It seems that Microsoft is dealing with more than just the lagging nature of the Xbox Live Marketplace. The eyes and ears of QJ indeed reach far and wide, but sadly, no one seems to be able to confirm if this is official or if it should be taken from the saltshaker labelled 'Rumor'.

It's been heard around the grapevine of the internet and many a forum that Microsoft is going to ban some fake Xbox Live accounts in the next couple of days/weeks. With all of the content now available for download in the Marketplace (especially after the introduction of the XBLVM), companies have to make sure that regional copyrights are not violated.

Here's a Google translation from the German site which raised the alarm:

For approximately 2 weeks we know that Microsoft will delete in the near future Xbox live Fake account to serve to procure itself e.g. from US the Marketplace of contents. Unfortunately we could not publish these information, since they originated from a confidential discussion... As soon as Microsoft notices that US Xbox tries a live account with a IP e.g. from Germany something of the market place to download, then this account will be deleted in the future. That applies also to accounts with a gold membership... This is justified with legal and copyright regulations for films of the content offerers or indicated title etc.