Escapist On Oblivion's Breasts

Seriously. Remember that time the ESRB re-rated Oblivion? The Escapist sure does:

A modder unaffiliated with the game's developers, working on her own time, manipulated art assets in the game, rendering female characters topless, and distributed her work over the internet. It was an act beyond Bethesda's control but to the ESRB objectionable content is objectionable content, and it needed to be weighed, measured and rated.

The ESRB's decision incensed industry insiders, perplexed onlookers and gave politicians a jumping-off point for continued assaults on the industry's integrity. Looking back, there's a reason the incident didn't make bigger headlines: The news dropped in May, just a week before the last real E3 event, and there were bigger stories to cover that month. But with player-centric content vehicles like LittleBigPlanet and PlayStation Home on this year's docket, last year's ESRB decision may prove to be the gift that keeps on giving for an already beleaguered industry.

-- The Escapist - The Breasts That Broke The Game

Michael Zenke continues on a similar path I've hit on before - you can't punish the publishers and developers for modders taking advantage of a mod friendly framework. John Romero might think you can, but he developed Daikatana.

Mods have been around before friendly frameworks. Fact is - if people want to modify a product they've purchased ... they will. If it's just software or even an innocent toaster.