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A 'monkey selfie' movie might be on the way
Proving that Hollywood will try anything once (and 17 times if enough people watch it), there might be a movie on based on the infamous "monkey selfie" headed our way. Conde Nast Entertainment has bought the life rights for David Slater, the photographer who found himself in a legal battle over a selfie a macaque took in 2011, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Conde Nast usually develops movies based on articles from its publishing arm's magazines like The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, so this is a slightly different step for the company.
Selfie-snapping monkey loses copyright infringement case (again)
The copyright battle over who owns that famous toothy selfie taken by a macaque monkey in Indonesia apparently didn't end when the parties involved reached a settlement last year. On Monday, an appeals court has affirmed the lower court's decision that Naruto, the seven-year-old crested macaque in the selfie, can't file a copyright claim for the photo. "[W]e conclude that this monkey -- and all animals, since they are not human -- lacks statutory standing under the Copyright Act," Judge N. Randy Smith wrote in the ruling.
Monkey selfie copyright battle ends with a settlement
The battle over who owns the rights to a monkey's selfies has raged for years, but it's coming to a quiet end. Camera owner David Slater, PETA and Blurb have reached a settlement in the case before a federal appeals court could rule whether or not Slater or PETA (on behalf of the monkey, a crested macaque named Naruto) owned the photos. The truce doesn't appear to alter Slater's original court victory, but it will have him donating 25 percent of future revenue from the selfies to charities that protect the habitats of Naruto and his species.
PETA parody 'Pokemon Black and Blue' fights for fictional animal rights
In celebration of Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 launching yesterday, animal-rights group PETA today released Pokemon Black and Blue, a parody game with the tagline "Gotta free 'em all." Pokemon Black and Blue has players embody Pikachu as he fights against trainers for liberation from what PETA sees as a torturous, imprisoned life."Much like animals in the real world, Pokemon are treated as unfeeling objects and used for such things as human entertainment and as subjects in experiments," PETA writes. "The way that Pokemon are stuffed into pokeballs is similar to how circuses chain elephants inside railroad cars and let them out only to perform confusing and often painful tricks that were taught using sharp steel-tipped bullhooks and electric shock prods."This isn't PETA's first foray into activist gaming; in December 2010 it released Super Tofu Boy, a parody of Super Meat Boy. Team Meat responded to PETA by including Tofu Boy as a playable character in a Steam update of Super Meat Boy.Pokemon Black and Blue demonstrates that while it's terrible to punch, kick, cut or hit fictional animals with bats, it's perfectly acceptable to electrocute humans. Also, words can hurt just as much as quick attacks. And hugs. Give Pokemon Black and Blue a shot in the embedded game below (Warning: It has music and will auto-play).
How to go tribal with transmogrification
Do you like hugging trees? Did you want to see more of D.E.H.T.A. in Wrath of the Lich King? If you answered yes to either of those questions, this week's transmogrification guide is for you. This week, we're going to be exploring that super-chic tribal look the tauren of Azeroth love so much. So if you happen to be a druid who wants to look more the part (or just want to be a rogue who inflicts cognitive dissonance), keep reading. First off, you should know that at the end of the day, there's a lot of flexibility to this outfit. Anything with wood, leaves, feathers, animal hide, fur, or antlers has the potential to be swapped in. Just be mindful of how you incorporate color. When using earthy-looking armor models, you want to try and keep the earth tones in the same color family. So for example, if your chestpiece is a mustard-colored brown, you may want to make sure most of your browns have a similar hue. When it comes to accents and contrasting color, try to make all of those little details match. So if you get a red headband, trying using a red belt or weapon to tie it all together.
PETA targets Mario, we challenge the facts
Look, we like seeing an organization desperately flailing in an ill-fated attempt at relevance as much as the next site, but this time PETA has gone too far. The organization has created Mario Kills Tanooki, a 2D platformer that has a skinned tanuki (or raccoon dog, if you prefer) trying to retrieve its outer layer from a flying, blood-spattered Mario. Taking a swipe at the world's favorite plumber is pretty low, but it's worse in this case because PETA is blatantly lying. As everyone knows from reading the Nintendo Comics System (specifically the "Tanooki Suits Me" story from the Super Mario Bros. line) the Tanooki suit was hand-crafted by a tailor named Tanooki rather than any animal the material was lifted from. Mario's not an animal abuser, PETA. He's a furry. And for the record, when you manage to make even NMA look sane, you know something's wrong. For the record, yes, this is a grab for attention and we're making it rain eyeballs. But this is Mario we're talking about. We'd hope that when we're inevitably targeted by a crazy group, you'd leap to our defense too.
