Disney is early adopter of Kinect 2

15 July 2014 Last updated at 18:00 By Leo Kelion Technology desk editor

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WATCH: BBC's Spencer Kelly tries out Disney's Kinect-powered campaign

Disney has emerged as one of the first firms to have put to use the second version of Microsoft's Kinect sensor outside of an Xbox game.

The movie company told the BBC it would shortly use the voice-motion sensor as part of a PC-powered interactive campaign for a forthcoming kids' film.

The news coincides with the general release of a new version of the kit designed for Windows computers.

The Kinect, however, has had a troubled Xbox One launch.

The sensor system was initially bundled with every copy of the games console, with Microsoft marketing the two as being intrinsically linked.

But the firm reversed policy in May, offering a Kinect-less Xbox, citing customer feedback.

Consumers had complained that its inclusion made the Xbox One more expensive than Sony's PlayStation 4.

And while the new machine is better at minimising the lag between a user's movements and the video game reacting than the original version, many players and developers still prefer the faster, higher precision controls offered by gamepads.

As a result both Microsoft and the major third-party publishers shied away from promoting products designed around its features at last month's E3 games expo, with the exception of a couple of music-based titles, an exercise game and an indie title.

Newer, better

The Kinect for Windows v2 offers several advantages over its predecessor, including:

• "Full high definition" 1080p resolution video capture versus the lower resolution 480p images produced by the original
• An improved ability to model the human skeleton, tracking 25 joints per person compared to 20 in the first model. It can also keep track of up to six people at a time rather than two
• A 60% wider field of view, allowing it to both monitor a wider area and allow users to be able to stand about 10cm (3.9in) closer to the device
• Higher fidelity depth sensing with less problems caused by "digital noise", letting the device recognise smaller objects
• The ability to monitor activity via both the room's ambient light and its own infrared lamp at the same time

Disney used the original Kinect to power a promotional campaign for Iron Man 3 used in 14 countries.

It involved members of the public standing in front of a screen who could call computer-generated parts of the superhero's suit to fit themselves to the video image of their body by moving their limbs, allowing them to later fire its weapons and simulate flight.

"We really stretched its limitations," said Dan Radford, head of digital marketing at the UK offices of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

"When you had a four-year-old kid interacting with it there had to be a certain distance, but it didn't always pick them up as well as we would have hoped.

"Now it feels like the camera has the capability to do that much better and the kids can stand closer to it."

Mr Radford added that his firm had previously needed to pair the original Kinect with a higher resolution video camera to achieve an image suitable for the giant screens Disney used to promote the film.

The new version can capture high definition video natively, simplifying the technology required to achieve the desired effect.

Mr Radford said his team had used the kit to create a campaign for the film Planes 2: Fire & Rescue, which would allow two children to simultaneously control two animated aeroplanes by stretching out their arms, leaning back and forth, and bending their knees. The promotion launches at the end of this week.

"With this camera it just feels like the opportunity is there to create a more stable experience," he said.

Surgeons and suits

The original Kinect has been use in a wide variety of non-gaming activities, including:

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WATCH: The Kinect is used to control virtual butterflies at a new exhibition

Despite the fact many competing gesture control systems exist - such as Leap Motion, SoftKinetic's DepthSense line-up and Creative's Senz3D - one analyst said the new machine was much anticipated, even if its £159 price tag would limit demand.

"It's not just one of the most advanced sensors of its kind, it's also the best marketed - the Xbox team at Microsoft have done an amazing job of positioning and explaining Kinect to people," said Chris Green from the Davies Murphy Group consultancy.

"Eventually they will need to make it smaller and a bit more portable so that it can be integrated into laptops, but for the moment it's very much pitched at being used with static monitors or TVs, and you can stick it on top and be fine."

BBC Click will have more on Disney's campaign on the next edition of the TV programme. You can watch more clips from the show on the Click website.

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US swamped with net neutrality posts

16 July 2014 Last updated at 15:22

A US regulator has extended a deadline for comments about controversial internet traffic rules after its systems struggled to cope with a deluge of messages.

