This is what’s wrong with Digg. I just wish I had found it first. Heh.

CNK

The NYT piece goes into great detail with quotes from random lawyers across the country and mostly just filler, but what you need to know is that only 2,676 angry citizens out of the eight plus million that purchased the game filed a complaint headed up by Seth R. Lesser and a few other lawyers. Lesser and his pack of wolves are seeking $1.3 million in compensation for their time and efforts while T2 lawyers have said they need only spend $30,000 or less to clean up the mess. That total for T2 is to basically reissue copies of San Andreas without the smut, which already happened. It was originally rated “Mature”, but later went to “Adults Only” when retailers said they would stop carrying the game.

I see Lesser’s point in that little kids shouldn’t be playing games like this with violence and smut and whatever else, but, let’s be honest here, this guy just wanted to see a big payout and it just isn’t there. The numbers speak for themselves, right? Less than one percent responded. That’s all you really need to know. The rest is just lawyer jargon, but feel free.

Uh oh, Nyko is in a bit of trouble over their Kama Nunchuck. Nintendo is claiming that the LA-based console accessories manufacturer has infringed on two design patents and its trademark. Nintendo is seeking financial compensation and an immediate halt of sales.

“wholly appropriates the novel shape, design, overall appearance and even the color and materials used in the Nintendo Nunchuk controller,” Nintendo said

You’re just noticing this, Nintendo?

In a discussion with the Chronicle of Higher Education, an RIAA representative describes how they find and attack music sharers. Here’s how they do it:

1. They go to a computer.
2. They start LimeWire.
3. They look for a popular song (I hear the kids are into rap so let’s assume they look for “Gonna Gat-Cap Your Ass and Shake Your Milk” by Souljah Bizzoy so assume they are looking for that song.)
4. They find people sharing the music.
5. They right click to see who’s sharing the file.
6. They contact the person’s ISP i.e. your ISP.
7. You make boom-boom in your pants while you eat doughnuts, oblivious to the RIAA’s evil intent.
8. They sue you.
8. The RIAA rep goes back to their cave/hollow tree and moults, eating the transparent carapace and forming a new outer shell over the course of three days.
9. Repeat.

This process assumes a few important facts: A) You are still using LimeWire and B) You are so devastatingly retarded that you cannot keep your privates on the inside of your clothes. Therefore, if the RIAA catches you sharing music, you probably deserve the lawsuit.

Oops. Someone forgot to tell Hollywood bigwigs that DRM is dead, consumers don’t want it, and it doesn’t really work that well anyway. At a conference in LA this week, a member of the RIAA said that almost all digital distribution schemes they can think of use DRM.

The problem with DRM is it locks you into an ecosystem that only works with the DRM your purchasing. And you can’t change your mind, as members of MSN music recently learned.

When the record industry figures out a way to capitalize on music without crippling it, it will be profitable again. Also, we’ll buy more music. Also, we won’t feel a grudge about it.

So you know how all those people have been up in arms about the adult content in games like GTA IV? And how they think that the ratings need to be tougher? A few politicians don’t think they go far enough. They want to actually start using retail cashiers to police who buys what, IDing people when they purchase to make sure they’re of age.

I’m OK with this for cigarettes and alcohol, but for a game? Games aren’t dangerous, but I guess someone has to think about the children. Or, how about if they go about the real work of congressmen, trying to end the war, feed the homeless, and fixing our gas prices?

Yes, Lee Terry (R-Neb.) and Jim Matheson (D-Utah), I’m talking to you. STFU & GBTW.

That version of Photoshop that you bought from a dude on the street in West Hollywood last night is going to finance terrorists who will destroy your city and burn you and your family alive to death, or so says the AG, Michael Mukasey.

Mukasey argues that terrorists are increasingly using tactics of organized crime syndicates to finance their American-killing ways. Sure, there’s no direct evidence, but IP theft and piracy must also help the Taliban, right?

Verizon is the latest carrier to become convinced that unlimited doesn’t mean unlimited, as its started charging customers of its $59.99 unlimited mobile broadband plan overages if they exceed 5GB in a billing cycle.

So while its going to still call it “unlimited”, customers will get charged a premium of $.49-per-megabyte over 5GB.

We think Verizon needs to call it, oh, the 5GB plan. Or something.

Verizon’s New $59.99 Data Plan has Overage Charges [Mobile Burn]

Pull your head out of the gutter, perv. I don’t know how necessary this is, but if you have $450 lying around and you want to record everything that goes in front of your car while you’re driving then I have the perfect thing for you. No. Wait. I’m sorry, but I just don’t see why anyone would want this. A rear view mirror with a 2.5-inch LCD that records what’s going on in front of you. Seriously? Obviously, you’d want it in case of an accident, but what if you’re the one doing the rear-ending? At least you get a free 1GB SD card. A video demo can be seen for your pleasure. Even though it could have been taken with anything.
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Bad: A tornado comes and destroys your home. Worse: Comcast wants to charge you $2000 for the five, nine-year old cable boxes that got destroyed.

That’s what happened to a Wheatland, Wisconsin resident, and Comcast is standing its ground.

The cable operator says that the victim will have to get reimbursement from her insurance company to pay the bill. The insurers, however, are only willing to pay the depreciated value of the five boxes and cable modem, even though Comcast is asking for the original price.

