What we heard: Xbox Live Marketplace is an online store where gamers from all over the world can download various types of content, such as games, demos, trailers, and dashboard themes. However, because of various regional agreements and the occasional timed exclusive, not all content is available in all areas.

It didn't take gamers long to figure out they didn't have to live in a certain country to get access to that country's content. Xbox Live users could simply set up a dummy Xbox Live account, put in a false address from abroad, and download what regional agreements said they couldn't.

That loophole may not be exploitable for too long. Soon, according to Xbox-Archiv, Microsoft will begin policing Xbox Live accounts and deleting “dummy” accounts. The reason stems largely from the recent addition of on-demand video content to Xbox Live and the multitude of regional restrictions movies and televisions have.

Xboxic has posted a rough translation from Xbox-Archiv, which claims to have known about the plan for weeks but is only reporting on this now as other sites have written about it. The site claims that Microsoft will shut down Xbox Live accounts with IP addresses that do not match the user's information.

Xbox-Archiv claims to have gotten the information from a “confidential discussion,” and Microsoft has yet to make any announcements. Still, if Microsoft wants to get its on-demand service off the ground, it has to keep its content suppliers (that is, film and television studios) happy, which means obeying copyright agreements.

[UPDATE] A Microsoft representative posted the following on the Gaming-Age forums:

“Details aren't all in yet–BUT, I do know for a fact that we are NOT banning the accounts. We are blocking downloads in cases where gold accounts are being used to gain US content in foreign marketplaces.”

The official story: Microsoft was unavailable for comment as of press time.

Bogus or not bogus?: It will happen sooner or later. Not bogus.