The deadline was originally Tuesday.

But after the web-based submissions system became inaccessible, it has been extended to Friday.

The watchdog said it had received more than 780,000 comments about internet providers' right to charge other firms for "fast-lane" data delivery.

The Federal Communication Commission has promised that every message would be read.

It also plans to allow commentators to respond to each other's initial posts over a further period of 60 days running until 10 September before coming to a decision.

Tight vote

The FCC was prompted to re-examine the issue of "net neutrality" after a US Court of Appeals ruling in January.

The court sided with Verizon, a telecoms firm, that had challenged the regulator's earlier instruction that broadband providers must treat all traffic equally.

In May, the regulator's five commissioners voted 3-2 in favour of new language that states telecom providers must ensure "all users have access to an internet experience that is sufficiently robust, fast and effectively usable".

It adds that the term "users" includes both consumers and "content providers who do not enter into specific arrangements with broadband providers".

While the new rule would forbid net providers from blocking downloads of apps, websites and other legal content, it would still leave the door open to them to charge for "prioritised" data delivery.

For example, a broadband provider could charge Google to ensure its YouTube videos do not suffer buffering issues when downloaded at times of peak traffic.

The FCC did, however, ask people to comment about whether it should bar paid prioritisation outright, and how it might do that bearing in mind the earlier legal ruling.

Many net neutrality advocates have responded by calling on the FCC to reclassify broadband providers as "Title II telecommunications services" rather than their current status as "information services".

They say this would allow the watchdog to treat the firms as utilities, allowing it to block fast-lane deals.

"The time has come to start treating internet access as a standard telecommunication activity and regulate it like the telephone system," wrote one citizen, California-based David Ambrose.

"The technology is mature, and further delivery enhancements are only likely to come through a regulated monopoly."

But the telecoms industry has cast doubt over whether the FCC has the power to do this and has warned it would create an anti-innovation "government, may I?" culture.

"Further regulation of broadband providers' behaviour is not needed at this time and would threaten the healthy dynamics fuelling the growth and continued improvement of the internet and the many services it enables," wrote Verizon in its submission.

Missing posts?

A popular thread on the news service Reddit had initially suggested the FCC might have lost some of the posts because its comments counter only listed about 200,000 filings.

However, the watchdog has explained that the figure was misleading because of the different ways that people could send in their thoughts.

While the tally includes messages posted via its electronic filing system, many of the comments received via email have been lumped together into batches before being processed, it said, causing the number to appear low

In addition, the Daily Dot news site has reported that some organisations hand-delivered thousands of comments on Tuesday when the service went offline.

The FCC has pledged to scan and add these to its system.

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Apple and IBM to co-develop apps

16 July 2014 Last updated at 07:54 By Leo Kelion Technology desk editor

Apple and IBM have announced a business partnership that will see the two firms co-develop business-centric apps for iPhones and iPads.

In addition, IBM will start selling business clients Apple's mobile devices pre-installed with the new software.

The two firms were one-time rivals, with Apple's 1984 advert depicting itself as an upstart challenging what was a dominant IBM.

One expert said it was too soon to know how significant the deal would be.

"It's hard to be sure without more details," said Ken Dulaney, an analyst at the tech consultancy Gartner.

"Enterprises need special features to protect their applications and the associated data. Our understanding is that IBM now has special access rights to certain security features on the devices that others will not have access to.

"This permits IBM to offer applications and services through Apple devices that behave more like the software businesses have long built on Windows platforms.

"But unknown things include what apps will be produced and what is the financial arrangement between the firms."

Co-developed apps

The firms' press release provides limited detail about what the first "IBM MobileFirst Platform for iOS" apps will do, beyond saying they would draw on IBM's expertise at analysing large amounts of information to help "retail, healthcare, banking, travel and transportation, telecommunications and insurance" among other industries make efficiency gains and take advantage of the cloud.

It does, however, mark a fresh attempt by Apple to take advantage of Blackberry's decline and an appetite from the business world for an alternative to Microsoft's products.

