Comet Group, the second largest retailer of electronics in the UK, has been sued by Microsoft Corp for allegedly selling counterfeit copies of Windows Vista and XP discs.

Mass piracy?

On its website Microsoft alleges that the retailer had created more than 94,000 sets of Windows Vista and XP recovery CDs, which it then sold to customers who were purchasing PCs and laptops that had Windows loaded, reports Reuters.

Reuters reports that: ‘Comet is owned by French retail conglomerate Kesa Electricals but is in the process of being sold to private equity group OpCapita. A Kesa spokesman told Reuters that Comet was providing the disks as a service to its customers.’ Reuters says that the spokesperson explained that consumers who were purchasing PCs or laptops were able to create their own recovery CDs, and many of them did not, leading to them facing problems when their PCs failed. Comet Group was, presumably, helping them circumvent this problem.

Just providing a service

The spokesperson further explained that Microsoft itself used to provide the recovery discs, but stopped doing so in 2007. Moreover, the group believes it was acting in the best interest of its customers, saying that it ‘has a good sense of its claim and will defend its position vigorously’.

Investors, however, don’t seem impressed, with Kesa shares dropping some 5 percent during trading on Wednesday. The whole case screams of absurd, though. One would think that Comet Group would explore all of its legal options before just burning and retailing software created by Microsoft without Microsoft seeing a single piece of that revenue. This is especially so given how vigorously Microsoft protects its properties. Just ask Google and its partners.

It will be interesting watching whether a court even gives the Comet Group an opportunity to defend itself, or if this will be thrown out as soon as it comes under legal review. Strange, strange case.

London rioters have run amok, looting several of the cities shops from the north right to the southern parts of the city, as well as damaging buildings and, in some cases, setting them alight. Among the many electronic goods shops ransacked, a Sony warehouse was set alight, potentially affecting shipments of DVDs and CDs.

Deliveries stalled

The three-story 20,000 square metre warehouse, based in Enfield, has been ablaze since late on Monday or early on Tuesday, during the London riots. Thankfully for the electronics giant, the Sony warehouse is insured. This insurance however, will not be sufficient for keeping production apace. Yoko Yasukochi, a Sony spokesperson based in Tokyo, said: ‘There will likely be some impact on deliveries.’

‘We cannot determine the cause of the fire or the extent of the damage yet because it’s not possible to enter the building,’ she continued, before adding that injuries as a result of the fire have not been reported.

A deep seated problem, or criminals looking for free electronics?

The London riots started after a peaceful protest against the police killing of a young Tottenham man named Mark Duggan turned violent, with many protesters looting stores and vandalising property. The protesting and looting loop soon spread all across the city, from the northern side to the southern side.

The British public, politicians and the media are all questioning whether the London riots, which are the worst the city has seen in decades, are attributable to deep seated racial issues being aired out in the wake of Duggard’s killing, or if it’s just a case of criminals using the protests as an opportunity to loot (read: steal) electronics from stores.

Many electronics stores have been ransacked, with a mobile phones store cleaned out, and pictures of London rioters running out of stores carrying televisions and iPads beamed all across the world.

Poor Sony

For the Japanese electronics giant, the burning down of the Sony warehouse is just the latest set back in a year where the company has been the victim of a high profile data hack, a major earthquake in its home nation of Japan, and poor earnings spurred on by big losses in its television unit. 2011 cannot end soon enough for the PS3 maker.

The FBI and other federal agencies were out in full force at a recent hackers’ conference. Yet this go around they went beyond just publically spying on the hackers and were actually cozying up and schmoozing with the attendants.

Befriending the enemy

The federal agencies’ attendance at Defcon 2011 is a reflection that cyber warfare has become a big enough deal that government agencies world over realise they need to do whatever they can to arm themselves in this fight. And who better to fight off dangerous hackers than with equally skilled hackers?

Daron Hartvigsen, a special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, was frank with New York Times’ Somini Sengupta as to the reason for his attendance. He said that the United States Cyber Command, the agency tasked with internet defence, ‘has a workforce issue.’ He added that ‘We have needs that some in this community can solve. We need folks with skills.’

