California Tries to Limit Sales of Violent Video Games

This is the definitive article about the case (now before the U.S. Supreme Court which just heard legal arguments) according to the WOW Insider legal columnist.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6191/video_game_regulation_and_the_.php

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Interview: Kotick on the Brutal Legend Lawsuit

Joystiq has done an interview with Bobby Kotick about the Brutal Legend lawsuit and his version of events.  The second link is to the actual interview.  The first link is a brief description.
http://www.1up.com/news/bobby-kotick-explains-role-brutal-legal-battle

The second link is to the actual interview.  More is promised but to date (Nov. 9th) there has not been a followup.
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/11/08/activisions-kotick-on-brutal-legend-drama-thats-not-really-w/

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Blizzard Wins $88 Million Lawsuit

...against a company that set up a private server for WOW and had some sort of micro transactions marketplace.  This is considered copyright infringement.
http://www.wow.com/2010/08/14/private-server-company-forced-to-pay-blizzard-88-million/

Commentary:
http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2010/08/assessing-damage-from-pirates.html

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Activision Loses Another Lawsuit

This one was a fight over use of a paintball player's name in video games. The dirt is buried in the article about his newest paintball game which I think is for the Playstation.  Thanks to 1Up for pointing this article out.
http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/greg-hastings-painball-2/preview/greg-hastings-hates-activision-and-says-crazy-things-about-greg-hastings-paintball-2/a-20100803163257556083/g-20100803123623996086

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Activision Lawsuit and Downloads

Activision has been much criticized for the cost and skimpy content in its Call of Duty series downloads.  However, the Call of Duty map packs have been downloaded more than 20 million times.  They cost $15 each currently.  You can do the math yourselves, but at that rate, skimpy content at high prices will continue to flow.
http://kotaku.com/5602915/call-of-duty-map-packs-downloaded-over-20-million-times

In other Activision news, Kotick has lost a sexual harassment and sexual discrimination lawsuit and the appeal which seems to involve a dispute over what he owed a lawyer in the case for representing him.   Details here.  Note that he wasn't the one doing the harassing but did not prevent it.  Instead he fired the complainant.  Many thanks to Kotaku for leading me to the LA Times story.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/08/activision-ceo-kotick-loses-battle-with-top-hollywood-litigator.html

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Why Blizzard is Likely To Win Any Privacy Lawsuit

Cleric's opinion is that because players sign the Terms of Service and the End User License Agreement, any suit due to damages from privacy violations have to go to arbitration and the cap on damages is $90.  He also points out the corporate responsibility Blizzard and its parent corporations have and how any such lawsuit is likely to damage these corporations heavily in terms of their reputation.
http://ferarro.blogspot.com/2010/07/nope-some-changes-gotta-be-made-because.html

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Call of Cuty Founders Versus Activision Lawsuit Date Set

Kotaku has the details of the three lawsuits that are pending.
http://kotaku.com/5583678/trial-date-set-in-activision+infinity-ward-suit

Some of the alligations are listed in a later posting.
http://kotaku.com/5583710/lawsuit-activision-created-modern-warfare-police-state

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The Breakup NO MORE UPDATES

Crescente lays out the Activision/Infinity Ward divorce to date.
http://kotaku.com/5513756/the-biggest-break-up-in-video-game-history

UPDATE:  Read the whole court document of Activision's countersuit here.
http://kotaku.com/5513707/modern-legal-warfare-court-documents-got-that-boom-boom-pow

UPDATE #2:  People are crowding the exits at Infinity Ward.
http://kotaku.com/5515489/modern-warfare-team-loses-two-more-veterans-[update]

http://kotaku.com/5516474/modern-warfare-developer-sees-more-key-departures-today

http://kotaku.com/5517346/todays-update-on-the-great-modern-warfare-developer-bailout

UPDATE #3:  Activision claims to be unruffled by its new competitor (its games will be published by EA and they have start up money from EA apparently) which is being created around the Infinity Ward co-founders.  The new company is called Respawn Entertainment.
http://kotaku.com/5515346/modern-warfare-publisher-unruffled-by-new-competitor

http://kotaku.com/5515263/ex+modern-warfare-creators-havent-hatched-new-game-idea-yet-wont-make-battlefield

I think I'll stop updating this article.  You get the gist of it.  Infinity Ward staff are fleeing in droves, the co-founders are suing and being sued by Activision, and the co-founders are starting a new company with seed money from EA which promised to publish their game.  Plus Activision has just released its first downloadable content for Modern Warefare 2 at a bigger price (especially since two old maps are included) than normal.

Ok, just one more.
http://kotaku.com/5523154/four-more-out-at-modern-warfare-studio-infinity-ward

Now Activision is being sued by a group of 38 Infinity Ward former employees who were not given the royalties promised.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3179016

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Blizzard Files Lawsuit...

...against a private server.  WOW Insider has the details.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/29/blizzard-files-lawsuit-against-private-server/

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