Feedback is about to get serious, Law & Order serious. Like an episode of everyone's favorite crime drama, this episode is ripped from the headlines.

• Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning developers, 38 Studios, failed to make a payment on their 75 million dollar loan to the state of Rhode Island. This resulted in the layoffs of nearly 400 employees.
• Infinity Ward and Activision are about to go head to head in court over unpaid bonuses. The trial is currently set for June 1st.

This week special guest Rob Jones, VP of Gaming Programming at Machinima, joined Blair Herter, Jessica Chobot, and Stephen Johnson.

The AUDIO MP3 of this episode of FEEDBACK is available here: Right-click and Save.

DUN DUN!

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According to a recent article in Foreign Policy magazine, the U.S. Government may begin searching through Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii consoles in search of criminals and nere-do-wells of various stripes.

• NEWS: New York, Apple, Microsoft, And Sony Ban 3,580 Online Gamers/Sex Offenders

The governmental types believe that easy access to your console hard-drive will allow the authorities to catch pedophiles and terrorists who use their consoles to engage in illegal activities. Privacy advocates, on the other hand, are concerned with law enforcement over-reaching and breaching privacy.

Obscure Technologies, a San Francisco-based company that performs computer forensics, has already earned a $172,250 research contract to develop ''hardware and software tools that can be used for extracting data from video-game systems'', and ''a collection of data (disk images; flash memory dumps; configuration settings) extracted from new video-game systems and used game systems purchased on the secondary market'."

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The state of New York, Apple, Microsoft, Sony and other companies have joined forces to ban sex offenders from online gaming networks.

New York law requires convicted sex offenders to hand over all email addresses and internet screennames to the state, which makes that information available to websites and companies. The companies can then insta-ban objectionable people from their services. 3,580 people have been banned in what they're calling "Operation: Game Over."

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Congressmen Joe Baca (D-Calif.) and Frank Wolf (R-Va.) on Monday introduced a bill that would require most video games to bear a warning label that says, "WARNING: Exposure to violent video games has been linked to aggressive behavior."

I guess the rest of our nations problems have been solved.

The Bill would require every game, except ones rated EC (Early Childhood), to carry the warning text. That means any game that is rated "E" for everyone, "E10+" for everyone 10 and older, "T" for teen, "M" for mature or "A" for adult. Even if the game isn't violent.

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A State Superior Court judge ruled on two claims made by Jason West and Vincent Zampella, creators of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, today. It was a split decision: One claim was shot down. They other will go forward.

State Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle sided with Activision and agreed that a "fraudulent-inducement" claim made by West and Zampella, shouldn’t go forward. He let stand a claim for promissory fraud.

For those in the dark on the lawsuit, you can catch up with our Fall of Duty stories, but here's the short version:

• After an internal investigation that turned up alleged violations of insubordination and breaches of contract, Activision terminated West and Zampella.
• West and Zampella filed suit that their wrongful termination cost them over a hundred million dollars in CoD royalties. Activision countersued the pair, painting a picture of the duo being "Motivated by envy and personal greed..."
• Additionally, Activision added Electronic Arts as a co-defendent to their countersuit, claiming $400 million dollars in damages due to alleged tampering by EA's top executives.
• In March, Activision was found to have had sufficient claims against Electronic Arts.

A trial on all remaining claims is scheduled for May 7.

Source: Bloomberg

Riot Games have announced their opposition to SOPA and PIPA. The League of Legends developers have publicly come out against both pieces of controversial legislation because they felt they were misguided attempts to prevent illegal piracy of copyrighted content.

"This proposed legislation actually threatens any website that features user-generated content. In effect, any copyright holder could file a claim that a streaming website is hosting unauthorized content (such as a song in the background of a League of Legends stream). Under the law, ad networks, payment providers and internet service providers are now potentially liable for their user’s infringement. These services could then be compelled to immediately remove support for a streaming website or face a costly legal battle – at a minimum cutting off financial means, and likely shutting off the site entirely."

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The legal battle between Interplay and Bethesda regarding the Fallout MMO is over. After several years of court hearings, a settlement has determined the rights to the Fallout MMO, often referred to as Fallout Online, will belong to Bethesda Softworks.

The legal battle began in 2009 when Bethesda attempted to halt the production of Interplay's Fallout MMO due to breach of contract. Bethesda bought the rights to the Fallout IP from Interplay before making Fallout 3. The rights to the MMO remained with Interplay, along with some merchandising rights. Bethesda felt Interplay violated the conditions of their contract and took them to court.

Back in September of last year, Bethesda was denied a restraining order against Masthead, the co-developer of the Fallout MMO. Bethesda and Masthead ended this matter through another settlement late in December 2011.

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Back in March of 2010, Sony changed the "add other OS" feature to their flagship console, the PlayStation 3.  The add other OS allowed for Linux installation, home-brewing and modding, but also reportedly lead to software piracy, so Sony took it out. Specifically, they made gamers choose between keeping the "Add other OS" feature and logging on to the PSN.