Curious culture

The folks he speaks of are people who are highly skilled with computers, able to counteract and defend cyber crime. Defcon 2011 had these people in high supply. Needless to say, given many of the attendees were the very computer hackers the federal agencies were tracking, there was an air of distrust amidst the attendees.

Federal agents even spoke on a panel entitled ‘Meet the Federal Agent 2.0’ in an attempt to reach out to the hacker community, to show the hacker community they meant well. Much of it was cat and mouse, but with a funny twist – it was difficult to tell which group was Tom and which Jerry.

Shifting power

Perhaps what’s most telling about the heavy federal presence at Defcon 2011 is how warfare has shifted from brute force military power, to computers stashed away in some teenager’s bedroom. This no doubt terrifies the US government which has ample supply of the ‘blow things up’ weaponry, yet has a skills shortage on the cyber crime front.

A US judge has ruled that using GPS tracking devices to, well, spy on a spouse you believe has a wandering eye – or wandering hands – is neither illegal nor invasion of privacy.

Busted by technology

A New Jersey court ruled against Kenneth Villanova, a sheriff’s officer that had sued private investigator Richard Leonard for tracking him using a GPS device back in 2007. He – and his firm Innovative Investigations Inc – was hired by Villanova’s now ex-wife to track him. The PI advised she place a GPS tracker in the glove compartment of the vehicle the former couple shared because the sheriff’s officer kept shaking him when followed.

Villanova would sue his ex-wife and the GPS tracking devise packing PI for invasion of privacy. Though he dropped the case against her, he continued to pursue it against the private investigator.

Judge’s ruling

The appelate judges ruled Villanova had no right in expecting privacy since the GPS tracking device only tacked his movements on public streets. Judge Joseph Lisa explained that: ‘There is no direct evidence in this record to establish that during the approximately 40 days the GPS was in the… glove compartment the device captured a movement of plaintiff into a secluded location that was not in public view, and, if so, that such information was passed along by Mrs. Villanova to (Leonard),’ Lisa wrote.

Private investigators 1 – Cheating spouses 0

Lisa Reed, an owner of LSR Investigations, a private investigation firm, called this a victory for her industry. She said: ‘For the appellate division to say that it’s not an invasion of privacy is a wonderful thing for the private investigation business’ before adding that ‘It’s been something we’ve been haggling over for some period of time.’

While this story is far more sensational than anything we would normally write on, the ruling’s implications on privacy expectations – in North America at least – is terrifying and, therefore, important you know about. We do hope you, dear reader, will never need to use a GPS device for anything but satellite navigation.

In what is one of the most bizarre stories to surface recently, Chinese prisoners are reportedly being used for gold farming in MMO games. The accusations come courtesy of a former inmate who says that prisoners were forced to game all night by the wardens to farm gold that would later be sold for real money.

Manual labour

Liu Dali, a political prisoner, told the Guardian he was forced to play MMO games all night long while he was held at Jixi labour camp so as to build credits that could later be retailed for a profit. He explained that: ‘Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour.’

Speaking on the MMO gamers, he said: ‘There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000 rmb [£470-£570] a day. We didn’t see any of the money. The computers were never turned off.’

Not all fun and games

While gaming in lieu of real manual labour seems attractive, Dali explained that this was in addition to menial tasks like constructing car seat covers as well as chiseling with chopsticks. And, to make it worse, the ‘MMO gamers’ had daily gold quotas they had to meet, and were doled out harsh punishment if they missed them.

Liu explained: ‘If I couldn’t complete my work quota, they would punish me physically. They would make me stand with my hands raised in the air and after I returned to my dormitory they would beat me with plastic pipes. We kept playing until we could barely see things.’ To say this was a hard life for the MMO gamers would be an understatement. Moreover, when these prisoners were released, it’s likely they would have developed such a disdain for playing MMO games – or any games for that matter – that they probably no longer do at all.

