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This one's been expected and rumored for a long time. Now it's official: Blockbuster has initiated "pre-arranged" chapter 11 proceedings. Under the plan, Blockbuster's debt would be reduced from $1 billion to about $100 million when implemented. The press release states that Blockbuster is currently evaluating its US store portfolio as part of the recapitalization process. For the time being, all 3,000 stores will remain open. However, we've been told by a trusted tipster that up to 1,000 could be shed before things are said and done. Now make no mistake, Blockbuster is still open and wants you to know that it's business as usual during the restructuring -- the details of which you can read in the press release after the break.
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Asks Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiators at Mexico’s Ministry of the Economy if the treaty could be used to cut off Mexico’s and other countries access to “damaging” sites such as WikiLeaks.
In a eerie sign of things to come, the MPAA seems to be pushing forward with a new policy agenda that is trying to link sites with arguably little harm – non-commercial P2P – with sites that traffic in pirated goods – commercial P2P – as well as those like WikiLeaks which it believes could be used to play some sort of national security card.
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Well there you have it: digital sales have outpaced physical sales. For PC games, that is. According to the all-seeing, all-knowing NPD Group, there were 11.7 million digital sales of PC games during the first half of 2010. That compares to 8.2 million physical sales. Clearly Steam and others like it are on the right track.
What’s perhaps just as interesting is that, even though there were more digital sales, physical sales still made publishers more money. Physical sales brought in 57 percent more money than their digital counterparts. That’s probably because you’ll pay more for a PC game at a retail store than you would from a digital distribution service.
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Japan views Chinese hackers as main suspects for Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks that affected several of its official websites last week.

According to the Taipei Times, the Japanese government is investigating attacks directed at the Ministry of Defense and National Police Agency websites, between Wednesday and Friday.
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Following a call to arms yesterday, the masses inhabiting the anonymous 4chan boards have carried out a huge assault on a pair of anti-piracy enemies. The website of Aiplex Software, the anti-piracy outfit which has been DDoSing torrent sites recently, is currently down having been DDoS’d. They are joined in the Internet wasteland by the MPAA’s website, also currently under huge and sustained attack.
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