Analysis: Kamal Ahmed, BBC Business Editor

The partnership between two of the world's global technology giants sees Apple stepping up its efforts to transfer its dominance in the consumer market to the highly lucrative market servicing business users.

Who should be worried?

Well, Microsoft (already huge in this market) and Google (growing rapidly) will take a close look at what the joint venture means.

But it's Blackberry that will be feeling the most sweaty this morning.

Business users - managers still wedded to their "Crackberries" despite all the problems the Canadian company has faced - and security obsessed governments could have their heads turned by bespoke aps and business services on iPads and iPhones backed by IBM's famed big data and analytics expertise.

However, last week Microsoft's chief executive, Satya Nadella released a memo in which he also promised to "reinvent productivity to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to do more and achieve more" with his firm's own set of cloud-based products.

Although the Apple-IBM announcement promises more than 100 new "solutions" as a result of the deal, it will not be the first time IBM has released products for iOS.

The company already offers social network, email, and chat software for the platform among other programs. It has also released apps for devices running Google's rival Android operating system.

Apple shares rose by about 1.5% in after-hours trade, while IBM was up 1.8% following the announcement.

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GCHQ leak lists cyber-spies' hacks

15 July 2014 Last updated at 12:06 By Leo Kelion Technology desk editor

A document that appears to list a wide variety of GCHQ's cyber-spy tools and techniques has been leaked online.

It indicates the agency worked on ways to alter the outcome of online polls, find private Facebook photos, and send spoof emails that appeared to be from Blackberry users, among other things.

The document is alleged to have been among those leaked by former US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden.

One expert said the release, published on the site Intercept, was "damaging".

Alan Woodward, a security consultant who has done work for GCHQ, the UK's intelligence agency, said: "If you read the mission statement of any signals intelligence organisation, all the listed techniques are what you'd expect them to be doing.

"But it's very unhelpful for the details to leak out because as soon as you reveal to people how something is being done they can potentially take steps to avoid their information being collected.

"We've already seen it happen when various forms of interception were revealed previously with the Snowden leaks."

Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who published the latest document, noted in his article that an earlier inquiry by the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee had called into question the "legality, necessity and proportionality" of the data-collection activities of GCHQ and the US National Security Agency (NSA), for which Mr Snowden worked.

He also highlighted that the article's publication coincided with the start of a legal challenge brought by Privacy International, Liberty and other civil rights groups that claimed the UK's security agencies had acted unlawfully.

However, GCHQ denies it is at fault.

"It is a longstanding policy that we do not comment on intelligence matters," it said in a statement.

"Furthermore, all of GCHQ's work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight, including from the secretary of state, the interception and intelligence services commissioners and the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee."

Swamp donkey

More than 100 projects are included in the document, which appears to be from a Wikipedia-style listing for GCHQ's Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group.

Many involve eccentric codenames.

For example, the ability to send an audio message to a large number of telephones and/or "repeatedly bomb" a target number with the same message is called Concrete Donkey - the name of a weapon in the video game Worms.

Other examples include:

• Angry Pirate - a tool to permanently disable a target's account on their computer
• Bomb Bay - the capacity to increase website hits/rankings
• Cannonball - the ability to send repeated text messages to a single target
• Gestator - a tool to make a message, normally a video, more visible on websites including YouTube
• Glitterball - software to help agents carry out operations in Second Life and other online games
• Birdstrike - Twitter monitoring and profile collection
• Fatyak - public data collection from the business-focused social network LinkedIn
• Spring Bishop - a tool to find private pictures of targets on Facebook
• Changeling - the ability to spoof any email address and send messages under that identity
• Bearscrape - a tool to extract a computer's wi-fi connection history
• Miniature Hero - the ability to source real-time call records, instant messages and contact lists from Skype
• Swamp donkey - a way to send a modified Excel spreadsheet document that silently extracts and runs malware on the target's computer
• Underpass - a tool to change the result of online polls

Some of the schemes are listed as being operational while others are said to be still at the design, development or pilot stages.

Analysis: Gordon Corera, security correspondent

The latest revelations suggest that GCHQ is developing a wide range of capabilities which go beyond the simple gathering of information and into the realms of covert action.

