News From 01/23/03

Distributor NeoGeo Freak, Arcade-Infinity, WWV Suspended from merchandising Counterfeits, Preliminary injunction in Court [ Playmore | Press Release | NGF Case File (PDF) ]

(Official Release, Playmore / SNKNeoGeo) " On January 15, 2003, Plaintiffs, SNK NEOGEO USA CORP. and PLAYMORE CORPORATION, were successful in obtaining a preliminary injunction order from the Federal District Court that enjoined Worldwide Video Entertainment, Inc. (WWV), a San Diego based company, NeoGeo Freak (NGF) of Las Vegas, Nevada, and Arcade-Infinity, Inc. (Arcade), of Los Angeles, from among other things, selling allegedly counterfeit video game cartridges. Worldwide and Arcade-Infinity stipulated to the preliminary injunction. Pursuant to the Court Orders against WWV, NGF and Arcade, all three entities are restrained from selling counterfeit products that infringe Plaintiffs' intellectual property rights, including such famous video games as "THE KING OF FIGHTERS 2002," "THE KING OF FIGHTERS 2001," "METAL SLUG 4," and "RAGE OF THE DRAGONS". The Plaintiffs had previously raided all three of these businesses based on a Temporary Restraining Order issued on December 4, 2002. At that time, Plaintiffs seized numerous products, including posters, marquees, one slot PCBs, parts, wire harnesses, and video game cartridges, most of which have been inspected and positively identified as counterfeit products. " For the full public statement by Playmore and files submitted against the alleged distributors, check Playmore's Public Release.

Game server flaw poses attack threat, GameSpy Network (ZDNet) [ ZDNet | Article ]

(ZDNet, Quoted) " In an advisory posted to the company's Web site, security consultancy PivX Solutions stated that popular multiplayer games that have servers supporting the GameSpy network--such as "Quake 3: Arena," "Unreal Tournament 2003" and "Battlefield 1942"--could be used to magnify a denial-of-service attack, in some cases by as much as 400 times. ' This attack will go right through a lot of firewalls right now,' said Geoff Shively, chief technical officer for the Newport Beach, Calif.-based company. 'A single server can theoretically produce enough data to flood a T-1 (connection, or 1.5 Mbps).' The flaw occurs because servers that include the GameSpy networking code automatically send responses to queries for status information and don't verify the sender's address. An attacker can just ask the server for the information, but forge the data so that the packets appear to come from a fake address. When the game server responds, the large amount of information sent in reply goes to the target of the attack instead. Other games that PivX believes are vulnerable are "Quake," "Quake 2," "Half-Life," "Tribes," "Return to Castle Wolfenstein," "Medal of Honour: Allied Assault," "NeverWinter Nights," and "America's Army." Versions of the game servers that are released on the Linux platform are affected as well. "As a basic rule of thumb, if it supports GameSpy, it will likely be vulnerable," Mike Kristovich, a security researcher for PivX, said in a statement. David Wright, director of technology for GameSpy, acknowledged that the amount of data that the attack could generate was "significant." Yet he downplayed the seriousness of the flaw. For the full article, check ZDNet.

Short Comment- The Lines Forming in front of the Game Shop to buy DOAX

Oh... oh God.... [ Impress Gamewatch- DOAX Release date Photo ]. - Henry A. Moriarty