Activision IT Manager Asked to Find Dirt on West, Zampella

<p>Months before <em>Call of Duty&colon; Modern Warfare 2<&sol;em> was set to launch Activision’s chief legal officer &lpar;now chief public policy officer&rpar; George Rose asked ex-IT manager Thomas Fenady to try and gain access to West’s and Zampella’s work email accounts&comma; computers and phones in an attempt to uncover and questionable activities in an operation known internally as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Project Icebreaker&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This is according to legal documents that <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;giantbomb&period;com&sol;news&sol;activision-infinity-ward-and-project-icebreaker&sol;4152&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank"><strong>Giant Bomb<&sol;strong><&sol;a> obtained before the lawsuit between around 40 former Infinity Ward employees and Activision&comma; which claim that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Project Icebreaker” was directly authorized by Bobby Kotick&comma; Activision’s CEO&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Rose allegedly told Fenady &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;don’t get caught doing it&comma;” and told him that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Bobby will take care of you&period; &&num;8230&semi;Don’t worry about repercussions&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Rose denied specifically asking Fenady to &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;dig up dirt” on West and Zampella during his deposition&comma; but did admit to the existence of Project Icebreaker&period; He said they simply tried to gain access to West’s and Zampella’s email accounts&comma; but were unsuccessful&period; Activision also allegedly approached Microsoft and security specialists InGuardians in an attempt to gain access to the email accounts&period; Both companies refused on legal grounds&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Farady also stated that there were discussions about gaining private access to Infinity Ward’s studio space in order to image teh contents of West’s and Zampella’s computers during a fake fumigation or mock fire drill&period; He said&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I only know it was discussed&period; I don’t think it was acted upon&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&lpar;Via <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;computerandvideogames&period;com&sol;348044&sol;activisions-it-boss-was-told-to-dig-up-dirt-on-ex-infinity-ward-bosses&sol;&quest;cid&equals;OTC-RSS&amp&semi;attr&equals;CVG-General-RSS&amp&semi;utm&lowbar;source&equals;twitterfeed&amp&semi;utm&lowbar;medium&equals;twitter"><strong>CVG<&sol;strong><&sol;a>&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;