This is another traditional part of the work of spy agencies but one they prefer to keep clandestine and therefore "deniable".

According to the documents, this appears to range from disrupting an individual's online activity to broader "information operations" to influence opinion in other countries.

What is not clear from the document is how far these capabilities have actually been deployed and put into action and against whom.

Almost every state is secretly developing capabilities to disrupt their opponents in cyberspace but they do not like talking about them or having them revealed in public.

'Chinese menu'

It is not clear exactly how out-of-date the list is.

The document states it was last modified in July 2012, but includes a note saying: "We don't update this page anymore, it became somewhat of a Chinese menu for effects operations."

Staff are instead directed to an alternative page, which has not been leaked.

"The accusation that GCHQ has been manipulating polls and influencing and distorting political discourse is incredibly serious," said Emma Carr, acting director of the Big Brother Watch campaign group.

"The UK is always the first to point the finger at countries if there is a whiff of corruption or interference within a democratic process, so if senior ministers are aware that this is taking place then this absolutely stinks of hypocrisy.

"It is essential that the government directly addresses these accusations, otherwise they are at risk of losing the international moral high ground."

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Site lists pages blocked by Google

15 July 2014 Last updated at 15:45 By Kevin Rawlinson BBC News

A website has been set up to list items Google has removed after the European Court of Justice ruled people could have articles about them deleted from the results of specific search terms.

Hidden From Google claims to have had "hundreds" of tip-offs from its users.

Searches on Google in Europe for some of the articles listed now return links to Hidden From Google by virtue of their mention on it.

Campaigners have called the court ruling an attack on free speech.

"There is an information gap there and, where you can verify examples, you can curate a list," said Afaq Tariq, the US web developer who set up the site in June this year.

He said he had asked for help from other developers in curating his list, which stood at 15 examples on Tuesday.

Mr Tariq said that, at first, he was just looking for an excuse to set up a website to test some software.

But, after settling on the "right to be forgotten" issue, he said he had realised that no-one had stepped forward to curate a list of articles removed from search engine results.

"It is not as if the links are going away, it is just Google results within Europe that they are removed from, so you have this before-and-after picture with Google US," he said.

"Some seem to have been removed, but are not any longer - that is part of the reason the list remains short. Until I can verify that an article is being censored consistently across European domains, I cannot put it on the list in good conscience," he said.

Streisand effect

Mr Tariq said he had not yet made up his mind on the issue in general. But the inclusion of articles removed from search engine results on Hidden From Google raises the possibility of the "Streisand effect" - when demanding silence on a subject only serves to draw more attention to it.

The term was coined after the singer unsuccessfully attempted to suppress publication of photographs of her home, inadvertently drawing more attention to them.

Two BBC News articles are among those listed. One request was to remove a 2010 article about a child abuse trial in Portugal from the results for "Carlos Silvino". Silvino, who admitted to 639 charges relating to the abuse of children or procuring them for others, was given an 18-year sentence.

Continue reading the main story

There is an information gap there and, where you can verify examples, you can curate a list."

End Quote Afaq Tariq HiddenFromGoogle.com creator

The other request was to hide a BBC article related to a blog by economics editor Robert Peston, although the website was unclear why the article had been removed.

Google was unable to say, but inquiries made by Mr Peston suggested that it was most likely at the request of someone who had left a comment on the blog, rather than at that of its subject, former Merrill Lynch chairman Stan O'Neal.

The result of a search for the name Robert Daniels-Dwyer, an archaeology expert caught shoplifting in 2006, and the city of Oxford is one of those listed as having been censored.

Instead of returning a contemporaneous Oxford Mail news story on the case, the search now returns a link to the Hidden From Google site as its eighth result. Seven of the top 10 search results refer to the removal of the Oxford Mail story from Google's results.

Also among the terms removed was the name of the Chancellor George Osborne's brother. The search terms related to an article on the Daily Express' website about Dr Adam Osborne's conversion to Islam.

