Interscription

(From Blogcritics.org) 

Lime Wire, one of the last commercial P2P holdouts in the RIAA’s ongoing war against file sharing networks, has answered the RIAA’s complaint and counterclaimed against the RIAA on a number of grounds.  The counterclaim itself is interesting for a number of reasons.  For one thing, it clearly describes the reason for the recording industry’s feverish pursuit of applications which enable their users to trade files regardless of their status under copyright law. 

• Read more: RIAA v. Lime Wire, the Counterclaim

While no one can claim to handle this kind of thing perfectly, I get a warm gushy feeling (a G-RATED one, Beavis) about all the hullabaloo that gaming receives in this day and age.

Speaking of gargantuan press events for gaming alone, we’ve got:

CES
E3 (now in bite-sized variety!)
TGS
"X0#" Events

…and these are just the big ones!  Indeed exciting times to be a gamer.

• Read more: X06…or “Why You Bought a 360″

I remember a time when I called PC Gamer the only gaming mag worth reading.  Their editors were sharp and witty, they gave us the straight skinny on which hardware was necessary for the OCD rig builder, and which was merely senseless bling.  (looks to gold dipped network and physics cards). 

They also rocked the reviews. 

For some reason, in the "November" issue of PC Gamer, they decided to write a preview (with the word ‘Scoop’ involved) on "Just Cause."  This would be a-ok, if it weren’t for the fact that a) the game has been released, and b) even if it was a last minute eleventh hour preview, it is hardly a scoop, and an entirely vacant article. 

Like I said, this is just a gvetching session, but it’s really depressing that gameinformer is quickly becoming the only magazine with real content. (EGM has some content, and to be fair, is free… but is distractingly full of ads). 

So…  what are you reading these days? Have you given up on the printed media for your gaming news? Are the demands of scoops so prevalent in the gaming media that the reality of a printed magazine that’s worthwhile has become something of a myth?

From Eweek:

This story

Makes the case for Comcast, one of the largest broadband providers in the universe, selectively blocking out all of Google’s websites from their users access.  This doesn’t seem likely from the people who seem to think there’s a legitimate reason why someone would need the ability to download at 16 mbps at a clip.

We’ll keep you posted.

Mike, over at Techdirt, called Harry Fuller to the carpet for his assault on Howard Stern’s value since making the leap into orbit.  I think Mike makes an excellent point, as Harry Fuller’s argument completely failed to consider the monthly premium Stern fans now pay.  It also seems interesting that his Ad buys are getting a third of their previous value with less than a third of the potential audience.  My fuzzy math says that makes that a higher per listener buy rate.  What do I know though, Sirius was silly not to build in some sort of listener tracking system to their product.  (On second thought, I really don’t want them canning fabulous niche shows with 5 devoted listeners in favor of more star studded vapid programming)*†

See Mike’s take here. 
Check out the original Fuller article here.

*I’m not talking about Stern.   
† I’m talking about Martha.

So, what are your Sirius presets?  Or, do you have XM? How does the other side live?

Just a brief note on what’s becoming an old story quickly.

According to Digital Battle, (quoting Impress watch), Sony spoke with reporters following a TGS press event, and dropped word that PS3 games will retail in Japan for about 8800, to 9800 yen.  This works out to be in the $75.00 to $80.00 range.  The story notes Sony’s statement that prices might not be as high in the US. 

Obviously, Sony is citing the increased development costs in it’s price boost, but we have to ask whether these prices will hold just for first party exclusives, or if we’ll see a price delta on cross platform titles, with the 360 getting the same game cheaper.  If this is the case, I’m hoping all the intrepid economists out there can figure out which console is going to sell more games.

Well, we do like nay-sayers, for example, Sony has announced a price cut of the ps3 in the Japanese market…  before the console has even been released.  Microsoft added concurrent downloading to it’s 360 dashboard, although Uwe Bole is still making movies.  Naysaying keeps the gaming world afloat. 

It’s because of this that I wanted to take a look at the article by Adam Frucci, that has been incensing some of the Wii  fanboys, who are in a round the clock vigil awaiting the launch of one of the most interesting console offerings in the last 10 years.

• Read more: Wii don’t like naysayers.

So, in the absence of anyone complaining about it (which doesn’t seem like a good start to the hot new peripheral)  My attempts to secure a live vision camera yesterday were a complete failure.  It seems they were either, not even in the systems for some retailers (I’m looking at you Circuit City and Comp ), or, they were in the system, and should have been there, but the shipment had not yet been received (Gamestop). 

 So, how were your experiences?  Did you get yourselves the first adult toy for the 360? Did you walk home empty handed?  Do you even care whether or not you have the ability to control music viz’s with your hands…    …   …  man?