In 2004 Peter Hochstein and Jeffrey Tenenbaum sued Microsoft over a 10-year-old patent for "communicating live while playing the same video game in separate locations." After six years of legal tomfoolery, a U.S. District Judge has dismissed the case.

Hochstein and Tenenbaum sued both Sony and Microsoft for patent infringement in 2004, claiming that both companies employed methods similar to the ones described in their patent to allow two players to communicate while playing a video game in two different places. Here's the exact wording, from the patent:

    "A local video game including a communicating controller. The controller receives local command signals created by a set of player controls. The controller also receives remote command signals received through a modem which were created by a remote video game through a similar set of player controls. The controller includes a synchronizer which produces synchronizing codes to be sent to the remote video game to synchronize the games. The synchronizer synchronizes the local and remote command signals such that both are received by a game microprocessor simultaneously. Memory stores the player parameters and are retrieved whenever the synchronization codas of the local and remote video games have not matched for a predetermined number of iterations."

It seems a bit of a long shot, but the similarities were enough to make Sony settle out of court for an undisclosed sum last year.

Perhaps Sony's lawyers should have taken a tip from Microsoft's. The Xbox manufacturer battled it out, and was rewarded by having U.S. District Judge Paul D. Borman dismiss the case on July 20. Borman ruled that the patent covered game systems connected electrically, which did not cover the network connections Xbox Live players use to connect to one another.

Microsoft Wins Patent Lawsuit That Targeted Xbox Game Systems [Bloomberg]

Send an email to Michael Fahey, the author of this post, at fahey@kotaku.com.

As weird and scary as it sounds, there may be a time when you'll be able to blame your server going down on the current U.S. President instead of your internet provider.

A new U.S. Senate bill known as the "Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset" Act, would enable the president to access a "kill-switch" that would essentially allow him/her to pull the plug on portions of the internet in a cyber security emergency. According to Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), "…we cannot afford to wait for a cyber 9/11 before our government realizes the importance of protecting our cyber resources."

What portions of the internet would this affect? That's up to Homeland Security, according to a report on the proposed bill from CNET. Essentially, any company that "relies on the internet, the telephone system, or any other component of the U.S. information infrastructure" could be required to operate under the command of the National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications (NCCC), a new division of Homeland Security that would be put into operation if the bill passes. These companies would be required to keep their security measures up to NCCC standards. If they chose not to abide by the emergency shut down procedures put in place, they would be subject to a fine.

For online gamers, this may seem to be an attack on our recreational time. In many cases, we are paying for the online services we utilize, such as Xbox Live or subscription games. In turn, we rely on them to run ‘round the clock (with the exception of regularly scheduled maintenance periods). If these networks were to all of a sudden go down for a lengthy period of time, would we get our money back? If we were at a pivotal point in our game, would our items and status at the time of the shut down be returned upon the server's revival?

It would be a nuisance more than anything else, especially seeing as many online games cannot be played offline (such as WoW, EVE, Guild Wars and EverQuest ). A compromise mentioned in the bill states that companies would be reimbursed for money lost while their networks were forced to go offline. However, in the midst of whatever crisis has caused the internet be shut down, the game networks themselves may lose subscribers, which would affect business in the long term.

Roping online game networks into this group of internet outlets that could be involved in a security breach if hacked may seem unfair, seeing as online gaming networks really don't leave their users room to store potentially valuable data, aside from perhaps credit card information (unless you count an item that drops .001% of the time that you desperately need to complete your gear set). Sure, they're social networking outlets as well. I suppose you could see a group of orcs or gnomes hanging out and argue that they could be real-life terrorists planning an attack, but it's unlikely that your speculation could be proven true. Gaming networks are not where the threat of national security compromise lies. People log on to them to play a game-to socialize, and nothing more.

The idea of disconnecting all of our nation's servers seems like a knee-jerk reaction, and perhaps too much power for one person to hold. A better idea might be to beef up security on the sites that truly do have sensitive information, allowing the plug to be pulled on those sites in the event of a "cyber emergency."

My only questions are what exactly could be considered a "cyber emergency" and what is the likelihood that such an event will actually occur?

British scientists recently studied pro gamers' physiology and reflexes to determine if what they do could be classified as a sport. One gamer in his twenties was described as having the lungs of a 60-year-old chain smoker.

The University of Essex's Dr. Dominic Micklewright worked out several "elite cyber-sportsmen" and found that while their reaction to visual stimuli matched that of fighter pilots, their physical fitness levels were more befitting someone much older or much younger. One gamer described as having "a physique similar to an endurance athlete," was found to have the lung function a doctor would expect to find in a 60-year-old smoker.