Tofu Boy being added to Super Meat Boy PC in next patch
Team Meat has cheekily responded to yesterday's PETA Super Tofu Boy parody by announcing that it will add the soy-based protagonist as a downloadable character in the next Super Meat Boy PC patch. The character will only be available on PC, since the XBLA can't be patched in the same fashion. In a blog post, Team Meat's Edmund McMillen said he "repeatedly made fake user names" in PETA's forums, trying to push the game in hopes of a response. Well, he got one -- and so did they. McMillen added that the parody was "beyond flattering and amazingly helpful," but also had some harsh words for PETA's stance on animal testing. He also reiterated, just in case some folks weren't aware, that Meat Boy isn't actually made of animal meat, "he's simply a boy without skin." And here come the Robbie Williams "Rock DJ" flashbacks again. Update: According to Team Meat, the "bit malnourished" Tofu Boy will be playable by typing "petaphile" at the character select screen following the next Steam update.
Super Meat Boy fried by PETA's Tofu Boy
Animal activist organization PETA has released its latest parody, Super Tofu Boy, an extra firm lampoon of the beefy Super Meat Boy. Using the basic gameplay of the superb platformer as its inspiration, PETA's take has Tofu Boy saving Bandage Girl from Meat Boy, who has kidnapped his now ex-girlfriend for dumping him for the silken lover. Even if you don't believe that delicious, raw meat is "bad," Tofu Boy is still an amusing distraction, even if it's ultimately a processed imitation. We've contacted Team Meat to find out if Meat Boy has a response. You may recall that Cooking Mama found her PETA parody quite "runderful." Update: Team Meat's Edmund McMillen wrote back to tell us he finds PETA's attention "extremely flattering." He expressed, "For them to do a parody of Meat Boy during our launch week on Steam... there's no way we can complain about that." He did note, however, they had beaten PETA to the Tofu Boy gag with a comic for their beefy bundle of joy.
PETA chooses The Sims 3 as its GOTY 2009
Usually when we post something about PETA here on our gamez blawg, it's about the company protesting this or complaining about that. Not so today, as PETA's awarded EA Maxis' The Sims 3 with a Proggy Award for being the 'Most Animal-Friendly Game' of 2009. You may remember PETA gave the same award to Fable 2 last year. The award this year is in recognition of The Sims 3's ability to put your virtual pal on a vegetarian diet. PETA also adds that "vegetarian Sims, like their real-life counterparts, live longer, age more slowly, and feast on cruelty-free delights -- from tofu dogs to ratatouille." Sounds well and good, but we're not sure we'd totally attribute any supposed increased life span to a diet, because we all know from the great Xena: Warrior Princess that if anything happens, it's because a wizard did it. [Via Gamasutra]
Latest PETA game wants breast cancer animal testing to go tits up
Here's the dilemma: We want to make fun of PETA's latest game, but the problem is that after clicking on pixelated breasts for 10 minutes, we feel that any entitlement to mock it has escaped us like gushing silicone from a popped implant.The lesson in here somewhere is that PETA believes researching and testing breast cancer drugs on animals is "wrong." We're guessing the 192,370 women who'll be diagnosed with the disease this year would disagree, so perhaps it's best to enjoy this method without subscribing to the madness.
PETA reacts strangely to Overlord II's 'Whack-a-Seal' minigame
When we received the press release about Overlord II's Whack-a-Seal game being hosted on IGN, we immediately thought of the animal crusaders over at PETA. Considering the organization had recently done a seal clubbing protest in World of Warcraft, we figured it would have something to say about the promotional minigame.Instead, PETA sent us a response back about some place called Can-a-da. Apparently, baby seals are killed by the "hundreds of thousands" there and we may soon see "PETA-made helmets for baby seals."When asked for comment about the seal hunts, our token Canadian Xav de Matos commented, "I do not live in an igloo ... I live in a city and I have health insurance! Stop asking me stupid questions like that! Oh, and it is pronounced ZED!"Jeez ... we just wanted to know. Check out PETA's full statement after the break.
