Modern Warfare 4 might be a way off, but gamers are a forward thinking lot. If you type modernwarfare4.com into your browser address bar (or just click here), what you'll find is a nifty blackmail set-up.

In a nutshell, ZiiP Gaming Community has the domain and is offering it to Infinity Ward in exchange for copies of Modern Warfare 4, a game likely to be around four years away, for each and every one of their members. There are currently 62 members (keep an eye on that). We assume they don't expect to get MW4 in the near future...

The message looks like this:

"If you are reading this, you may well be the web administrator for Infinity Ward.

"If you are, there is a chance that you may well require this domain. Don't worry, you can have it - in exchange for a little 'good will gesture' for the little gaming community that owns this domain and has been playing your games for years.

"What we'd like is a copy of the game that this domain would be used for, - one copy for each and every member of our gaming community.

"If you wish to discuss this further, drop me an email - welovecod@ziip.co.uk or goto www.ziip.co.uk and leave a message to Jester.

"Many Regards :)

"James"

We've contacted both Infinity Ward and 'James' in order to discover whether anything has or will come of this, at the moment cheeky, attempt to extract free games that don't exist yet.

But what of Modern Warfare 3? This one is also not owned by Infinity Ward or Activision. It's owned by a Floridian called Anthony Abraham (who also owns a Zune download site called ZReactor); and it seems to have no even slightly extortionate notes on it.

By the way, Modernwarfare2.com redirects to http://modernwarfare2.infinityward.com.