MS drops the banhammer on fake Live accounts

by Richard Mitchell { Nov 27th 2006 at 3:00PM }

German Xbox site, Xbox Archiv, is reporting that Microsoft will soon begin banning fake Xbox Live accounts. By fake, we mean false accounts created to download content outside of your home region. For example, if you live in America, you might create an European account to download UK Marketplace content -- something many people did for the Vegas single player demo. Rising concerns of copyright violation, especially in light of the recently launched Video Marketplace, are no doubt forcing MS to crack down on fake accounts. Supposedly, Microsoft will begin banning all accounts whose IP address doesn't match the region for which the account was created. However, the article, in part due to the wonky translation, doesn't make the extent of the banning clear. Will Microsoft only ban European and Japanese accounts trying to access US material, or will it ban US accounts accessing European and Japanese material as well?

If Microsoft does start banning fake accounts, will it affect you?

[Via Xboxic]

Tags: live, xbl, xbox live, XboxLive, xl

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

avinitski @ Nov 27th 2006 3:04PM

what a complete waste of time from MS.

joe @ Nov 27th 2006 3:22PM

yea i mean i understand why they are doing it from a legal/marketing standpoint, but talk about a cheap jab to the base.

if i couldnt dl Lost planet demo then i won't have considered buying it, region free demo is a good thing MS. a good thing.

J korn @ Nov 27th 2006 4:08PM

I think microsoft has every right to do this. Copyright issues are more than enough justification to sniff out and eliminate fake accounts. I don't care if you couldn't download a demo a week or two early; the laws are in place so YOU don't go doing that and infringe on other people's copyrights. If you're so shallow as to base your entire game buying decision off of not being able to try a demo that YOU AREN'T SUPPOSED TO HAVE, then don't buy the damn game. Microsoft doesn't care about you and your 1 game purchase loss. It's better than losing way more money sorting out violations of copyright scandals.

Dirk Dorkelson @ Nov 27th 2006 4:59PM

Joe,

I don't get what you're saying. The Lost Planet demo is available in the U.S. So you're saying you wouldn't have wanted to buy Lost Planet, solely b/c you couldn't play a Japanese demo a couple of weeks earlier than you could play the U.S. demo? That makes no sense. The game isn't even out yet.

As for me, I created a bogus Japanese account (named Dirk Dorkelsan, natch) a while back. I decided it wasn't worth irking m/s later and deleted it from my machine (though I still watch that Every Party trailer from time to time). But I couldn't figure out how to delete it entirely. Any ideas on how to permanently delete a live account?

DWAnderson @ Nov 27th 2006 6:15PM

The MS business people would prefer that this content be distributed as widely as possible. To the extent this happens it is probably the result of (i) pressure from third parties, e.g. rights holders where the content is not supposed to be available, or (ii) their legal department trying to head off such pressure or a lawsuit.

mike @ Nov 27th 2006 5:14PM

im from the uk and have downloaded some of the US tv series using my US gamertag, so yes it would effect me well it would effect MS as i bought 4 episodes of CSI 720p and was going to buy more...

nailerr @ Nov 27th 2006 4:29PM

Ah yes, wonderful. So all of us in countries that are not our place of origin, and perhaps not entirely familiar with the language will have to forfeit using a Live account from our home country.

More bothersome is patching, I import my games from England to Germany - there are a fair few games here that are banned for commercial sale, will this mean my gears of war gets no patches? Does it mean I cant play at all online? Probably not but this sounds awful.

Hey 'J Korn' no one else cares if YOU care what we can do either, you know.

Bennyishere @ Nov 27th 2006 4:32PM

If they'll only ban the fake account, then I'm cool with it. I would be concerned if they somehow punished the "real" account.

There's a problem with this, though. What if little Jimmy moves to Japan and recovers his US GamerTag, but plays on Japanese consoles. Won't this one also be removed?

robert @ Nov 27th 2006 4:29PM

My German is a little rusty, but looking at the original text, it appears they are banning fake European accounts for the fear of them accessing the video marketplace.

Ken C @ Nov 27th 2006 9:04PM

#6,

I think that is something you would have to contact MS for. I can see why they would but at the same time it would be only right to the stuff.

Scott Johnson @ Nov 30th 2006 4:12AM

I'm just wondering if I can put the IP for a UK proxy in so I can get my UK downloads here in the US. I haven't checked the system for proxy support, but that sure would be nice.

joe @ Nov 27th 2006 5:13PM

j korn you asshat it has nothing to do with copyrights, it has to do with time exclusivity they make the demo region encode to promote region specific marketing goals it called running a international business, douche bag look it up. and as much as no one care about me, i think playing a demo of a game is a good way to judge whether i should spend $60 on it.

or maybe i should just listen to tools like you. im sure you know everything.

dirk i used lost planet as example, it irrevalent which demo it is, the point is region encoding a demo (like a Japanese centric game) is bad becasue not japanese ppl are not the only ones that like to play their games, this works better for europe in countries like germany which banned alot of different games. where if you had a demo for example for gears of wars germany would be shit out in the cold.

you can delete you account from the memory blade in the system settings just go in there a section for profiles and just delete it, i would do it before then ban users as it is violation of the TOS and you could in theory get your whole account suspended or some kind of annoyance(like j korn)

