The ESA board must have been reduced to tears of joy yesterday - to them, I'm sure, they now believe there is a god. This week, the Swedish court has found the four operators of torrent site The Pirate Bay guilty as charged for copyright infringement and illegal activities (digitally distributing illegal copies of games and media content). Of course, ESA is more than happy with this victory against the ongoing war on piracy - so happy, in fact, that they had to come up with an official press release about it!

Just like what they do with their infamous Closed Mega Theater, Square Enix held private screenings for two of their high-profile properties: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete, and a quick tease for Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, Xbox 360). Again, a select few get to see some Squeenix booty ahead of the rest of us. In the meantime, let's take a look at stuff we're allowed to see.

Well no wonder you've got layoffs in the industry recently - not to mention the shutting down of certain studios and whatnot. According to research conducted by EEDAR, only 4% of the total games out in the market ever make a profit - all other 96% just either break even or lose money. Yeouch.

Downloading torrents is one thing, but attacking merchant ships with guns at the ready and stealing their goods is quite another. I'm talking real maritime pirates here.

Attacks from pirates off Somalia have been increasing recently, which might force merchant ships to take different trade routes. This could potentially cause shipments of various goods, including video game hardware and software, to get seriously messed up.

If you choose to mod your Xbox 360 to play *cough* backups *cough*, you void your warranty and your right to access Xbox Live. It's that simple. Some people just don't seem to get it though, and flamed certain forums in protest of their banning. Go to the full article to read a neat explanation of banning from Major Nelson himself.

The French Senate recently voted 297 to 15 in support for a controversial anti-piracy initiative which will restrict Internet access to suspected pirates. French internet users may find their home IPs either suspended or banned outright on grounds of suspicious behavior.

Recent documents being passed around Congress and the PotUS office [insert West Wing red tape montage here] gave birth to a new anti-piracy bill which was signed into law as the "Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008" or, in short, PRO-IP. Back in the ESA offices, Michael Gallagher couldn't be any happier.

Well this sounds familiar. Not a week after the game went gold, the Xbox 360 version of Fallout 3 has been leaked and made available for illegal download on torrent sites.

Nexon CEO Joonmo Kwon addresses the issue of low console sales in the Asian region. And no, he's not pointing to piracy as the reason why. Instead, it's got something to do with the Asian taste and preference for games. See what he's got to say after the jump.

British game developers have launched an all-out war against illegal file-sharers. They're not about to take piracy in the industry sitting down. But the music industry, another victim of the pirates, aren't backing them up on this cause. It's an apparent disagreement in approach and disposition.