Microsoft has decided that it will take strict action against accounts that have been made illegally to download content, which was originally made for other regions. They will now keep an eye on global locations of IPs so that users from one region cannot download stuff from other regions.
John Porcaro, Senior Group Manager, Online Communications, Microsoft said, “As a general policy we try to get global rights to content, but in some cases, it’s not possible because of legal restrictions. In other instances, we have to get legal rights on a country-by-country basis, which unfortunately results with us having content on the service that has to be filtered based on geographical location. Microsoft hopes that customers can understand the reasons behind this policy change to its service due to legal restriction beyond the company’s control.”
Porcaro also mentioned that they are aware that it may be frustrating for some users but he hopes that the gamers will understand. The fix will be part of the Xbox 360 Spring dashboard update, which will be released on May 7, 2007. On the same day, Microsoft is also planning to launch the Games for Windows LIVE that will connect the PC and the Xbox 360 gamers.