The new law was the result of a test case in May this year, in which the the European Court of Justice's found in favour of Spaniard Costeja Gonzalez. He had unsuccessfully tried to make Google Spain remove references to an auction notice of his home dating from 1998.

Mr Gonzalez argued that the matter, which came about because he had had to auction his home to cover his social security debts, had been resolved and should no longer be on his online record.

'Judge and jury'

The ruling gave people the right to ask for articles to be removed from search engine results if the piece included their names, as well as "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive" information about them.

It does not include a requirement for articles to be taken offline altogether. However, because of the popularity of search engines, it has been argued that the effect is similar.

Continue reading the main story

• Google has received 70,000 requests under the new law
• The search engine is getting about 1,000 per day

Source: Google

On Monday, Google said it was being made to "act as judge and jury" on search results about individuals by the ruling.

Speaking to a Media Society conference in London, the company's spokesman Peter Barron said: "It's not a task that we ever wanted.

According to the Daily Telegraph, he told the Rewriting History conference: "Our background is that we are firmly in favour of free expression. The way that it's worked hitherto is that an individual with a grievance would go to the publisher or to a court - we don't think we should be judge and jury but today we face the law."

He said that Google had received 70,000 takedown requests since the ruling in May this year, adding that the firm was now getting another 1,000 per day. He said the ruling meant "the right to privacy now trumps freedom of expression", the paper reported.

The government has also expressed opposition to the new law.

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Yahoo profit declines on ad sales

15 July 2014 Last updated at 22:15

Internet giant Yahoo reported that profit decreased by 18% to $270m (£157m) during the three months to the end of June.

Revenue also fell, dropping 3% to $1.08bn.

Most of the decline was due to a sharp drop in digital display advertising, which plunged 8% in the second quarter.

"Our top priority is revenue growth and by that measure, we are not satisfied with our results," said chief executive Marissa Mayer in a statement.

The price-per-ad - that is, the amount Yahoo charges advertisers for digital display advertisements - fell 24%.

Alibaba boost

Nonetheless, the profit drop was overshadowed by news of Yahoo's plans once Chinese internet giant Alibaba becomes a publicly listed company later this year.

"We are pleased to announce today that we have entered into an amendment to the share repurchase agreement with Alibaba, reducing the number of shares that Yahoo is required to sell at the IPO from 208 million shares to 140 million shares," said Yahoo.

Yahoo has a large stake in the firm, whose stock market debut is expected to raise at least $15bn for investors.

The company also emphasised that it would return a large portion - at least half of the after-tax profits - of the proceeds from the Alibaba share sale back to investors.

That sent Yahoo's shares up over 2% in after-hours trading despite the lacklustre earnings report.

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Merkel, Hollande sites hit by abuse

16 July 2014 Last updated at 12:40

Angry Ukrainian internet users are being blamed for deluging the social networking sites of German Chancellor Angela Merkel with abuse over her "cosy relationship" with Russia.

Tens of thousands of malicious images and insults have been put on Mrs Merkel's Facebook page.

Her office said it was a slanderous, racist and extremist "spam attack".

The official Facebook page of French President Francois Hollande has also been targeted.

Germany and France have been at the forefront of efforts to rejuvenate a stalled peace deal in Ukraine that would lead peace talks between it and Russia.

Derogatory comments

The BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin says that the doctored pictures liken the chancellor to Nazi leaders including Hitler and his Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop.

Our correspondent says that while the origin of tens of thousands of derogatory comments is unclear, they invariably relate to Ukraine and Mrs Merkel's alleged closeness to President Putin of Russia.

She was filmed sitting near him at the World Cup Final in Brazil, but the common perception within Germany is that she is actually deeply opposed to any Russian attempts to annex or destabilise parts of Ukraine, he adds.

The speculation in Germany is that the abusive images have either been put there by enraged Ukrainians who are fiercely against Russia, or by some Russian source which wants to drive a wedge between the Ukrainian government and Germany, our correspondent says.

The comments provoked a terse reply from Mrs Merkel's media team.

"Dear fans of the Angela Merkel site, there is currently a spam attack on this page that floods all posts with certain comments," a message on it read.

