves. We cheered as Godzilla swam forwards to engage the formless abomination of prehistoric blasphemy. Before the alien horror of the shoggoth, Godzilla was the lesser of evils and we prayed for his victory.

Look for the sequel — Godzilla vs. Mecha-Cthulhu.