beforeyoukillyourcomputer.com

ebay says a flood of modified Xbox 360 video game consoles that have been banned from connecting to Xbox Live has hit the online auction site, and is warning users to be wary of what they buy.

“If you are looking to buy an Xbox 360 on eBay in the near future, ask the seller if it has been banned from Xbox Live and be sure to pay by PayPal in case they lie,” the company said on its website. “If you do get a banned console, start a PayPal claim.”

PayPal is eBay’s online payment system, which can reverse charges in the case of fraudulent sales.

The announcement comes after Microsoft this week banned up to one million consoles from accessing its Xbox Live service, where users can play online games with each other or purchase downloadable content such as movies and television shows.

The company enacted the ban on consoles that have been modified by users to play pirated copies of games.

“All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and that modifying their Xbox 360 console violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live,” Microsoft said in a statement.

Affected gamers can still get online by signing in from an unmodified machine, but the “modded” consoles are permanently banned from Xbox Live, Microsoft said.

Full Story

A federal judge Friday denied a request from a small Virginia company to stop the online auction powerhouse eBay Inc. from using a feature that allows shoppers to purchase items at a fixed price…

In his ruling, Friedman said the company was not irreparably harmed because it continued to make money from its patents, either by licensing them outright or by threatening litigation against those it believed infringed upon them…

The case became a rallying point for critics who argue the U.S. patent system is riddled with abuse from small businesses that sue established companies to enforce patents for ideas that have never been developed into products.

Source

Looks like the rumors were true. Auction site eBay is shelling out $75 million to buy social web discovery service StumbleUpon.

According to the press release, the acquisition gives eBay exposure to StumbleUpon’s growing community of over 2 million users. Still seems like an awkward match to us. In recent years, eBay purchased PayPal, but that was a no-brainer, and Skype, which has an obvious commercial aspect.

The company hardly needed StumbleUpon to build its brand recognition. And if they just start injecting eBay auctions willy nilly into stumble results, they’ll pretty much break the community they bought as members begin to evacuate the spam-laden sinking ship. Still, a separate “stumble to find books, computer parts, or hummels” section could make a lot of sense.

eBay senior director Michael Buhr assumes the post of general manager of StumbleUpon, while StumbleUpon’s current management team remains in place.

Source

Ebay said that it had banned auctions of virtual gold, armor and other booty amassed in World of Warcraft and other online computer games.

The San Jose, California-based Internet auction house decided to bar sales of what was essentially computer code representing riches, swords and other items in games due to “legal complexities” regarding ownership.

“We decided it was best to just not allow sales of them,” Ebay spokesman Hani Durzy said of virtual game goods.

“We are not saying they are legal and we are not saying they are illegal.”

Ebay continues to allow auctions of items from virtual societies such as Second Life, where people represented by animated figures called “avatars” buy and sell homes and other “property” made of computer codes.

“Right now, Second Life is not considered a game so we are not applying the restriction to it,” Durzy said.

In massive multiplayer online role-playing games such as Warcraft gamers represented by avatars wage battles and undertake quests, gathering gold, weaponry, armor and other virtual goods along the way. continue reading…

Late last year Google fired a few shots at PayPal when they waived merchant fees at Google Checkout for the rest of the year. Today they hit hard, using their biggest gun to promote the service: the Google homepage.

Google has added a link to Google Checkout along with a $10 coupon to use with Google Checkout merchants. Hitwise predicts we’ll see a big spike in Google Checkout traffic. I agree.

Small merchants overwhelmingly use PayPal to take credit card payments (we use them on CrunchBoard). But Google’s Checkout product is superior in a lot of ways. And the fact that they are promoting it on the Google home page and in search results is a real competitive advantage. Whether it is enough to overcome PayPal’s own big gun – their lock on eBay – isn’t obvious. But everyone loves a good fight, and the word is Checkout has more interesting stuff coming.

Source

Maybe he should have set a reserve.

Source

The O.J. Simpson project is dead, but the book and the TV interview could turn up in bootleg form in this age of YouTube and EBay, when scandalous information seldom stays secret for long.

News Corp., owner of Fox Broadcasting and publisher HarperCollins, called off Simpson’s “confession” Monday after advertisers, booksellers and even Fox personality Bill O’Reilly branded the project sick and exploitive.

A two-part interview had been scheduled to air Nov. 27 and Nov. 29 on Fox, with the book, “If I Did It,” to follow on Nov. 30.

HarperCollins spokeswoman Erin Crum said some copies had already been shipped to stores but would be recalled, and all copies would be destroyed. She would not say how long that would take.

But with the interview already taped, and thousands of books either sitting in warehouses or headed to booksellers, his supposedly hypothetical account of how he would have committed the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman appears all but certain to surface.

Source / See also

Only established eBay Inc. vendors _ those who have racked up comments from at least 50 previous customers and have positive ratings of at least 98 out of 100 points _ can list PS3s before Friday. Each vendor can only list only one PS3 per eBay account.

The listing must include a photo of the pre-order receipt, and the seller must guarantee shipment within 30 days from the date of purchase. Before Friday, PS3s can be listed on eBay only in auction formats _ not as”buy it now”items.

Potential buyers, trying to avoid long lines, rain checks and empty-handed sales clerks on Friday, have already bid up PS3s to $2,300. The suggested retail price is $500 for a basic PS3 with a 20-gigabyte drive and $600 for a version with 60 gigabytes, built-in wireless and a Blu-ray DVD player for high-definition video.

Sony Corp., which has already delayed the PS3 launch twice, expects to have 400,000 PS3s available for its U.S. launch. EBay listed 3,144 PS3s or related items by Wednesday morning.

The restrictions, part of eBay’s standing policy for all”pre-sale”items, also apply to Nintendo Co.’s competing Wii console, which goes on sale Sunday. EBay had 2,354 listings for Wiis and related items.

Source