The Free Realms ToS, section D:

Please note that some games available on or through The Station may, when in operation, monitor your computer’s random access memory, MAC address, and system and configuration files, crash data, etc. for the purpose of monitoring and improving quality and service and also for the purpose of identifying unauthorized third party programs running concurrently with your game which, in SOE’s sole determination: (i) enable or facilitate cheating of any type; (ii) allow users to modify or hack the applicable game interface, environment, and/or experience in any way not expressly authorized by SOE; or (iii) intercept, “mine” or otherwise collect information from or through the applicable game (an “Unauthorized Third Party Program“). In the event that a game detects an Unauthorized Third Party Program, (a) the game may communicate information back to SOE, including without limitation your Station Account username, details about the Unauthorized Third Party Program detected and the activities or functions performed thereby, and/or details about your computer, and/or (b) SOE may exercise any or all of its rights and remedies under this Agreement or the applicable game end user license agreement without prior notice to the user linked to such Unauthorized Third Party Program.

In addition, you acknowledge that any and all character and account data that is stored and is resident on our servers, and any and all communications that you make within The Station or any game (including, but not limited to, messages solely directed at another player or group of players) traverse through our servers, may or may not be monitored by us or our agents, you have no expectation of privacy in any such communications and expressly consent to such monitoring of communications you send and receive. For example, SOE may monitor chat rooms in certain portions of The Station directed to Children.

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Cracking Apple’s App store DRM is easy as pie, especially when there are apps available to do it for you.

Because of this, many developers fear a loss of revenue, and many may shy away from the iPhone for their projects.  An app store developer called Ripdev thinks it has a solution though.

Kali Anti-Piracy, the developers claim, will prevent piracy of apps by wrapping the app in a server-side layer of DRM, on top of Apple’s DRM.  They’re also challenging pirates to crack their system:

“Expect more and more apps to be much, much harder to crack in the near future. ;)”

I give it one month before Kali is cracked.

Manuel Medina Ortega, a member of the European Parliament for the Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party, has released his report on piracy(PDF). His wish list is very similiar to that of the RIAA/IFPI ACTA wishlist.

Number 31, under “Implementation of rights”, Medina calls for:

“the setting up in the individual Member States of administrative authorities responsible, on instruction from rightholders and using a graduated approach, for the enforcement of copyright on the internet;”

That’s a fancy way of saying he wants a 3-strikes law enforcible across all countries in the EU. Keep in mind that no proof is needed for an ISP to disconnect a customer, just the word of the rightsholder (which will almost always be a corporation with an army of lawyers begging for the chance to take every penny you’ve ever earned, just because you downloaded a single mp3 from the Pirate Bay).

Number 35, under “Implementation of rights”:

“Encourages the use of work identification and recognition technologies with a view to distinguishing more easily between legal and pirated products;”

Here, Medina is endorsing digital rights management systems. It would seem also that Medina want to criminalize all P2P usage, infringing or not:

(Under “Sanctions and the protection of copyright and related rights holders”) “So the activity of internet users who send files to their peers must be regarded as an illegal act of communication to the public without the possibility of exceptions being applied.”

Under the “Explanatory Statement”, in big bold text:

The nature of copyright must not be allowed to change as a result of technological progress

The above heading goes against logic in every way.

The European Parliament has voted against 3 strikes proposals twice before, but this report is being touted as a much more reasonable approach to copyright law. I don’t see that.