The Week in Review

This week we learn that in space no one can hear you hack, BioWare is in bed with Game Stop and Sweden considers piracy an actual religion.

While the ground-based campaign against the likes of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) continues, one group of hackers has announced its intention to try and remove nationally-controlled internets from the equation altogether by hosting its own service via private satellites and a series of groundstations. The effort is known as Project HGG (Hackerspace Global Grid), and forms part of an attempted escape from the feared censorship of the internet. (Link)

Whenever the prosecution of game piracy is mentioned, the pirates (or, at least, apologists) come out of the woodwork to defend the crime. There’s no sure-fire way to go after IP addresses that have downloaded games illegally, they say, because the hackers can just mask their IP address. Or just because a game was downloaded doesn’t mean that the computer’s owner was the pirate. Worse, pirates say that any prosecution is just a way to scare people or that most of the time pirates become real customers of the game. Jas Purewal is a lawyer based in London and he pointed out today that most of those arguments don’t hold up to any real logical scrutiny. (Link)

Pre-orders are big business with videogames, and studios often sweeten the deal by offering exclusive bonuses to those who are willing to put down a little cash ahead of time. With Mass Effect 3, BioWare has kicked things off by revealing the in-game items it’ll give you in exchange for pre-ordering the game. According to BioWare, folks who pre-order Mass Effect 3 will get to kit out Commander Shepard with both unique weaponry and armor. First off, if you pre-order the game from any retailer, you’ll get the M55 Argus Assault Rifle. (Link)

The act of peer to peer file-sharing is a holy act and information is sacred, according to the tenets of the Missionary Church of Kopimism. An offshoot of Sweden’s Pirate Party, the 3,000 members of the church have been attempting to be recognized as an official religion since 2010. After their third application, the Swedish government agency called Kammarkollegietfinally accepted Kopimism as a formal religion when the organization outlined how members pray and conduct services. Despite the ruling, file-sharing of copyright protected creative works is still illegal in Sweden. (Link)

It seems difficult to make your way around the web these days without hearing about who does, doesn’t, or did but now doesn’t support SOPA, a potential, and somewhat draconian measure that would block access to any website thought to be in violation of copyright infringement. After the collective voice and actions of multiple netizens forced Go Daddy to drop support, many internet users are looking to use that momentum to continue the fight against this impending legislation. No SOPA, a newly created free extension for Chrome, is looking to help them by putting information in their hands. (Link)