[note by Lance: this is a discussion that developed into something completely offtopic in the thread about the Gamma download content of Pure. it was noted that it appears that it will be possible to insert any content into billboards in Pure, an ability that perhaps will be limited only to the developers, not the gameplayers. the following is the discussion of the consequences of this possibility.]:

That wouldn't really be an issue if you just had whatever you wanted in your own personal copy. Distributing copyrighted material would be an issue but I don't think that's what we're talking about here. I mean, many of us are okay with graphics and would love to make out own logo for a billboard. If there is coding, as Egg was saying, to choose the billboards by colour then there is a limit to how much you could spoil the look.

Something has occurred to me though. Studio Liverpool/Sony with the Edge article and that Japanese footage seem to be pushing the ability to customise tracks as a feature. So far, there has been no mention of us being able to do that ourselves (which is why I had asked but haven't yet had an answer). So I was thinking - why push it as a feature in the media and not have it available to customers (unless as I said, it might be available in the future)?

The obvious answer that I can see is that Sony intend to sell advertising space in our Wipeout Pure.

Download a new track, get a godawful McDonalds billboard with it or some such ad which Sony can implement but the end user has no control over. Now, I'm biased probably because I hate such ads in real life and it would bug me no end to see such ads in Pure but that seems to me to be the only reason that they are publicising the ability to change billboards without allowing the user to do it.

Of course I would love Colin to tell me I'm wrong! I'm being paranoid, right?