It said that the malicious comments would be deleted.

Mr Hollande's official Facebook page was hit by harsh criticism of the move by France to sell Mistral warships to Russia despite allegations in the West that Russia is fomenting the conflict in Ukraine.

Correspondents say that both Russia and Ukraine are often accused of inundating media outlets with comments - sometimes hostile - about or relating to the conflict.

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Top hacker Hotz recruited by Google

16 July 2014 Last updated at 12:43

Google has assembled a team to spot critical bugs and vulnerabilities - and taken on one of the world's most notorious hackers as an intern.

George Hotz, 24, is best known for hacking Sony's PlayStation 3 and Apple's iPhone, actions that have seen him subject to legal action.

Mr Hotz is part of Google's Project Zero, a new effort to identify problems within any software, not just Google's.

A public database of vulnerabilities will be published by the company.

It will give information on how long it took companies to react to the bug report and issue a fix.

"Once the bug report becomes public (typically once a patch is available), you'll be able to monitor vendor time-to-fix performance, see any discussion about exploitability, and view historical exploits and crash traces," explained Chris Evans, the Google employee heading the project.

Industrial espionage

The "well-staffed" team will focus on finding so-called zero-day vulnerabilities. This is the term given to problems with software that had not previously been identified, meaning hackers have the chance to exploit a bug fully before it is patched - fixed - by developers.

Continue reading the main story

Other companies may begrudgingly accept Google reporting a vulnerability"

End Quote Brian Honan Security expert

"You should be able to use the web without fear that a criminal or state-sponsored actor is exploiting software bugs to infect your computer, steal secrets or monitor your communications," Mr Evans continued.

"Yet in sophisticated attacks, we see the use of 'zero-day' vulnerabilities to target, for example, human rights activists or to conduct industrial espionage. This needs to stop.

"We think more can be done to tackle this problem."

Part of that effort requires bringing on the types of people that were previously the object of technology firms' ire.

Mr Hotz - known as geohot online - was taken to court by Sony after he hacked the PlayStation 3 so it could play pirated games.

The case was settled out of court, with Mr Hotz agreeing to not target Sony products in future.

Meet the bug hunters

You've found it. A way in. A gap in the fence; a chink in the armour. The needle in the... stack of needles.

But now what? Do you do the good thing? Tell the owner you've rumbled their security, help them fix it and get a well-meant pat on the back?

Or do you take your new weapon out into the wild and sell it to the bad guys for thousands upon thousands of pounds?

Read more: Big bucks paid to keep ahead of hackers

Google also felt the sharp end of Mr Hotz's hacking ability - he was able to hack the firm's Chrome operating system.

In contrast to the Sony lawsuit, Mr Hotz was awarded a $150,000 (£88,000) prize as part of a competition arranged by manufacturer HP.

"I think what we've seen in the past 18-24 months is a change in attitude from a lot of companies on how to handle vulnerabilities in their applications," said security expert Brian Honan, who noted that Mr Hotz had also worked for Facebook.

"We've seen Google be very proactive in this, but other companies like Facebook and Microsoft all have 'bug bounty' programmes whereby you can report a bug and be financially compensated."

Mr Honan did not think that Google calling out other firms on security would backfire.

"Other companies may begrudgingly accept Google reporting a vulnerability," he said.

"But at the same time, most companies do now have a progressive attitude to receiving reports - I don't see them looking at Google in a negative way."

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Noriega sues over Call of Duty

16 July 2014 Last updated at 12:51 By Leo Kelion Technology desk editor

Manuel Noriega, the former dictator of Panama, is suing Call of Duty's video games publisher.

The ex-military ruler is seeking lost profits and damages after a character based on him featured in Activision's 2012 title Black Ops II.

The 80-year-old is currently serving a jail sentence in Panama for crimes committed during his time in power, including the murder of critics.

One lawyer said this was the latest in a growing trend of such lawsuits.

"In the US, individuals have what's called the right to publicity, which gives them control over how their person is depicted in commerce including video games," explained Jas Purewal, an interactive entertainment lawyer.