It seems Barrett Brown, the not-so-anonymous Anonymous hacker who acted as an unofficial ‘spokesperson’ for the group and was a kind of go-to guy whenever the media needed to put a real name and face to a story, will no longer be associated with the hacker collective. So what determined his decision to leave Anonymous?

Straight from the horse’s mouth

Barrett Brown got involved with the group in 2010, when Anonymous launched Operation Titstorm against the Australian government’s internet censorship proposals. He saw the group as a ‘revolutionary engine’ that had a good chance of rebuilding the world and believed that the small teams of skilled individuals could make a huge difference. What has changed his mind since then has been the influx of power-hungry hackers more driven by their own ideals than the greater ‘good’.

According to Brown, ‘There’s little quality control in a movement like that, which was not a huge problem when the emphasis was on assisting with North African revolutions and those who came on board thus tended to be of a certain sort. But as things like OpSony arise, you attract a lot of people whose interest is in fucking with video game companies – which is not to say that there aren’t legitimate reasons for OpSony or that the majority involved aren’t quality people, but to the extent that someone sits things out when we’re working to promote liberty and fight dictatorships but then hops on board when we start going after an electronics firm that’s perpetrated far lesser villainy, one has to question those peoples’ priorities.’

Project PM

Brown says that Anonymous has become somewhat of a distraction to his goals, so he and a few like-minded people will be doing some of the same work, but under the existent banner of Project PM instead. According to Brown, Project PM is an autonomous online group who have come together as activists and who all have similar goals. Their first project will be OpMetalGear which has created a wiki to gather information on intelligence and defence contracting.

Although Barrett Brown is leaving what he has become so famous for, it seems he has many plans underway. He certainly will not be leaving the spotlight.

The death of Osama Bin Laden is still on everyone’s lips and many have taken to Facebook and Twitter to make their voices heard. The written word can often be misleading and readers can sometimes get the wrong end of the stick. When that happens on a public post, the repercussions can be huge. This was the case when a naïve teenager’s Facebook update grabbed the attention of the Secret Service.

US teen posts on Facebook

A 7^th grader from Tacoma, Washington, by the name of Vito LaPinta, decided to update his Facebook wall and make public his analysis of the death of the notorious Osama bin Laden. According to the boy, ‘I was saying how Osama was dead and for Obama to be careful because there could be suicide bombers.’

The intelligent and articulate 13-year-old would never have dreamed that his little sentence would lead to him being visited at school for a little chat with an agent from the Secret Service. The teen described this encounter, saying, ‘A man walked in with a suit and glasses and he said he was part of the Secret Service. He told me it was because of a post I made that indicated I was a threat toward the president.’

A concerned parent

Timi Robertson, who is Vito’s mother, says that her son was interviewed for half an hour without her being there. According to the school district, the teen’s mom did not take their call seriously, but she says this is not true. Timi Robertson was shocked that her son had been interrogated without her consent and without any representation.

Many are asking if this is standard procedure when certain keywords appear on someone’s Facebook page. The Secret Service were satisfied with the boy’s explanation and they have not bothered him since. Still, maybe it would have been best to let the teen’s mother know, especially since the kid only has seven friends on his page.

Thanks to PopCap Games, the casual games studio behind the insanely popular Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled games, a young leukaemia patient has had his dream of creating his own game fulfilled.

Make-A-Wish indeed

Young Owain Weinert, a brave nine-year-old who’s been diagnosed with pre-B acute lymphocytic leukaemia, has been allowed to fulfill his wish of making his own video game. According to Q13 Fox, he has been making stops at PopCap’s offices in Seattle weekly to oversee the development of a new PopCap-made sci-fi RTS entitled Allied Star Police.

This heartwarming relationship between PopCap and the leukaemia patient was enabled by the Make-A-Wish foundation. For those not in the know, the foundation does all it can to grant wishes to children who have life-threatening diseases. While that act alone doesn’t necessarily save their lives, to allow a young person who is potentially on their deathbed to live out their remaining days doing that one thing they’ve always wanted is remarkable.

