“The government has decided to dismiss the indictment,” prosecutor Allen Chiu told the judge shortly before the jury was to be seated on the third day of trial.

The announcement came a day after a whirlwind of legal jockeying in the case against defendant Matthew Crippen, a 28-year-old Southern California man. The government charged that Crippen, a hotel car-parking manager, ran a small business from his Anaheim home modifying the firmware on Xbox 360 optical drives to make them capable of running pirated or unauthorized games.

It was the nation’s first jury trial to test the anti-circumvention provisions of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act as applied to game consoles. The law makes it a crime to offer a product or service that circumvents a technological measure designed to protect copyright material. Each of the two charges carried a maximum five years.

“It still has not hit me yet,” Crippen said outside court, moments after Chiu dismissed the indictment.

U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez had blasted the prosecution’s case Wednesday, prompting a brief recess for prosecutors to decide whether they would forge ahead. The prosecution’s decision to continue would come back to haunt them as the government’s first witness ultimately unraveled their case.

Witness No. 1, Tony Rosario, was an undercover agent with the Entertainment Software Association. He told jurors Wednesday that he paid Crippen $60 in 2008 to modify an Xbox, and secretly videotaped the operation. Rosario had responded to Crippen’s advertisement on the internet and met Crippen at his Anaheim house.

All of that had been laid out in pretrial motions. But during his testimony, Rosario also said Crippen inserted a pirated video game into the console to verify that the hack worked. That was a new detail that helped the government meet an obligation imposed by the judge that very morning, when Gutierrez ruled that the government had to prove Crippen knew he was breaking the law by modding Xboxes.

But nowhere in Rosario’s reports or sworn declarations was it mentioned that Crippen put a pirated game into the console. During the opening statements shortly before Rosario’s testimony, defense attorney Koren Bell told jurors that there would be no evidence of that kind.

Defense attorney Callie Steele objected to the new testimony. And as court was to get underway here early Thursday, prosecutor Chiu told the judge that he first learned of Rosario’s newfound recollection days before trial. Chiu conceded he never forwarded that information to the defense.

“That fact was disclosed on Sunday,” Chiu told the judge. “We should have disclosed that to the defense right away.”

In light of that omission and “based on fairness and justice,” Chiu moved to dismiss the case, conceding that the government had made errors in its prosecution.

Jurors, who heard only one day of testimony, left the courthouse with mixed opinions on the case. “When we left yesterday, I was thinking, ‘What are we doing here?’” said juror Paul Dietz, a 27-year-old actor. He said he “probably would have” acquitted.

Another juror, Jerry Griffin, a 63-year-old trial attorney, said “I think Microsoft has a right to protect its proprietary information.”

Steele, one of Crippen’s three publicly appointed defense attorneys, said afterward that the government last year offered a plea deal in which the defendant would get probation and have his computer usage restricted in exchange for pleading to two felonies.

Rejecting that and going to trial, she said, “was a roll of the dice.”

“This was a risk that needed to be taken,” she added.

A felony conviction, she said, would have precluded Crippen from fulfilling his dream of becoming a high school special-education and math teacher.

Crippen said he has a year left of school before he gets a liberal arts degree from Cal State Fullerton. His studies have been on hold since he was indicted last year.

“I’m going back to school,” he said.

[ Read the original story on Wired.com ]

Team Blackbolt Ellipsis Launch Trailer from Team Blackbolt on Vimeo.

Here is the News right from the Team Blackbolt Forums themself’s

For over a week or so now, we’ve been testing Ellipsis in a closed beta program. With the help of testers we’ve been able to fix bugs, add much needed features we left out and also improve our designs and graphics. Due to the excellent response from the testers we’re confident we will be able to release Ellipsis to everyone Friday December 4th 2009.

Some time in the evening (UK Time) we will go live with what has been one of the most interesting projects we’ve worked on. So we hope you will join us then and enjoy what we’ve created. Before then you can look forward to a preview video by ActionCorp.TV, the guys who did the podcast preview for MC360, we’ll let you know when thats available. Just keep an eye on this site.

Thats right the XBMC MC360 Skin is back in Black HAHA, they have a cool new feature that allows you to download and preview 212 skins/themes as of 11/1/07 (I just checked) it allows you connect to a new server that just went up to provide YOU, with tons of skins for your XBMC. They also brought back YouTube, so the new script allows you to watch vidoes again. Theirs all so a new button that lets you update the CORE of XBMC when ever theirs a new build out. I have to say that Team Black Bolt have out done them self AGAIN, this is truelly a great skin and team. Long Live XBMC-MC360 & Team Black Bolt!!

Features of the XBMC Black Market:
Download themes for XBMC
Checks off which themes you have Downloaded
Shows you
-Alphabetical Index
-Latest Additions
-Most Downloaded
-The Size of the theme
Theme preview
And Much More…

Snipes101

Sources:
TEAM BLACK BOLT
Latest XBMC XBMC-SVN 2007-10-28 Rev10638
Latest MC360 MC360 Skin

And if you wanna read more on this check this web site:
MAXCONSOLE’s Story
Talk about it on the Forums