Ekus @ Nov 28th 2006 4:10AM

Xbox 360 has finally launched this November in Poland, together with some other central-and-eastern European countries and ...Republic of South Africa. Our local wait is over? Not so fast: I was not able to select Poland for Xbox Live country, it just was not there; I used my US Live/Passport account to create my gamertag, now have no way to change it. Now I cannot use Polish Visa/MasterCard/American(sic!)Express to buy MS Points on Xbox.com. MS Points are nowhere to be found in Polish stores yet, and Small Guns is finally released on XBLA! I have read a lot of blogs with similar complaints from mobile people like me (I travel over the big pond couple times a year, am thinking about moving to US, Ireland or New Zealand for couple years...). Microsoft, please fix yourself and let me use my xbox (it had "Xbox Live Arcade" on the box), let me configure my accounts properly and delete old ones, as you do not have right (at least in Poland) to keep my personal data against my will. Then we'll talk.

Jelly @ Nov 28th 2006 2:14AM

It would affect me. I have a US silver account, as i live in the UK and some demos don't come out over here for a while.

I can understand the banning. And as with poster 6, i would only care if they punished the "real" account.

analogue @ Nov 27th 2006 5:33PM

If MS ban my account, I'll simply sell my 360.

aj @ Nov 27th 2006 7:08PM

this is a problem, i use my european account from US to download things rarely but importantly, like hte chromehounds demo, R6 vegas, and some other free pics ect. i guess i wouldnt care but it would be nice if they didnt

Dirk Dorkelson @ Nov 27th 2006 6:16PM

Joe,

What I'm saying it is that I deleted it from my Xbox's hard drive, but the gamertag is still active. (That is, if I look it up on Xbox.com, it's still there.) I'm just wondering if there's some way to delete it entirely. I doubt they'll come after me and ban my account for downloading five trailers eight months ago. But I wouldn't mind just deleting it.

goverland @ Nov 27th 2006 9:35PM

It's not just to do with copyright. Under the Xbox Terms of Use you can not create fake accounts:

The facts you give us must be complete and correct.

Some examples of harmful activity that we do not permit include: (iii) obtaining or trying to obtain any data through any means from the Service, except if we intend to provide or make it available to you;

Create a false identity for the purpose of misleading others.

Ninegauger @ Nov 27th 2006 7:22PM

I learned my lesson after going through all the trouble of creating a foreign account only to download the demo for Chromehounds... it sucked so much that I'll never do anything like that again. Though the game probably got more sales having not released the demo in the US...

Jay @ Nov 27th 2006 8:59PM

I guess I can't bring my memory card with my xbl account on it overseas to play there.

Fuzzyfreaker @ Nov 27th 2006 8:34PM

Crap.

I have an account for the U.S, because my official account I've had since the beginning of Xbox Live was made in Singapore. You can't change the country in any way or fashion (I've called 1800-4-MYXBOX about 9 times now) and now if this comes into play, either my U.S account I made will be banned, or I'll get banned from my actual account... I hope this don't happen....

Stephen @ Nov 29th 2006 2:36PM

This idea is terrible. I understand that they need to protect themselves some how, but many people such as myself have 2 xboxs and use the same account on both of them. I have an Xbox in Italy and one in Canada and use the same account on both of them and if I was to be banned from my account while using it in Italy than I wouldn't renew my account anymore and likely sell both Xboxs. They have to find a different way to deal with this issue aside from banning accounts.

Iced_Eagle @ Nov 28th 2006 12:11AM

As long as it's the fake account, I don't care...

But they shouldn't ban real accounts for a loophole that they left open.

Jeff M. @ Nov 28th 2006 12:35AM

This worries me a bit. I live in Tokyo and I have a Japanese 360. When I signed up for my XBL account, I used my hotmail account that says I am still in the U.S. because I didn't feel like making another Passport account.

iNZoW @ Nov 28th 2006 8:36AM

Well, im from kuwait .. and there is no option for kuwait in the country list, so i selected the states! so what am i supposed to do?

Yardarm51 @ Nov 28th 2006 1:51AM

I'm a little perplexed as to how they will go about doing this. I currently live in Japan and my wife if Japanese. I am Canadian and bought my Xbox back in Vancouver. I transfered my old 180 account to my 360 so it states I am in Canada. My wife's account says she's in Japan. How will MS decide which accounts to ban? I guess there is potential here for either my wife or myself to lose our account. I hope that MS will quickly verify (and clarify) this info or just as quickly deny such action will take place.

Gadget @ Nov 28th 2006 4:10AM

I am in the US military finishing up a tour of duty overseas. I have an American Live account and an American Xbox. If MS isn't carefull, they will wind up alienating (read seriously pissed off) a lot of Soldiers and Sailors. If MS has any brains, they will check to see if the country that a Live account claims matches the region code built into the Xbox. Better yet, ditch the idea entirely, some of my friends bought their Xboxes out on the town.

Carlsb3rg @ Nov 28th 2006 4:26AM

I live in kuwait, what *ucking region does MS want me to choose? its about time they created a middle east region. Mr.Billy, Gulf countries have $$$.

subsonicwave @ Nov 28th 2006 7:07AM

Surely the consumer shouldn't be jumped on for this.Its a MS problem which they should have thought about before going live. their customers are just showing initiative. i maybe wrong but where does it say in the disclaimers when you sign up for an xbox live account that you cannot sign up for a foreign account. like i said it should be MS writing code to stop this if its too much of a problem