Tag: Hacking

Lulzsec, hacking and the Computer Misuse Act 1990

Remember all those stories back in 2011 about Lulzsec, the hacker group behind a number of hacking attacks – including one against Sony as well as various government bodies, including possibly the CIA? It hasn’t ended well for at least some of their members – a number of whom have pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the UK, according to the BBC.

Hacker jailbreaks PS3, pwned by Sony

Last week news emerged that a group of hackers, led by one George Hotz, have jailbroken the PS3 – in other words, they had successfully circumvented the security measures put in place by Sony to prevent users from running whatever programs they like on the PS3.   This has caused shockwaves to say the least, particularly… Continue reading Hacker jailbreaks PS3, pwned by Sony

WoW Glider: what actually happened in the courtroom

Last week I wrote an analysis of the Blizzard/WoW Glider case, which got a decent amount of press on the mainstream games sites and led to an awesome debate/flame war/hilarity in the comments to my original post – see here. One (anonymous) poster wrote up a tongue-in-cheek script for what might have happened in the… Continue reading WoW Glider: what actually happened in the courtroom

Thoughts on the WoW Glider appeal

A US appeal court has upheld the illegality of WoW Glider, a high-profile and profitable bot for Blizzard’s World of Warcraft (hat-tip to Nic Suzor).  The case is important both for its implications for bot use generally in MMOs as well as for a number of other legal points for games companies which come out… Continue reading Thoughts on the WoW Glider appeal

Setback for Jagex in Runescape lawsuit

Jagex, developer of the popular browser MMO, has suffered setbacks in its ongoing lawsuit against Impulse Software, the maker of a bot for Runescape called the “iBot”.  This follows attempts in 2009 by Runescape to take legal action against a gang of UK phishers. First, a quick summary Impulse’s bot (like most bots) allows players… Continue reading Setback for Jagex in Runescape lawsuit

Sony brings landmark modchips lawsuit in Australia

Sony is bringing a potentially landmark lawsuit against a PS3 modchip seller over the legality of modchips in Australia. Most recently, Sony secured a temporary injunction against the seller, Ozmodchips.com, banning them from selling any modchips while the lawsuit proceeds. In this guest post, Melchor Raval comments on the lawsuit and what it could mean… Continue reading Sony brings landmark modchips lawsuit in Australia

Nintendo v Playables – the latest modchip case considered

It seems that Nintendo is on a mission to gun down modchip sellers at the moment. I posted in May 2010 that Nintendo was suing New York-based modchip seller NXP Games, Inc. The 1709 Blog has just reported that Nintendo has successfully just sued another modchip seller in Holland. And, last week, Nintendo won a… Continue reading Nintendo v Playables – the latest modchip case considered

Nintendo sues another modchip reseller

GamePolitics reports that Nintendo is suing NXPGame Inc, New York based reseller of Nintendo DS modchips, as well as its owner apparently.  It is seeking $150,000 for infringement of each copyright work and $2 million for infringement of each Nintendo trademark. We’ve previously discussed the legality of modchips on this blog.  In the UK, the… Continue reading Nintendo sues another modchip reseller

Teen convicted of crashing PlayStation site in banhammer

In March this year we wrote about a Pennsylvania teenager who pleaded guilty to criminal offences over his hacking and crashing of a Playstation web site in 2008, which he did in revenge for being kicked out of a tournament for the PS2 game SOCOM US Navy Seals for using a cheat mod.   Now, Nukezilla reports that the teenager has been… Continue reading Teen convicted of crashing PlayStation site in banhammer