ZIZZY’s blog

The Church of England is threatening Sony because a cathedral was used in the “ultra-violent computer game” Resistance: Fall of Man without their consent.

Resistance: Fall of Man, which has sold more than one million copies, sees a virtual shoot-out between rival gunman with hundreds killed during a gun battle inside the cathedral in an orgy of blood

Church leaders see this as a “desecration” of Manchester Cathedral, and think Sony’s use of it is “sick.” They aren’t just complaining though, they are threatening legal action if their demands are not met:

The Church say Sony did not ask for permission to use the cathedral and has demanded an apology and the removal of the game from shop shelves - otherwise legal action will be considered.

So far Sony has only ignored them, but they’ll have to deal with it eventually. Personally I think the Church is making a big deal out of nothing, and so this is one of the few times where I’m actually siding with Sony.

A brief case was left unattended near some tables and chairs in Wilshire, and since everything these days must be a bomb, the authorities were called. Helicopters arrived, yellow tape was set up, people were advised to stay away from their windows, and a dozen police cars were there at the ready. What made this briefcase so special, and why did it deserve enough of a police force to take out a small mob?Because according to Variety, this brief case was “threatening.” I’m unsure what makes a briefcase threatening, but this one must have somehow been menacing and terrifying and therefore warranted special treatment.

After over half an hour of analyzing the situation and deciding what the best plan of attack was, the police struck - and opened the briefcase. However, the contents of this case weren’t really all that dangerous. They weren’t really anything at all - the briefcase was empty. The day had been saved, and another bomb was narrowly avoided.

Jorge Romero, a man from Chicago, downloaded the first four episodes of 24 Season 6 because they had leaked onto the internet before they aired. However, once he had them he didn’t just watch them - he decided to re-distribute them an another site, LiveDigital.com. He uploaded the first two on January 6th, and the next two the following day.

Now, the FBI is charging him “in the criminal complaint with uploading copyrighted material to a publicly accessible computer network knowing the work was intended for commercial distribution.” The episodes he had uploaded were discovered by News Corp. (which owns FOX) on January 8th, only one day after he had finished uploading them all, and they eventually sent a subpoena to LiveDigital.com to find out who he was. On April 4th he admitted that he had uploaded the episodes, and now he could face up to three years in a federal prison.

Twentieth Century Fox TV sent a statement to the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office thanking them for putting piracy above more important issues:

“We hope it will serve as a powerful warning that uploading copyrighted TV shows and movies to the Internet can be a crime with significant penalties and will be prosecuted as such. Video-hosting sites such as LiveDigital.com and YouTube are not copyright-free zones, and individuals like Jorge Romero who post episodes of television shows, particularly before they are even broadcast for the first time, will face harsh civil and criminal sanctions.”