"There's also been a very well-known action by a whole series of college athletes against Electronic Arts, and the American band No Doubt took action against Activision over this issue among other cases.

"It all focuses upon the American legal ability for an individual to be only depicted with their permission, which in practice means payment of a fee.

"But Noriega isn't a US citizen or even a resident. This means that his legal claim becomes questionable, because it's unclear on what legal basis he can actually bring a case against Activision."

'Enemy of the state'

In Activision's video game, Noriega initially helps the CIA capture a Nicaraguan terrorist, but later turns on the Americans and is hunted himself.

In reality, Noriega did work as a CIA informant before the agency broke ties with him. After the US became concerned about his violent rule, President George Bush ordered the invasion of Panama in 1989, which resulted in his capture.

A 13-page document filed in Noriega's name claims that he is portrayed as a "kidnapper, murderer and enemy of the state" responsible for "numerous fictional crimes" in Black Ops II, according to Courthouse News Service.

It alleges his inclusion heightened the game's sense of realism, helping boost its sales.

The game - which was scripted by David Goyer, screenwriter of the recent Batman movies - was 2012's biggest-selling title in the US, UK and elsewhere.

A spokeswoman for Activision declined to comment.

Permission payouts

The California-based company previously reached an undisclosed out-of-court settlement with the band No Doubt after the musicians sued over the use of their singer, Gwen Stefani, performing songs by other artists in the game Band Hero.

Earlier this year, its rival EA Sports agreed to a $40m (£23m) payout after US college football and basketball players complained their likenesses had featured in several of the firm's titles.

Meanwhile, the publisher Take-Two Interactive is currently facing a related case in which the actress Lindsay Lohan claims a character in Grand Theft Auto V is based on her image, voice and clothing styles.

While such examples have been based on US law, Mr Purewal added that games firms had not been immune to similar complaints in the UK.

"In the UK, we have the right to privacy, which is slowly being extended to cover how celebrities and other well-known people are depicted online and in video games," he explained.

"So, for example, Lady Gaga took action against the British video games company Mind Candy over the depiction of a character called Lady Goo Goo in its game Moshi Monsters.

"But it is happening a lot more in the US at the moment."

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660 arrests in paedophile inquiry

16 July 2014 Last updated at 16:42

More than 650 suspected paedophiles have been arrested as part of a six-month operation targeting people accessing child abuse images online.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said the 660 arrested included doctors, teachers, scout leaders, care workers and former police officers.

More than 400 children have been protected as a result, the agency said.

Child protection experts have praised the arrests but warned they were "the tip of the iceberg".

Jim Gamble, former chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop), called for "consistent and persistent investigations of this kind".

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling, meanwhile, said: "Somebody who starts looking at pictures on the internet may go on to do something much worse, so this is the kind of operation that is absolutely vital for our society."

Indecent images

Arrests were made across the UK and the majority of those held had no previous contact with police.

The NCA said 39 of those arrested are registered sex offenders.

Charges already brought range from possessing indecent images of children to serious sexual assault.

The NCA stressed that none of those arrested is a serving or former MP or member of the government.

Continue reading the main story

• 39 suspects were registered sex offenders

• 833 buildings searched

• 9,172 devices, including phones and laptops, seized

Thinkstock

Examples of those arrested include:

• A doctor, who has been charged and remains in custody over images of child abuse
• A grandfather who had access to 17 grandchildren, two of whom were allegedly abuse by the man. He was taken into custody
• A foster carer, who was caring for a 12 year old, was arrested. He had no previous convictions or allegations of offending

The NCA said 431 children "in the care, custody or control" of the suspects had been protected as a result of the arrests.

Of those, 127 were said to be at immediate risk of harm.

Analysis

By Danny Shaw, BBC home affairs correspondent

When the National Crime Agency was formed it was given unique powers to co-ordinate investigations and task police forces to carry out inquiries.

Now we can see the impact that's having - with every UK force involved in Operation Notarise. But, as police have warned, it will take far more than arrests to grip the problem of online abuse.