To be honest, you probably didn't notice the absence-- most gamers are content to use the operation system that comes with their console--but some hacker-types regarded the removal of the ability to put in another OS as removing a valuable function from the device, and they were mad enough to file a lawsuit.

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EA is heading to court over a promise to PS3 gamers. Earlier this year at a press event, EA announced gamers who bought Battlefield 3 on the PS3 would get a free copy of Battlefield 1943. For many gamers, that was apparently the incentive they needed to make the PS3 their BF3 console of choice.

As it would turn out, on the day Battlefield 3 was released it was revealed EA had no intentions of following through with these claims. Needless to say, many PS3 gamers feel slighted by this, and the firm of Edelson McGuire is here to take the case. The suit claims EA, “misled and profited from thousands of their customers by making a promise that they could not, and never intended, to keep”. 

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The release of a blockbuster video game like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is bound to bring out some unsavory elements. It begins with the piracy -- parts of Modern Warfare 3 were apparently pirated weeks before its release -- and goes on to more visceral physical crimes, like robbery, terroristic threats and truck-jacking.

The first MW 3 crime we reported happened last week, when French thieves pulled off a brazen heist of the contents of a Modern Warfare 3 delivery truck. The gang of Pierre's crashed into the delivery truck, tear-gassed the driver, and boosted a shipment of games with a street value of over 400,000 Euros.

Today, I've got a couple of stories of less colorful, more desperate Call of Duty crimes: A robbery and some terroristic threats. Read on for the lowlife report.

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Last week we reported that  Richard "Lord British" Garriott, creator of Ultima and incredibly awesome rich guy, was selling his nerd-inspired house, Britannia Manor. Around the office, we were speculatiing as to whether Garriott was selling his crib because he was broke -- after all, it's not the best time to sell a house, given the real estate market being in the crapper.  Turns out, Garriott will be fine financially. A three-judge panel from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a $32 million judgment against MMO publisher NCSoft.

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Last week, we brought you word that Republican candidate Herman Cain is the gamer's choice for president, mainly because he seemed to have derived his "9-9-9 Plan" for economic recovery on the default settings for Sim City 4. It turns out we were wrong. Cain has publicly (and vehemently) denied any familiarity with the video game.

"First of all, I don't even know what Sim City is," Cain actually said. "Secondly, it's a lie."

Check out the video here.

You know what? I don't like your tone, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain. You have officially lost TheFeed's valuable endorsement. In fact, I noticed that if you take the "999 plan" and turn it upside-down, you end up with the "666 plan." Coincidence? Maybe, but it should still be investigated.

TheFeed officially endorses Cthulhu for president. No more years! No more years!

EA has filed a suit in California against Florida fitness supply company Energy Armor over the EA logo. Check out the competing logos to the right. Would you be likely to confuse one for the other? Electronic Arts thinks you would. The company writes:

"Energy Armor's use of the Energy Armor EA Mark is likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive consumers as to an affiliation, connection, or association between Energy Armor and Electronic Arts,"

Energy Armor manufactures "Negative Ion" products, like magnetic bracelets and other stupid crap uneducated people believe in... oops, I meant "scientifically supported health improvement devices!"  Sorry for the typo.  Anyway, part of EA's marketing strategy seems to be showing pictures of athletes rocking the snake-oil bracelets, and, according to EA, this is where the problem comes in. Energy Armor associating its sports and professional athletes is "similar to how Electronic Arts advertises and markets its EA Sports products," the complaint says.

Source: Gamasutra

The legal battle surrounding the Fallout MMO continues as a court has denied Bethesda Softworks a restraining order against Masthead. The Fallout MMO, also known as Fallout Online, is being co-developed by Masthead Studios. Bethesda has been attempting to block the progress of the Fallout MMO since 2009.

A U.S District Judge has denied the restraining order requested by Bethesda without even giving Masthead a chance to object. The judge stated:

"Indeed, [Bethesda] was aware as early as February 2011 that Masthead was potentially infringing its copyrights... Yet, Plaintiff waited seven months to apply for ex parte relief."

He added "The Court finds that Plaintiff unreasonably delayed in seeking relief, and that the emergency that allegedly justifies a [temporary restraining order] is self-created."

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Police in Corpus Cristi Texas have arrested a couple for the awesome crime of stealing meat and video games.

According to The Man, the couple entered a H-E-B grocery store and lifted a bunch of meat. The grocer called the cops, but when they arrived, the couple had fled. A few minutes later, the couple's car was spotted near a Toys R' Us and towed away.

Now carless, the dynamic duo boosted around 10 video games from the Toys R' Us, and walked over to GameStop to try to sell the games. They were arrested, and were thus unable to enjoy a fine barbecue and an evening of game playing.

While the pair isn't exactly Bonnie and Clyde (more like Bonnie and Clod), but their choice of stolen goods reveals enough panache to gain them a mention here on TheFeed. Congratulations, gaming-carnivore couple; you're our internet stars of the day!

Source:  KZTV10