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[Full Title: Ouya Offers Yearly Subscription for Full Game Library - For a Short Time]
From Ars Technica:
Recent games shows like the Game Developers Conference and E3 have come and gone with little fanfare or hubbub surrounding the Android-powered Ouya console other than small promotional displays and a seemingly stillborn Ouya Everywhere initiative. This week, Ouya has tried yet again to get gamers' attention by way of a crazy, limited-time bargain: the Ouya All-Access Pass.
The pass, which costs $60 and lasts for a full year, is meant to unlock seemingly unlimited access to the Ouya online store's major paid offerings: namely, "one-time purchases under $30 such as full-game unlocks and level-pack add-ons." However, the fine print explains that downloadable content designed to "enhance gameplay" with options such as "extra lives and power-ups" is not included in the All-Access Pass, which may create a blurry line between what content is and isn't included. Ouya's Chess 2 , for example, doesn't include a full "unlock" purchase but rather coin packs used to enable online play at a cost per online session.
The promotion comes on the heels of a March change in Ouya policy allowing developers to make paid games that don't include free demo versions or in-app purchases. That shift made particular sense for a wave of serious games coming to Ouya, including That Dragon, Cancer, and Thralled, whose sensitive content might be undermined by "pay more to keep going!" alerts mid-stream.
It appears to need the attention:
Though Ouya has yet to announce firm sales figures for either its hardware or software, developers have routinely complained about low sales for their Ouya fare. A Gamasutra report from last October saw that issue come up as a recurring theme, and our own interviews with game designers have echoed that sentiment in kind. In an e-mail interview, Chess 2 developer Zachary Burns told Ars that "there is no money in the [Ouya] userbase," though he was quick to express unabashed appreciation for the promotional and developmental support given by the official Ouya team.
However, those interested in this deal are too late, as:
the promotion has already been closed. Visitors can enter their e-mail address at the promotion's link to receive an alert if/when it resumes.
[Full Title: Worm Rapidly Spreads to Over 84,000 Twitter Users - Now Fixed]
A self-replicating cross-site scripting attack written in a tweet exploited a vulnerability in the application Tweetdeck, spreading via retweets over the course of a few hours.
Ars Technica reports:
Twitter on Wednesday was briefly overrun by a powerful computer worm that caused tens of thousands of users to tweet a message that contained self-propagating code exploiting a bug in the TweetDeck app.
Within a few hours, the cross-site scripting (XSS) attack caused at least 84,700 users to retweet a single message originally transmitted by the user @derGeruhn. The body of the message contained JavaScript commands that caused anyone viewing it in TweetDeck to automatically retweet it. The message spread virally. The more times it was retweeted, the more times it was viewed and retweeted by other people using the vulnerable app. The BBC News Twitter account alone pushed the message to 10.1 million followers.
It's by no means the first time a worm has slithered through Twitter. Worms based on clickjacking exploits and XSS attacks were documented as long ago as 2009 and were also used maliciously in 2011 to spread scam messages.
The out-of-control tweets were the result of a software flaw that prevented TweetDeck from properly filtering code out of messages it displayed. As a result, the app executed JavaScript commands transmitted in message bodies that contained commands for retweeting the message. The episode underscores the vexing difficulty of eliminating XSS vulnerabilities from websites and end-user apps. Even when developers erect defenses that filter out harmful code from user-supplied content, there are frequently ways to circumvent them.
The developers worked quickly to fix the exploit:
Officials with the Twitter-owned TweetDeck declared the bug fixed shortly after it surfaced. They later suspended service to investigate further and finally verified the fix and restored service.
The report contains several links to previous attacks, within Twitter and without, and the official statements.
[Full Title: Court Allows Google's University Book Scanning Sans Author Permission]
Ars Technica has a piece on the ruling:
A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the right of universities, in conjunction with Google, to scan millions of library books without the authors' permission.
The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling in a case brought by the Authors Guild and other writers' groups, argued that the universities were not breaching federal copyright law, because the institutions were protected by the so-called "fair use" doctrine. More than 73 percent of the volumes were copyrighted.
The guild accused 13 universities in all of copyright infringement for reproducing more than 10 million works without permission and including them in what is called the HathiTrust Digital Library (HDL) available at 80 universities. The institutions named in the case include the University of California, Cornell University, Indiana University, and the University of Michigan.
Those with "certified print disabilities" like the blind may access the complete scanned works, which the New York-based appeals court also found are preserved indefinitely because of their digital reproduction. Those without disabilities may only search keywords in the books unless an author grants greater permission.
The full ruling may be found here.
During the CD Projekt RED and GOG.com Summer Conference, GOG (Previously, Good Old Games) announced their plans to release GOG Galaxy.
From GOG.com's News section:
GOG Galaxy [is] a truly gamer-friendly, 100% DRM-free online gaming platform that will finally provide the GOG.com community with the easy option to play together online. GOG Galaxy will allow you to share your achievements, stay in touch with your pals and get the updates for your games automatically.
One may think this will lead to client lock-in with mandated use, but:
here's the great thing: it is totally optional, so it's all up to you! If you do not want to play online, or use our optional client to access these features, then no worries, you will always be able to play the single-player mode 100% DRM-free, and download manually the latest updated version of your favorite title from our website.
They go on to describe cross-play:
We always believed in an open world for gamers, with no obligation to be tied to a specific platform or client; and this is why GOG Galaxy will allow gamers to play with their buddies who use Steam, without any need to use any 3rd party client or account, nothing, nada. We're taking care of connecting GOG.com and Steam players, so just sit back, relax and give it a try.
Signing up on the Galaxy page appears to queue you for the beta of both Galaxy and the first game to use it, The Witcher Adventure Game.
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Just a test of SN's new journal system. Hopefully things work out well.