PETA attacks Take-Two over Ringling Bros. on Wii
Take-Two's upcoming Ringling Bros. game for Wii and DS looks to recreate all of the stuff you'd see at a real-life circus show. And that's why PETA hates it so much. In a blog post, PETA sends out a call to arms, asking folks to send Ben Feder, Take-Two's CEO, an email asking him to cease and desist development on the game. In fact, PETA already did most of the work for you by filling out the subject line and body of your potential email with things we're sure you'd want to say to the CEO of a multi-million dollar company.
PETA event: Seals got clubbed, pigs got eaten
On the podcast last Saturday, our friend NinthBatter (maker of the WI Song's machinima) gave us an on-scene report from the PETA event that took place earlier in the day. As you might expect, it was chaos -- while PETA's plan was to roll Alliance and attack a few Horde bad guys, lots of folks rolled Horde instead, and started up a guild called the "Seal Cub Clubbing Club." Many, many seals died, as you can see in the few pictures below.And perhaps most hilariously, people brought plenty of Great Feasts to lay out for the crowd, which means that right in all of the (supposedly) animal-saving action, there was plenty of roast pig to eat. Not exactly the best day for PETA, but what did they expect? They did, however, get quite a few media mentions, so it was probably mission accomplished over there anyway.Did you go to the event? If you've got more pictures of what happened, or even some video of what went down, let us know and we'll add them to the gallery below. %Gallery-49987%
WoW Insider Show Episode 85: Appeasing the Ret Monkey
A good time was had as always on last weekend's WoW Insider Show -- Adam Holisky kindly stepped into the broadcasting booth with Turpster and I, and we answered some emails (including whether it's OK to give cloth drops to leather wearers, as long as it's an upgrade, and more on which tanking class is the best to take with you), and talked turkey on the biggest stories in the World of Warcraft. We chatted about what might be in store for the next content patch and expansion, what's up with WoW's numbers still going up, and what's new with Wintergrasp in 3.1. We also had a straight-from-the-scene report about the PETA event -- stay tuned for more about that later today.And we got some interesting Ret Monkey pictures -- the one to the right is by Hydralol of EU Magtheridon, and the other one in the gallery below is by Abbort from Hellscream. Both of these, and any other pictures that you can come up with of the Ret Monkey or any of us who work on the show can be eligible for our Fan Art contest, so enter that if you'd like.Finally, we have rounded 6,000 followers on our Twitter account, and we're headed to 9,000 -- as we say on the show, it would be great if we could hit that by our 100th show, and combine everything into one big party-down spectacular. So tell your twitterfriends, especially those interested in WoW, to give us a follow. They (and you) won't regret it.Get the podcast:[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.Listen here on the page:
WoW Insider Show live this afternoon on Ustream
Your Saturday seem kind of boring? Could you maybe use a little cheering up with a side of Warcraft insight to go along with that? Then we've got just the thing: our podcast is live this afternoon, April 11, 2009 3:30 PM EDT var date_span = document.getElementById("date"); var date = new Date(date_span.innerHTML); var monthname=new Array("Jan","Feb","Mar","Apr","May","Jun","Jul","Aug", "Sep","Oct","Nov","Dec"); var weekday=new Array("Sunday","Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday", "Friday","Saturday"); var year = date.getFullYear(); var day_of_month = date.getDate(); var month = monthname[date.getMonth()]; var day = weekday[date.getDay()]; var hour = date.getHours(); if (hour > 11) { if (hour > 12) {hour -= 12} am_pm = "PM"; } else { am_pm = "AM"; } var minute = date.getMinutes(); if (minute < 10) { minute = "0"+minute; } date_string = day + ", " + month + " " + day_of_month; date_string += " at " + hour + ":" + minute + " " + am_pm; offset = -date.getTimezoneOffset()/60; if (offset >= 0) { offset = "+"+offset; } date_string += " in your time zone (GMT"+offset+")"; date_span.innerHTML = (date_string); over on our Ustream page, and as usual, right here after the break on this post. Today we'll have our good friend Turpster along for the ride, as well as WoW Insider writers Michael Gray and Chase Christian, so it'll be a nice full house.Topics of discussion will include what's been going on with all of the expansion speculation lately, the fact that WoW subscriber numbers are still on the rise, Wintergrasp and what's happening in its future, and PETA's little foray into Azeroth. Plus, we'll answer your emails as always, and since Chase is on, we'll probably talk about what life will be like for Rogues in 3.1 as well.Should be fun. We'll see you this afternoon!