I’ve had a similar situation with Comcast: an ancient cable box of mine was destroyed at a party, and they wanted me to pay $500 for it before I could get a new one. The thing wasn’t worth that much new. So, I went to the Goodwills and was able to replace it for about $10. Me, 1; Comcast, 0.

But really, should Comcast expect full value on equipment nearly a decade old? We think not.

Cable TV bills with a twist [Kenosha News]

Season’s Readings [Product page, via Coolest Gadgets via Oh, Gizmo!]

I’m a little frightened of this toy. It’s a USB words-per-minute display that’s also a plastic mouse on an exercise bike. The more words you type per minute, the faster this little guy goes, never mind the fact that this anorexic rodent looks like he needs a sandwich more than cardio. It features a monochrome display to tell you how you’re doing, but unless you’re 8 and in your first typing class, I cannot understand why you’d want this.

I’m a fairly fast typist, you rather have to be in the blogging world, so I’m going to get one of these scary things and try to give it a heart attack, just because I can. Playing God via USB rules.

The USB exercise mouse tests your typing speeds [Slippery Brick]

You don’t need me to get all snarky about the DRM scheme Western Digital has added to its new My Book NAS-enabled external hard drives, not when Austin at the Register is doing such a good job of it.

Austin points out that the new drive won’t let you copy another user’s media files (wma, mp3, etc.) across the network, because it can’t verify your licenses for said media.

Look, Western D, I appreciate what you’re trying to do here, saving us from the evils of piracy and all, but it’s not your job. Your job is to make storage, and make it accessible, period. If the RIAA is slipping you a little something-something under the table, well, then I’m going to start looking at Seagate, among others.

Western Digital drive is DRM-crippled for your safety [The Reg]

Sure, we know that your cellphone won’t explode and kill you now, great. But what about that pesky, pesky radiation? While the jury’s still out on that one, you can look to snake-oil devices that at least make you think you’re doing something to mitigate their problems.

Take the PowerDome, an add-on to your cellphone that supposedly changes the radio frequency your cellphone emits to a lower, and thereby safer level.

It does not do this though. If it did, your cellphone wouldn’t work; the cell towers will be looking for it at a certain frequency, and if it’s not there, you don’t get signal. You might as well put your phone in the Black Hole.

But if you have some non-tech-savvy hypochondriac on your list, this is a perfect stocking stuffer.

Product Page [via Nerd Approved]

Artist’s rendition of your last acid trip.

Every few years someone pulls out the old “project the scene behind the object onto the object” trick to make something ostensibly invisible. Well, now the English Army will now win the war with invisible tanks designed to disappear using cameras and projectors. I’m going to call “bollocks” on this and wonder why/who the Daily Mail wrote this story up without first realizing we’re talking about a freaking tank here and no matter how big a projector you throw up I suspect you’ll be able to see the bastard from fifty miles away, camouflage or not. Let me know when we can cover tanks in resilient e-paper and then maybe I won’t puke a little when I read about “invisible” anything.

Army tests James Bond style tank that is ‘invisible’ [DailyMail]

Oddly enough, I’m almost 100 percent positive that Biggs uses this when he’s at home by himself. Seriously, though, who comes up with this nonsense? Condoms for your thumb and index finger so you don’t smudge your precious iFones. This is more or less a clear indication that the world is teetering on the verge of collapsing around us. The Phone Fingers are textured (and ribbed for her pleasure) and come in a pack of 25 for $10. Who buys this shit? Oh yeah, John Biggs.

Phone Fingers for smudge-free iPhone [Gizmodiva]

I can’t really understand anyone’s fascination with the E-mart in Yongsan. It’s not like you’re going to find super cool gadgets or anything. The reason this place is so famous is because of the sheer volume of crap that’s available for purchase. It’s just a bunch of counters crammed together with the brightest fluorescent lights known to man. They’re meant to blind you and the sales people will trick you into buying something useless (Ok, not really, but I think you get the point).
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Jhannet Sejas is a struggling immigrant trying to put herself through college (we’ve all been there, not the struggling immigrant part, but the whole college thing) and to celebrate her 19th birthday she caught a showing of Transformers with her boyfriend. Now she faces up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine for filming 20 seconds of the coolest movie ever made.

The pimply-faced assistant manager at the Ballston Common mall theater in Arlington, VA spotted Sejas ‘filming’ and called the cops. She and her boyfriend were escorted out of the theater and the Canon Power Shot she used to film the movie was confiscated. Sejas claims to have pirated the clip to show her little brother to get him excited about it.

This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever read about. It’s not like she’s going to sell the clip to anyone. It’s already been CAM’d and there are hundreds of clips floating around. This is a complete waste of time and the Regal Cinemas Ballston Common 12 are a bunch of douchebags for prosecuting this poor girl.

Out of the Theater, Into the Courtroom [Washington Post]

Dear Readers,

Welcome to another day of slow news! It very rarely happens on ‘Tech Thursday’, but today happens to be as slow as molasses, so we’ll try to make this as interesting as possible. A few nerds on the Interwebs have noticed that the YouTube thumbnails have gone widescreen and they’ve jumped to the conclusion that widescreen videos will now be incorporated. It’s very exciting; try to contain your enthusiasm. So check out the booby screen capture and fawn over it like you would a picture of the ________.

Our sincerest apologies,

CrunchGear

Looks Like YouTube Is Going Widescreen [Inside Google]