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Microsoft Game Studios today announced that "RalliSport Challenge 2," the highly anticipated second installment in the internationally acclaimed "RalliSport Challenge" franchise, will be the first Xbox® racing title in the new XSN Sports brand. The game is scheduled to be available in the spring of 2004. "RalliSport Challenge 2" joins other announced XSN Sports games shipping this fall, including "Amped® 2," "Links® 2004," "NBA Inside Drive 2004," "NFL Fever 2004," "NHL Rivals 2004" and "Top Spin (TM) ." "RalliSport Challenge 2" is being developed by Digital Illusions CE.

Combining the high-octane action of numerous rally sports into one game, "RalliSport Challenge 2" offers gamers several new features, such as online play via the Xbox Live (TM) service, the ability to set up personal rally tournaments using XSNsports.com, and more than 40 of the most challenging rally cars, including the infamous Group B cars that were banned from racing because of how dangerous they were. "With the addition of XSN Sports technology, 'RalliSport Challenge 2' will redefine the racing genre," said Ed Fries, vice president of Microsoft® game content at Microsoft Corp. "Gamers have been looking for ways to compete at an entirely new level. XSN Sports takes them to that level by tracking times and organizing tournaments to find out who truly is the best racer in the world."

XSN Sports and "RalliSport Challenge 2" will enable gamers to battle their friends in a personalized and password-protected rally circuit, challenge top-ranked online competitors in a worldwide tournament, or settle scores with bitter rivals -- all from the comfort of their living room. XSNsports.com will provide gamers with their own virtual sports page of their exploits and broadcast up-to-date times and standings every 15 minutes.

View: The press release

In an effort to stem the widespread copying of music over the Internet, the Recording Industry Association of America sued 261 computer users last week, and it plans to sue hundreds more. Several of those sued have expressed dismay that their Internet providers turned over information about them without their permission.

The association is the first to apply the subpoena provision in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 to identify people who make files available for others to copy from their personal computers using file-sharing software like KaZaA. Under the statute, copyright holders do not need a judge's signature to compel Internet service providers to turn over the names of subscribers.

The appeals court decision, expected later this fall, could have important consequences for the music industry's antipiracy campaign. Cary Sherman, president of the recording industry group, said today that using the subpoenas made it easier and less expensive for the organization to file so many lawsuits because it could consolidate the lawsuits in geographic regions under local lawyers hired for that purpose.

Verizon contends that the law was meant to apply only to material that subscribers post on Web sites that reside on computers controlled by Internet providers. The rise of peer-to-peer technology, which lets Internet users find and retrieve files on one another's computers, the company says, was not foreseen by Congress when it passed the law.

Verizon is also challenging the constitutionality of the law, arguing that if it does allow the subpoenas to be used in this way, it violates subscribers' rights to privacy and due process. Judge John D. Bates of Federal District Court in Washington ruled against the company earlier this year, forcing it to turn over the names and addresses of at least four Internet subscribers.

Sarah B. Deutsch, a vice president and lawyer for Verizon, said the company had received 200 subpoenas since then. It is complying with all of them, except for one in which a New York woman has challenged the recording industry's use of the subpoenas to identify her.

The hearing came as two Congressional committees prepare to examine the 1998 statute more closely. On Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee will hear testimony about copyright protection and consumer privacy from lawyers for Verizon and SBC, which has filed a separate challenge to the subpoenas in federal court in San Francisco. John Rose, executive vice president of EMI, and Mr. Sherman of the recording industry trade group will also testify.

Senator Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican, has scheduled a Sept. 30 hearing of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that will address privacy issues as well as the broader effect of technology on copyright enforcement.

And Senator Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, introduced a bill today to protect Internet providers from the controversial subpoenas. His proposal would block subpoenas except in pending civil lawsuits or in cases where unauthorized copies were stored on Web sites.

News source: New York Times