Sources tell VentureBeat that Maestri's Mob Wars, a role-playing game for the Facebook platform, earns its creator $1 million a month off its 2,505,698 monthly active users, mostly by selling in-game player upgrades for real world cash. On top of that income, research firm DeveloperAnalytics says Mob Wars could make another $22,000 month selling ads because its users load the app's pages around 60 times a day.

Trouble is, Maestri developed and launched Mob Wars in January, before quit software developer Freewebs in February. After watching Maestri rake in the cash for months, Freewebs — now called Social Games Network — finally sued Maestri on August 11, alleging breach of contract, breach of duty, misappropriation of trade secrets and interference with business relations. Maestri told VentureBeat that "Mob Wars is my creation and the legal process is moving forward."

• The dude who discovered the infamous Sony DRM rootkit (the tool that burrowed deep in the computers of Sony CD buyers) just got bought by Microsoft, one of the world's top DRM proponents. [CNET]
• Pick up a cheap backend and be the next Adbrite. The CrispAds network is for sale. [e-mail]
• Web host Freewebs (last seen here when its president told people to boycott Yahoo) scooped up Rick Robinson, a VP of member experience at AOL. Let's hope he was a rogue VP, because I've never heard of a positive AOL member experience. [e-mail]

First, Matt gets trolly and attacks Shervin for something unrelated to the post:

Freewebs hosts an extraordinary amount of spam. It's used a lot by comment spammers.

Shervin darts back:

hmmm..Matt, I guess I could say the same thing for Wordpress?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=site%3Aw...

I think Shi Tao being jailed by Yahoo for simply sending an email eclipses attacking one's competitors in this forum. But maybe I'm wrong.

Burn!

Freewebs president says, "Boycott Yahoo!" [Valleywag]
Photo: Matt Mullenweg [Buzz Andersen on Flickr]

"I was pretty shocked with his answer," Shervin told me. "It was pretty scary asking that question. But I had a sense in the back of my mind that he'd be poorly prepared."

"He was definitely unprepared for that line of logic. His line of logic is so nonchalant." Shervin described the scene — the D Conference, held by the Wall Street Journal, where Terry Semel is on stage with WSJ columnist Walt Mossberg. "It's a roomful of reporters, and he would put them all in jail if the government told him."

What was the reaction like? "It was complete stunned silence."

After the jump, Shervin calls for a boycott. Meanwhile, China started blocking Freewebs pages two days ago.

"I'm not saying China is Nazi Germany. My point is, where does it stop?"

Pishevar compares Internet publishing companies like Freewebs and Yahoo to hands-off editors. "We can't edit people's content, we have to give them a platform to express themselves, and if they say something that the government doesn't like, we can't go delete it. We can't give the guy's IP address to the government."

Freeweb has refused requests from the Chinese government to turn over records. Two days ago, Chinese users started reporting that they couldn't access the site. "My thirst for traffic is not going to make me go against my principles," says Pishevar. "We're talking to the Chinese embassy. Any words like 'Falun Gong', they want us to not have that. I'm not gonna have that. I'm not gonna get rid of people's freedom."

I ask him how he thinks Yahoo will spin the Semel Nazi incident. "They're probably gonna hire fake blogger people to say something supportive. The're probably gonna attack me for asking the question...It's starting to escalate, which is good. There needs to be a massive response."

Pishevar is pissed — but he's also just shocked that Semel couldn't answer his question with a clear "No." "The CEO of Yahoo said 'I don't know what I'd do.'" Pishevar laughs incredulously. "And Google too, at least they're kind of up front, whereas these guys are just giving information."

So what's the course of action? "Americans should boycott Yahoo products until they get the message that freedom is an American ideal, and we're not going to give it up."

Earlier: Meet the man who asked Yahoo's CEO about Nazi collaboration [Valleywag]

Shervin wasn't asking this for kicks — he has a history as a human rights activist. He told Valleywag so, right from his Blackberry while traveling. In an e-mail oh-so-discreetly CC'd to Freewebs' PR firm, Shervin wrote:

One thing you should know about me is that I believe in entrepreneurial activisim.

I was a big human rights activist at berkeley and published in jama when I was 20 re: doctors involvement in torture in turkey which led to the istanbul protocal banning doctors from involvement in torture. Please prep nick at valleywag re: this background. We are big champions of freedom and freedom of expression as an inherent human right.

"Please prep nick"? No, Shervin, forget the PR peeps; we like talking to you. More of Shervin's manifesto is after the jump. Fun activity: guess how much of this makes it into his upcoming newspaper op-ed piece!

I believe that technology must be a force for good and freedom. I believe tech companies need a hippocratic oath never to do harm to their users. I would like our fellow tech leaders to band together and come up with a set of protocals similar to the istanbul protocal banning our involvment in anything that will lead to harm based on the simple right to express oneself.

We had millions of visitors from china. Globally we have 18 million visitors a month and are growing really fast in asia. We are 2nd only after geocities in global pageviews. However, I will never, ever give up on another human being who has trusted me simply because they want to express their opinion. Freedom trumps all other aims.

We have to take a stand.

Earlier: Terry Semel would have appeased Nazi Germany [Valleywag]