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.

An initiative that offers virtual payments for use in social and online games in return for performing tasks may promote child labor speculates a post on ReadWriteWeb.

CrowdFlower, which focuses on harnessing “cloud labor” from around the world and Gambit, a company that specializes in facilitating payment solutions for online games, offer users of games like MyFarm real-world tasks to perform—such as tagging photos or reviewing content—and returns payment in the form of virtual currency.

What caught the eye of ReadWriteWeb was Gambit’s explanation of its latest offering: “…making this a superb way to engage younger users, or international users in emerging markets.”

The article’s author, Dana Oshiro, wrote:

While others might argue that the web-task barter system is akin to earning one's allowance, the fact that children could be scraping the web to help businesses advertise to us seems somewhat exploitative. While it's too early to say how this program will pan out, there's no doubt that CrowdFlower and Gambit will have to walk a fine line to keep this program ethical.

A Gambit employee, Susan Su, jumped into the comment section to provide a little clarity, writing that while Facebook does not “knowingly allow” users under the age of 13 to register, “it's always tough to enforce requirements like these on the Internet.”

Su continued:

That said, we do know that users over the age of 15 make up the bulk of our transactions, and while parental consent is still strongly recommended for people aged 15-18, it's true that a lot of teens are making their own spending and work decisions around that age. As Lukas said, this is completely new territory for social game users, for developers, and for Crowdflower and Gambit.

One of the videogame industry’s most respected and revered game designers and franchises can resist the lure of social network websites no more.

Sid Meier, Director of Creative Development for Firaxis Games, revealed on the Civ Fanatics forums (thanks ShackNews) today that a version of Civilization will be heading to Facebook. Civilization Network will feature the ability to play solo or to team up with other players in a cooperative mode and will be free to play.

The full game is expected to launch in 2010, with a closed beta coming soon. To follow the progress and for more news on the title, a Facebook fanpage has been setup.

FarmVille users on Facebook have taken advantage of a program launched by the games developer to donate almost half a million dollars to a pair of nonprofit agencies in Haiti.

Zynga launched Sweet Seeds for Haiti about three weeks ago reports VentureBeat, offering its 56.0 million users a chance to make a difference by having a portion of the price of virtual sweet potato seeds sold in the game go to the nonprofits FONKOZE and FATEM.

FATEM President Jacky Poteau said that over 500 children have been affected positively by the donations, allowing them a chance to escapes poverty and gain a better education.

FONKOZE is an alternative bank for the poor, while FATEM dedicates itself to improving the basic needs of the community, with a focus on education and alleviating hunger.

So the next time someone tells you to stop wasting time on Facebook, tell them you’re simply making the world a better place.

Jack Thompson has been making waves this week, riding a lawsuit against Facebook back into the mainstream media.

Thompson’s multi-million dollar lawsuit against Facebook is based on the disbarred lawyer’s findings, “nearly five weeks ago,” of “Jack Thompson Groups” spread across the social networking site, which he claims advocate violence and harassment against him. Thompson stated that, at the time, three different letters to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg did not result in the removal of these groups, which, in light of the company’s quick removal of “Should Barack Obama Be Killed” polls, only served to further incense Thompson.

Bloomberg and the Huffington Post are among the mainstream media outlets to pick up Jack’s suit, which he announced in an email on Tuesday, September 29. In the dispatch he labeled videogame “news sites,” including GamePolitics specifically, as “terror sites.”

An email from Thompson sent this morning, under the headline “Instant Confirmation from Around the Globe that Jack Thompson’s Suit against Facebook Is a Winner,” trumpets coverage of the case on both “reputable” news and videogame websites as proof  of “not only why the lawsuit had to be brought but why it will succeed.”

GP: Frankly, Thompson crowing victory as a result of the widespread coverage he received is among the reasons we didn’t report on the story as it developed. Is he still relevant to the gaming industry? It’s this editor’s opinion that he is not, at least when dealing in generalities. For now, as a way to move forward with this subject, GP will simply qualify coverage of any Jack story on a case-by-case basis. What do the GP readers think?

A new Facebook application has taken Mafia Wars-type game play to a new level.

Al-Qaeda Wars is the first Facebook application offered from Rage On Gaming. The title allows participants to play as either a counter terrorist or a terrorist, and target various, slightly misnamed American celebrities when playing as the latter. 

Crispy Gamer notes that:

The end goal is to complete missions, build a global network and participate in special mission that depict the total destruction or protection of famous landmarks including the Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, Taj Mahal, and the Sphinx.

The article’s author opines that players “may find the depiction of terrorists as highly offensive because they seem to be exclusively of Middle Eastern descent."

Does this strike GP readers as crossing any lines or not that big of a deal, just another game?

Yesterday GP reported on a comment made by Stardock CEO Brad Wardell regarding his company switching to UPS as a shipping provider, which, in turn, was a seeming response to UPS pulling its advertising from Fox News.

Wardell has since taken to his blog to further explain his position. Noting that GP had reported on his original Facebook post and that the story had eventually “morphed into support for Glenn Beck,” the self-described conservative stated that we are “in the age of the Internet where anything can be recorded, video’d or in this case, copied and pasted, you end up in a gray area of what exactly is news and what isn’t.”

