Things sure are quiet around here right now. I can only assume this is due to the fact that the current semester and many of us are busy studying for finals and finishing papers. Don't worry - Christmas break is right around the corner!
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A little behind perhaps, but I just found out that Vivendi Universal Games has granted a "fan license" to Phoenix Online Studios for their creation of the "King's Quest IX: Every Cloak Has A Silver Lining" game (Now named The Silver Lining). It seems like a good compromise to me - the game doesn't have King's Quest in the title but will continue to build off of the preivous games and include their characters. Maybe Vivendi is becoming a more customer-centric company? I'm still hoping for a re-release of all their series, butas the years go on that gets more and more less likely.
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I also saw an article on Gamasutra titled "The End Of Copyright" which can be found <a href="http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051128/adams_01.shtml" target="_blank">here.</a> The article discusses why copyright was originally made, how it has been severly abused over the last ~50 years, and how it's end is near. I think the article makes a lot of sense, and our community has been one to continually point out that the current laws are not serving anyone but a few large companies. With the progress of the internet, and related technologies it will become harder and harder for media companies to make money off of content. They will be forced to adapt and offer us some benefit of buying the media.
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As many of you read Slashdot I'm sure you are probably already aware that the MPA is now sending cease and desist letters to websites that host song lyrics, and preparing to start filing lawsuits. It even has that the MPA is demanding jail time for the maintainers of websites offering unlicens d song scores and lyrics. The MPA President has stated that closing websites and imposing fines is not enough, stating that by "throwing some jail time in I think we'll be a little more effective."
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As I listen to music I often like to go to various song lyric websites and find the words to sing-a-long, which looks like we will no longer be doing. Oh well, I'm sure the music companies will only lose more business now from pissed off customers and the lyrics are now going to be distributed through networks they can't do anything about (IRC, Usenet, BitTorrent, etc.). People are swapping multiple DVD movies. How many lyrics and score sheets do you think you can compress onto multiple DVDs?
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I think I'm going to go download some MP3's and lyrics just to spite them.
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<b>Update:</b>
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<b>Bakkelun dot net</b> has a christmas calendar up where they present a new title each day (with review, screenshot and the like). The calendar can be found <a href="http://www.bakkelun.net/index.php?page=julekalender" target="_blank">here.</a> Be sure to check it out and see what games are coming up!