Details on the game

Eurogamer called PopCap to ask them when we could expect Allied Star Police, with the casual games developer saying that they were still figuring out launch plans for the title. All proceeds from the release are expected to go back to the Make-A-Wish foundation, which is fantastic.

What PopCap is up to

PopCap Games is behind some of the most beloved casual games in the world, with giant titles like Bejeweled, Plants vs. Zombies and Peggle being some of their more prominent titles.

The video game company has been hard at work on a number of internal initiatives and acquisitions. The Bejeweled maker’s new studio, 4^th & Battery, which makes slightly more risqué and experimental games has released Unpleasant Horse for iOS devices and it is a riot. Elsewhere PopCap recently acquired social games company ZipZapPlay for an undisclosed sum.

While the Japan tsunami no longer dominates the news the way it did during its peak, the effects of the disaster are still being felt by the Japanese. And while it’s easy to send out our heartfelt sorrow to the folks of Japan, there is one thing greater than sorrow that will help them rebuild their lives, and that is money. Below is a look at how some tech companies, through the help of their users, helped the Japanese relief effort.

Songs for Japan

Featuring prominently on iTunes stores all across the world, several celebrity musicians got together to put out the Songs for Japan album. All proceeds from the compilation will go to the nation’s Red Cross to help with relief efforts post-tsunami.

Keep farming, planting and supporting

Fans of social games developed by Zynga also pitched in, raising over $1 million for relief efforts in just 36 hours – and this was after the account was set up a mere 24 hours after the disastrous Japan earthquake led to the tsunami. The social gaming giant continues with its aid effort.

Shoot ‘em in the face, and save a life

Valve, the folks behind Steam, and the hugely popular Team Fortress 2 video game, also raised a heap of money for Japan relief efforts. The titan video game developer and its community of Team Fortress 2 players raised an impressive $300,000 for the disaster stricken nation. This was achieved through the sales of limited edition DLC, in the form of in-game headwear. Valve was stunned by the community’s fantastic response.

Much more being done, much more needed

This is just a few of the ways technology companies, and media businesses, are helping to support Japan. There’s undoubtedly much more happening, and there’s still much more needed.

Thankfully savvy companies have found ways to raise money without burdening their communities by making them feel like it is charity. We urge you to look for whatever way – whether it is through purchasing an album, FarmVille seeds or cool headwear for your marksman duties – to support Japan relief efforts.

Electronic Arts and Activision’s big lawsuit is on a collision course, with a California Superior judge ruling that the trial can move forward. This means that EA will have to defend itself in a landmark case based on the sacking of a pair of Modern Warfare 2 developers.

You are not dismissed

Activision had made four claims against Electronic Arts, with only one of the four actually being dismissed. Now it appears the Activision EA stand off will result in a trial likely held some time in May.

Activision alleged that Electronic Arts had planned to have Infinity Ward – makers of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – founders Jason West and Vince Zampella deliberately fired so that EA could hire them. As such, not only did West and Zampella breach their contracts with the publisher, EA also used the two of them to gather confidential information about Activision.

Ashes to ashes, lawsuit to lawsuit

What’s funny is this Modern Warfare lawsuit was first initiated by Zampella and West, who alleged that Activision sued them so as to avoid paying them royalties totaling $36 million after the colossal success of Modern Warfare 2.

This only brought out an Activision countersuit, with the publisher later successfully adding Electronic Arts as cross-defendants this December. EA’s involvement in the Modern Warfare lawsuit is on charges of contractual interference. Signaling they weren’t playing games, Activision, as such, sued their long time rivals to the tune of $400 million (£248m).

So much at stake

While it is easy to look at the Modern Warfare lawsuit and dismiss it as another Activision-EA standoff, given the enormous success of the Call of Duty franchise and, in particular, Modern Warfare 2, there’s so much money on the line that to look the other way would be silly.

The industry needs to innovate more, imitate less, release more great games and stop all these frivolous lawsuits. But when you’re talking the clash that any Activision-EA standoff represents, it’s unsurprising it’s come to this.