Wardell continued:

I wasn’t making a moral pronouncement on what UPS had done. I was simply annoyed by what they were doing. If people want to boycott my company as a result, that’s certainly their right. Of course, I suspect they assume that if their boycott were successful and I had to lay people off that I wouldn’t do so based on the ideology of the employee.

Neoseeker takes the story a step further, receiving a response from UPS press relations that, in fact, they never pulled their advertising on Fox:

We simply did not have any ads currently airing on FOX.  In fact, a new advertising rotation began on September 14 to support the new The UPS Store online printing service. FOX is included in that rotation.

Jim Ward, who left the CEO job at video game publisher LucasArts in early 2008, is now hoping to win a seat in Congress.

Ward, a Republican who currently works as a venture capitalist, is running to represent Arizona's 5th Congressional District. That seat is currently held by two-term Democrat Harry Mitchell. The district includes Scottsdale, Tempe and parts of Phoenix.

Ward outlines his philosophy on his campaign website:

I’m not a professional politician.  I’m a businessman.  And I don’t disagree that this country needs change.  But, in my experience, there’s the right kind of change and the wrong kind of change.  I believe what’s happening to this country represents the wrong kind of change...

Ward lists his political philosophy as conservative on Facebook. He has protested (see pic at left) against President Obama's healthcare plan.

Partially via: Kotaku

The video game industry experienced a near-fatal meltdown in the 1980s. In today's uncertain economic climate, could it happen again?

Tech journalist Scott Steinberg examines the issue in part 1 of Video Games Are Dead.

The video is also available on Facebook, where it has generated a lively discussion.

Steinberg interviews a number of game industry and media types in search of an answer:

• Michael Capps, Epic Games
• Michael Pachter, Wedbush-Morgan
• Jesse Divnich, EEDAR
• Chris Kohler, Wired
• Hal Halpin, ECA
• Derrik Lang, Associated Press
• Mike Snider, USA Today
• Jason Della Rocca, Perimeter Partners
• Peter Wanat, game producer
• Chris Taylor, Gas Powered Games
• Lorne Lanning, Oddworld
• Cliffy B
• Raph Koster
• Greg Zeschuk / Ray Muzyka, BioWare
• Nick Torchia, Warner Bros.
• Cevat Yerli, Crytek

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick's West Coast junket touched down in Redmond yesterday for talks with Microsoft.

Mass High Tech reports that Patrick (left), a Democrat, discussed the video game business with MS Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie.

While the Guv described his meeting with Ozzie as "very encouraging," the Microsoft exec apparently pulled no punches:

Ozzie suggested Massachusetts needs to reinvent its high-tech image.

“The famous Route 128 tech highway — people are thinking of that image as being in the past,” said Greg Bialecki, state undersecretary for business development, who accompanied Patrick on the trip. “How do we talk about a new conversation about what we are doing today?”

 

The [Massachusetts] regional gaming cluster already includes companies such as Turbine Inc., 2K Boston, Blue Fang Games LLC, Harmonix Music Systems Inc., Demiurge Studios, Tencent Holdings Limited, 38 Studios LLC, Mad Doc Software and Crate Entertainment...

 

Patrick said West Coast tech execs tell him Silicon valley has a greater “spirit of collaboration,” and “also the ability to start and fail and start again.” To keep entrepreneurs from heading west, Massachusetts will have to emulate that culture...

The Guv is on a mission to bring high tech companies - including game industry firms - to the Bay State. Patrick's other West Coast meetings this week include stops at Facebook, Google and Electronic Arts.

Earlier this week Hasbro DMCA'd Scrabulous right off of Facebook.

But the popular Scrabble knockoff has returned with a new name - Wordscraper - and a slightly new look.

Cnet reports:

The game has effectively returned, but with a redesigned board, a few original play options, a different points tabulation system, and a new name...

 

The reason for Scrabulous' extreme makeover has its roots in some pretty gray legal matters: the real problem wasn't that it ripped off Scrabble, but that it ripped off Scrabble so blatantly. The colors of the board were the same, the list of rules led to a Wikipedia entry for Scrabble rules, and the two names were similar enough for Hasbro to cry foul...

 

So will this end the legal spat? Maybe... Many other games on Facebook bear strong-but-not-too-strong resemblances to board games like Battleship and Risk, but so far haven't encountered the same corporate scrutiny.

Hasbro, owners of the North American rights to Scrabble, have knocked the popular app - and Scrabble clone - Scrabulous right off of Facebook with a federal lawsuit alleging trademark and copyright infringement.

And while Facebook is not itself a defendant in the suit, the implications for the enormously popular social networking site are a concern. As ABC News reports:

The situation calls into question a host of potential legal landmines for Facebook, which allows programmers to develop and upload all sorts of applications to the social networking site.

 

"The big issue here is what this implies for Facebook," said Tom Hemnes, a Boston-based attorney who specializes in copyright and trademark law. "If I were betting on this, if the case came to litigation or settlement, [I would bet] that Facebook would lose. They are indirectly associated with the name Scrabble to attract viewers to their site, and that would be trademark infringement."

As Scrabulous disappeared, an official version of the game - developed by EA - launched on Facebook. Not all users were pleased. A "Save Scrabulous" FB group gathered tens of thousands of members and some complained about bugs in the EA version.

GP: However one feels about Scrabulous, a reading of Hasbro, Inc. vs. RJ Softwares does spell out a pretty clear-cut case of copyright infringement.