Help PETA fight seal hunters in World of Warcraft
Despite years of PETA's crusading, animals are still completely edible and, in many cases, delicious. Perhaps focusing on more manageable goals now, the organization has taken to protesting the murder of seals ... in World of Warcraft. That's right, if you log on to the WhisperWind realm on April 11 at 1 p.m. EST and trek to Howling Fjord, you'll be able to defend digital seals against imaginary slaughter.We asked a real, actual seal if he appreciated the sentiment, but his response was drowned out by the sound of him being clubbed to death by a burly Norwegian.[Thanks, Amy]
PETA to hold WoW rally to protest seal slaughter
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/PETA_to_hold_WoW_rally_to_protest_seal_slaughter_2'; Following a trend set by Ron Paul supporters and scientists who held a conference in WoW, PETA's busting out the digital chops to protest the slaughter of Canadian seals. As the in-game rationale goes, the Alliance has many times asked Warchief Thrall to stop the senseless killing. However, motivated by the sizeable and profitable fur-trade, Thrall has so far refused to take action. The Horde has continued in their efforts to farm seal fur.This is where you come in. There's a small team of four Horde seal-killers harvesting their prey in the Howling Fjord. You can join PETA in saving lives by hooking up with other activists, and stopping the Horde seal hunters cold in their tracks. This is taking place on Saturday, Aprill 11 at 1pm EST on the Whisperwind server. The PETA group doesn't have any registration requirements, but you do need to be able to access Northrend content to get there.By holding an in-game event to help promote awareness of the seals' plight, PETA may find themselves on the list of WoW's most notable political contributions. The World of Warcraft reaches entire demographics that might otherwise be inured to political commentary, so it's a pretty good move on their part. PETA's blog does not directly reference any in-game equivalents to PETA, but you can imagine any activists in attendance will make a few jokes about being the legitimate P.E.T.A.'s Little P.I.T.A.
PETA joins protest against World at War's attack dogs
Following a Massachusetts high school petition protesting the treatment of dogs in Call of Duty: World at War, the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is now joining the protest as well. Upon seeing news of the protest, PETA sent publisher Activision Blizzard an invitation to take one of its "Developing Empathy for Animals" seminars for free. The organization has also sent the company a package of Nintendogs for the DS, which it deems "dog-friendly." PETA hopes the puppy sim will help influence Activision's treatment of animals in future games, with the organization's blog noting "perhaps the next Call of Duty game will have you unlock achievements for petting the dogs you encounter and going on walks or playing Frisbee with them."Is that before or after the Nazi attack dog bites the player's hand off?
PETA gives Fable 2 its seal of approval, chicken kicking included
Looks like PETA has jumped into the yearly award gifting by announcing that the video game they feel most deserving of the title "Most Animal-Friendly Game of 2008" is Fable 2. Chosen by the PETA folks because Fable 2 carries a "strong pro-vegetarian theme" that "teaches gamers the real-life benefits of a vegetarian diet" through the game's purity points. How nice! We'd agree with the PETA folks on the Fable 2 nod if it wasn't for a few not so animal friendly themes in the Albion world. You know, things like rewarding players with Gamerscore for kicking chickens, killing fluffy rabbits, eating crunchy chickadees and abusing your dog. True, if you do any of these activities, you'll build up your evil-ometer, but the fact that they're in the game PETA calls 2008's most "Animal-Friendly Game", well ... that's just odd. We guess vegetable purity points clouded their chicken kicking judgment.
PETA chooses Fable 2 as its GOTY
When Joystiq chose Fable 2 as its Game of the Year, were you aware that we were displaying not only our great taste in electronic entertainment but also our abiding love for all the planet's creatures? No? Neither were we until we saw that the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals had chosen Molyneux's baby as this year's Most Animal-Friendly Video Game.We think the more obvious choice was Doritos Dash of Destruction, as (1) its protagonist is the king of animals (a dinosaur!) and (2) it serves as an invitation to meditate on the very real effects of extinction. Just think of it: You could be watching dinosaurs racing every day, if we hadn't hunted them out of existence for their delicious skins.