Snipes101

What’s new/fixed:
* Changed – Stealth Check Report
* Changed – SplitVid Implementation for better compatibility
* Changed – Removed Eject/Load button from Drive Tools(info)
* Added – More information from SS to log
* Added – Stealth Check for Backup media
* Added – Stealth Check Before Burn process for Nero
* Added – Stealth Check Before Burn process for ImgBurn
* Added – Stealth Check to Validate Media ID XEX-SS-DMI
* Added – SplitVid format as a public option, Default Enabled
* Added – Region Check button in Drive Tools
* Added – Region Check button in Image Tools
* Added – Better sector caching to generic dvd reader
* Added – Check and on the fly fixing for backup media info in PFI
* Added – Check to validate Video size versus PFI when injecting into an ISO and in Stealth Check
* Fixed – XDVDFS Parser to read on 0×10 sector alignments

Download: here

Original Article

That meant the Xbox fell quickly off the sales charts and video game makers stopped producing titles for the machine in order to focus on the Xbox 360. So it was a bit of a surprise to see the latest NPD data for video game sales for the month of August. It turns out that Electronic Arts figured there were still enough people playing the original Xbox to justify making a version of “Madden NFL 08″ for it.

It looks like it was a smart move. According to NPD numbers provided by Microsoft, the Xbox version of “Madden” sold 122,000 copies, making it the 11th best-selling game for the month. That beat “Madden” for Nintendo’s Wii, which sold almost 116,000 copies.

Oh, and it looks like there are still a few big black-and-green boxes trickling out of warehouses: Microsoft sold no fewer than 80 Xboxes in August.

Original

Yachi

That meant the Xbox fell quickly off the sales charts and video game makers stopped producing titles for the machine in order to focus on the Xbox 360.

So it was a bit of a surprise to see the latest NPD data for video game sales for the month of August. It turns out that Electronic Arts figured there were still enough people playing the original Xbox to justify making a version of “Madden NFL 08″ for it.

It looks like it was a smart move. According to NPD numbers provided by Microsoft, the Xbox version of “Madden” sold 122,000 copies, making it the 11th best-selling game for the month. That beat “Madden” for Nintendo’s Wii, which sold almost 116,000 copies.

Oh, and it looks like there are still a few big black-and-green boxes trickling out of warehouses: Microsoft sold no fewer than 80 Xboxes in August.

Original Article

The prices for the game seems to be at the standard price for your regular Xbox360 games, staying at $59.95. But for the featured iteams like the Halo 3 Legendary Edition (Xbox 360) or the Xbox 360 Halo 3 Special Edition Console your talking some big bucks CHECK IT.

Well hope to see you online soon with this action pack game thats sure to leave its mark in Gameing History.

Peace Snipes101

Sorceces:

http://www.gamespot.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_3

http://halo3.tma-walmart.com/

In memory of this hero, and helping build to what promises to be the largest entertainment launch in history on Sept. 25, a series of dramatic and evocative communications elements, created by McCann San Francisco, T.A.G., AKQA, and Microsoft Global Marketing will offer a stirring look at the “Halo” universe and Master Chief.

The first of the films, entitled “Museum,” premieres today on http://games.yahoo.com and provides consumers everywhere with a reason to “Believe” in the amazing stories and action within the Halo experience, bringing the epic battles to life in the style of a museum “diorama.”

Certain to catch the imagination of audiences around the globe, the ads are unlike any video game advertising ever created, and offer a powerful look at the world of “Halo”. Uniquely, the campaign experience does not focus on “Halo 3’s” graphics or gameplay, but instead looks at the themes that lie at the heart of the tale that spans the entire “Halo” trilogy: duty, sacrifice, and most importantly, heroism.

Through the eyes of celebrated Hollywood creature designer Stan Winston, known for his landmark work on Aliens and Jurassic Park;, as well as New Deal Studios, model creators for Spiderman 3, 300 and Superman Returns, and acclaimed director Rupert Sanders, people will experience a dramatic and moving look at mankind’s struggle against our future enemy, the fierce warrior force known as the Covenant.

The central element that much of the integrated marketing campaign centers on is a painstakingly accurate replication of a key moment from a climactic battle set in the “Halo” universe. At over 1200 square feet, reaching a height over 12 feet above the ground and with each handcrafted human and Covenant figure standing eight to twelve inches high, the diorama was large enough to fill an entire studio.

Filming the Experience

Shooting the campaign took several days as the individual soldier’s stories were told, and as the camera spanned the landscape, finally resting on the mountain top where Master Chief appears to have been conquered by the Covenant enemy…or so it would seem. Viewers quickly realize that there is much more of the story that’s yet to be told – and the game will tell all.

The story of the diorama and the battle that day has been told through films that will be shown in 27 countries around the world on television, in cinema and on the web. But the Halo 3 experience is much larger than that, with future testimonial films depicting soldiers’ third-party accounts of their experience in the battles, and with the hero that is Master Chief.

As part of the integrated campaign, an innovative web experience has been created that enables consumers to interact with and explore every part of the climactic battle in minute detail. Beyond the TV, cinema and print efforts, the site is also supported by an online advertising campaign that starts the conversation with the consumer and a branded channel on YouTube that helps to position Master Chief as the biggest hero in history. All digital components were created by AKQA San Francisco.

Viewers get a sneak peek at “Diorama” on http://games.yahoo.com Friday Sept. 14 at 9 a.m. PST / 12 p.m. EST, as well as a feature on the making of the diorama, entitled, “Ammo”. The “Diorama” work will make its TV debut during NFL Football on CBS Sunday Sept. 16. This, and the full series of web films, which honor the heroism of Master Chief, will also be available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace and http://www.halo3.com/ believe starting September 14.

Original