Canon EOS 10D broken sensor ?

[exolon]

I've been taking thousands of picturs with my soon 1-year old 10D.. and suddenly this happened without any noticeable cause. One minute it took good pictures, 15 minutes later this artifact started appearing (see the attached image). It looks as if the upper right part of the sensor has broken somehow, completely overexposing that part, and it does not look like a mechanical or dust/dirt issue due to really sharp edge transitions between working and broken areas. Now I'm obviously going to try taking the camera through warranty (which might turn out to be a problem since I bought it in the states and am in Sweden now) but I would like to hear if anyone has heard of something similar anyway. I want to be able to trust a camera and if these kinds of things happen often to digital SLR's... well, it would be a case for carrying more backup bodies I guess

Some additional facts: the artifact appears with any lens (and without lens as well actually). It appears stronger with a stronger total light falling on the sensor after the shutter/stop (net darker images taken at an evening dinner shows almost no artifact, images taken in sunny light shows it). It is not light falling in through the viewfinder. There is no visible damage to the sensor surface or shutter wings. The weather was warm the day the error happened, but condensation should be ruled out since it happened outside and not inside (and it was a lot hotter outside .

Regards,

Bjorn