The vast majority of websites which host indecent material operate from overseas; some of them, on the so-called "dark net", are more difficult to identify.

There is also a growing trade in swapping and paying for indecent material via organised criminal gangs. Only last month the head of the Virtual Global Taskforce told BBC News it was an "epidemic".

It is clear Operation Notarise is only a small part of the efforts to deal with the problem.

The BBC's Tom Symonds said the NCA had been secretive about the methods used to catch the suspected paedophiles.

But officers had told him it was a breakthrough in the way intelligence was used and passed between the various police forces rather than a technological advance.

'Dark net'

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"No system can ever be 100% secure"

End Quote NCA deputy director general Phil Gormley

NCA deputy director general Phil Gormley said sex offenders should understand they cannot avoid detection while using the internet, even on the so-called "dark net".

The "dark net" refers to content that does not appear in normal search engines and users often use virtual currencies to avoid detection. According to the Internet Watch Foundation, less than 1% of its content is hosted in the UK.

Mr Gormley told BBC News the NCA would "look at the learning from this operation".

"We've now got the opportunity to understand the methodology, the techniques employed by people who are operating on the internet in this way - and their motivation."

He said some of those arrested were "in positions of trust".

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We need to make sure that no-one can hide from the long arm of the law when they are threatening our children"

End Quote Child protection expert Jim Gamble

"It is not surprising on some levels that people who have this sort of interest may try and position themselves where they've got access to children."

That was why were there were safeguards and procedures "around people who want to work or interact with young people", he said, adding: "No system can ever be 100% secure."

Former CEOP chief Mr Gamble told BBC News those arrested were "not people in dirty macs".

"They're the people that sit in doctor's surgeries," he said.

"They're involved in government. They're involved elsewhere in works and civil service and the police and whatever else. We need to make sure that no-one can hide from the long arm of the law when they are threatening our children."

Joined-up approach

The investigation involved 45 police forces across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and saw "unprecedented level of co-operation," the NCA said.

Officers have searched 833 properties and examined 9,172 computers, phones and hard drives.

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Susie Hargreaves, Internet Watch Foundation: "This is unprecedented"

Susie Hargreaves, chief executive of the Internet Watch Foundation charity, hailed the NCA's "joined-up approach", saying the scale of the operation was "really quite impressive".

"These are new people, they're not people with a previous history of looking at these images," she told BBC News.

"It just goes to show that, actually, if you're out there, you're looking at the images, you're doing something criminal - it's not a victimless crime."

Targeted offenders

No full regional breakdown of arrests have been published.

But individual police forces have revealed that:

• In Wales, 59 people were arrested as part of the operation
• In Scotland, there were 13 arrests
• In Northern Ireland, there were 14
• West Midlands Police made 41 arrests
• Hampshire Police made 33 arrests
• Merseyside Police made 26 arrests
• Sussex Police made 24 arrests
• Devon and Cornwall Police made 22 arrests
• Staffordshire Police made 19 arrests
• Lancashire Police made 16 arrests
• Surrey Police made seven arrests

'Horrendous pictures'

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South Wales Police Assistant Chief Constable Nikki Holland: "We can police the internet"

Prime Minister David Cameron said the NCA was "doing a very good job at bringing all the modern methods of policing and technology together to go after the perpetrators of a particularly horrible crime".

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We should view it as yet another warning sign that far more needs to be done if we are to stem the sordid trade in these images,"

End Quote Claire Lilley, NSPCC

Chief Constable Simon Bailey, of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said the operation marked a turning point in investigating those suspected of paedophilia.

He said it was the first time the NCA had worked with other forces to "come together to target the possession, distribution, sharing of indecent images of children - so it's a really significant event".

Claire Lilley, head of online safety at the NSPCC said the operation had rescued children from abuse.

But she warned: "Industry has to find inventive ways of blocking the flow of such horrendous pictures which are only produced through the suffering of defenceless children - many of who are not even old enough to go to school.

"So while this operation must be rightly applauded we should view it as yet another warning sign that far more needs to be done if we are to stem the sordid trade in these images, which are often used by those who go on to abuse children."

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