New Halo Leaked, Kinda...

One of the most anticipated game titles of the pre-Christmas season is Microsoft's Halo: Reach. In an attempt to get the title to game reviewers the company had experimented with different methods of distribution including putting the title on XBox live for select download. The move however seems to have backfired as GameTuts, a site dedicated to modifying and cracking game consoles claims to have obtained and cracked the code. "Me and my team finally did it; we got Halo: Reach! This is not released for public, and we are not really planning on releasing either," Unfortunately for Microsoft the title has begun showing up on torrent sites, however it will only run on modified (moded) consoles and the owners of such devices are not the type to purchase titles in any case.

Read more: CBC


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Twitter Accounts At Risk From File-sharing Scam

Twitter users are apparently at risk of having their accounts hacked if they frequent certain torrent sites. From what I can gather, the site owners have been sitting in wait, collecting users login information and then using these same username / password / e-mail address combos to attempt access to popular third party sights, Twitter included. According to Twitter Status "This information was then used to attempt to gain access to third party sites like Twitter.  We haven’t identified all of the forums involved (nor is it likely that we’ll be able to, since we don’t have any connection with them), but as a general rule, if you’ve signed up for a torrent forum or torrent site built by a third party, you should probably change your password there."

The big message here is that you need to have unique passwords for the various sites that you frequent. I totally understand the desire to use a consistent user name, but at the very least you need to change your password! 

Quebec Court Orders Closure Of Downloading Site

The Quebec Superior Court has ordered the closure of downloading site Quebec Torrent granting a permanent injunction against the site and it's administrators. "We hope this judgment will have a dissuasive effect, because nothing prevents us now to target other sites that engage in the same kind of illegal transactions," said Slange Drouin the director-general of The Association québécoise de l'industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la vidéo (ADISQ), a provincial music, video and concert organization. ADISQ also sought $200,000 in damages but have indicated that they would not pursue the damages as Quebec Torrent has said they would not fight the injunction. The site specialized in Quebec content and claimed to have tens of thousands of members. Look out file sharing sites in Quebec! CBC story here.