GameSpot reports that Ubisoft is suing Optical Experts Manufacturing, alleging one of the employees of the Charlotte, North Carolina-based disc replication company pilfered a copy of Assassin's Creed and leaked it to the internet. The GameSpot story indicates the game sold only 40,000 copies in the US through June, but that over 700,000 pirated copies of the game were downloaded. They also relate an odd-sounding claim that Ubisoft intentionally included a bug in the code that would crash the game as a security measure, and that negative reviews of the buggy leaked version harmed their reputation. The suit is said to be for copyright infringement, breach of contract, and negligence, and Ubisoft is asking for over $20 million in damages and legal fees. Here's the strange bit about this supposedly intentional bug:

In addition to lost sales as a direct result of piracy, the publisher also claimed its reputation was hurt by the leak as well. Ubisoft says it included a bug in the pre-release Assassin's Creed for security reasons that would cause the game to crash partway through. The bug was supposedly removed from the retail edition, but a mix of negative reviews of the leaked and bug-equipped pirated version of the game and legitimate reviews of the retail edition created customer confusion and caused "irreparable harm" to its reputation, Ubisoft said.