"Someone of this age should be much fitter, but perhaps this is the occupational hazard of the professional gamer who can spend around 10 hours a day in front of a screen," Mickelwright told The Telegraph of London.

All is not bad news: Pro gamers shared the reaction time, motor skill, competitive drive and emotional makeup of top athletes.

But bottom line, they're not athletes.

''Gaming shares some characteristics with sport because both are competitive, skill-based and governed by structured rule," Mickelwright said. "But the main distinction which precludes gaming from being a sport is the lack of physical exertion."

Gamers aren't the only ones unhappy with that. Bowlers, golfers and NASCAR drivers probably want a piece of that guy, too.

Larry Hryb, Director of Programming for Microsoft's Xbox LIVE online gaming network, has had his Xbox LIVE profile hacked. Warning: NSFW language ahead.

Known by his gamertag Major Nelson, Hryb was part of the Xbox 360 launch team and was one of the first game execs to have a regular podcast and blog.

Kotaku is confirming with Microsoft whether Hryb has been informed of this hack and what further steps will be taken.

Website lightzz.com is claiming responsibility for the hack and has put up a YouTube video of his handiwork as well as his Skype name (Roid-Monkey) and is even offering to hack other players' accounts for US$60. Whether or not that means the accounts of other Xbox LIVE users are vulnerable to a possible exploit in Xbox LIVE accounts remains to be seen.

Sixty dollars to hack people's accounts? This appears to be a new cottage industry.

Update: "I have control of the account," Hryb tells Kotaku. "The enforcement team took care of it." According to the Director of Policy and Enforcement for Xbox LIVE Stephen Toulouse (via Twitter), the hack looks like it was "very specific" and "very targeted" to Hryb's account. Toulouse is investigating the matter further.

The massive 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile may have changed the entire Earth's rotation and shortened the length of days on our planet, a NASA scientist said Monday.

The quake, the seventh strongest earthquake in recorded history, hit Chile Saturday and should have shortened the length of an Earth day by 1.26 milliseconds, according to research scientist Richard Gross at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

"Perhaps more impressive is how much the quake shifted Earth's axis," NASA officials said in a Monday update.

The computer model used by Gross and his colleagues to determine the effects of the Chile earthquake effect also found that it should have moved Earth's figure axis by about 3 inches (8 cm or 27 milliarcseconds). 

The Earth's figure axis is not the same as its north-south axis, which it spins around once every day at a speed of about 1,000 mph (1,604 kph).

The figure axis is the axis around which the Earth's mass is balanced. It is offset from the Earth's north-south axis by about 33 feet (10 meters).

Strong earthquakes have altered Earth's days and its axis in the past. The 9.1 Sumatran earthquake in 2004, which set off a deadly tsunami, should have shortened Earth's days by 6.8 microseconds and shifted its axis by about 2.76 inches (7 cm, or 2.32 milliarcseconds).

One Earth day is about 24 hours long. Over the course of a year, the length of a day normally changes gradually by one millisecond. It increases in the winter, when the Earth rotates more slowly, and decreases in the summer, Gross has said in the past.

The Chile earthquake was much smaller than the Sumatran temblor, but its effects on the Earth are larger because of its location. Its epicenter was located in the Earth's mid-latitudes rather than near the equator like the Sumatran event.

The fault responsible for the 2010 Chile quake also slices through Earth at a steeper angle than the Sumatran quake's fault, NASA scientists said.

"This makes the Chile fault more effective in moving Earth's mass vertically and hence more effective in shifting Earth's figure axis," NASA officials said.

Gross said his findings are based on early data available on the Chile earthquake. As more information about its characteristics are revealed, his prediction of its effects will likely change.

The Chile earthquake has killed more than 700 people and caused widespread devastation in the South American country.

Several major telescopes in Chile's Atacama Desert have escaped damage, according to the European Southern Observatory managing them.

A salt-measuring NASA satellite instrument destined to be installed on an Argentinean satellite was also undamaged in the earthquake, JPL officials said.

The Aquarius instrument was in the city of Bariloche, Argentina, where it is being installed in the Satelite de Aplicaciones Cientificas (SAC-D) satellite. The satellite integration facility is about 365 miles (588 km) from the Chile quake's epicenter.

The Aquarius instrument is designed to provide monthly global maps of the ocean's salt concentration in order to track current circulation and its role in climate change.