Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has signed into effect a new anti-violent video game law that makes it a crime to import “violent” video games, with offenders being forced to pay a heavy fine or even spend up to five years in prison.
Gamethirst has translated the “Ley para la Prohibición de Videojuegos Bélicos y Juguetes Bélicos” (Law for the banning of violent video games and toys) and posted it (reposted here):
1. Violent video games: Video games or programs that can be use on personal computers, arcade systems, video game consoles, portable devices or mobile telephones, or any other electronic or telephonic device, that contain information or images that promote or incite violence and the use of weapons.
2. Violent toys: Objects or instruments that in form mimic any kind of weapon used by the National Bolivarian Armed Forces, weapons of war used by any other nation, citizen or state security forces, as well as those that, though not promoting war, establish the kind of game that stimulates aggressiveness or violence.
Article 13. Those who in any way promote the purchase or use of violent toys or video games as defined by this law will be punished with a fine of between 2,000 and 4,000 tax units.
Article 14. Those who import, manufacture, sell, rent, or distribute violent toys or video games will be punished with 3 to 5 years in prison.
The law seems pretty clear, distribute these violent video games and spend time in a Venezuelan prison.
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Despite a gigantic lead in the online MP3 market, Apple appears to be playing dirty against Amazon MP3, using its clout with the record labels to try to snuff out Amazon’s popular “Daily Deal” promotion.
In 2008, when Amazon MP3 first launched, the Daily Deal was paid for by Amazon, out of their own pockets, as a way to get traffic to the service. In 2009 however, says a label exec, “that promotion morphed into something where the labels make arrangements to provide an exclusive selling window with Amazon for a big release expected to do a lot of business on street date.”
In exchange for the Daily Deal promotion, Amazon gets a one-day exclusive window for sales before street date, as long as digital marketing support through the artist’s Web sites, or MySpace pages.
The same executive said about that situation (via Billboard): “When that happened, iTunes said, ‘Enough of that s**t.’ “
Since then, Apple has been “urging” labels to rethink the Daily Deal, while at the same time withdrawing marketing support for acts that were featured as Daily Deals.
Says another exec: “[Apple] are . . . diverting their energy from ‘let’s make this machine better’ to ‘let’s protect what we got,’”.
Apple, Amazon, Warner, EMI and Sony have not responded to the story yet.
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Last month we reported that Ubisoft had begun implementing a new DRM scheme into their PC games, making it so gamers must be always connected to the Internet, or not be able to play the game. If you are ever disconnected from the Internet, you are forced back to the main menu, losing any progress you made between save points.
Today, Softpedia is reporting that the DRM scheme has been confirmed for Splinter Cell: Conviction, Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic, Assassin’s Creed 2, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and the all new Ghost Recon games.
Says an Ubisoft rep: “It’s hard for us to say, yes, from now until the day that we all die all of our games are going to include this but most will.”
I can only imagine how many would-be buyers are going to be pushed to the cracked, pirated versions that Ubisoft is so desperately trying to curb.
