Hotcakes: No Tim, Fortnite’s Lawsuit Is Not Like Civil Rights

This is a bad idea, compadre.

There’s a lot of things you can do when mounting a public relations campaign disguised as a lawsuit. Make a video calling your opposition out as a tyrant while parodying the exact video that they laid their foundation on? Sure. Create a tournament using the skin meant to represent said opposition? Why not. Have the grand prize for that tournament be all of the devices that can actually play your game? Totally.

Comparing your fight for more money to the civil rights act? This is how you lose support. Tim Sweeney put his foot, ankle, and most of the rest of his leg in his mouth this week when in an interview he compared the Epic lawsuit against Apple to the civil rights movement. You know, the one where people were beaten and murdered for demanding equal rights and dignity. That civil rights movement. Tim Sweeney swinging for a bigger paycheck is absolutely on par with people getting attacked by dogs and beaten to death so that their children could vote.

“And that’s why Epic mounted a challenge to this, and you know you can hear of any, and [inaudible] to civil rights fights, where there were actual laws on the books, and the laws were wrong. And people disobeyed them, and it was not wrong to disobey them because to go along with them would be collusion to make them status quo.”

I don’t think I need to explain fully why this is such a horrible take so I’ll go on to point out that this is how you lose the public support. Which is what Epic is going for since their lawsuit is clearly more of a marketing campaign than it is an actual attempt at getting Apple caught up on anti-trust allegations.

It brings into question not just Tim’s character but the integrity of his motivations, those being that of a man whose drive for more money has driven him to a crusade that has him thinking he’s on the same level as Rosa Parks. I’ll remind you once again that people were murdered in the fight for civil rights. Tim Sweeney evidently thinks his crusade for a fatter wallet and carte blanche access to Apple’s infrastructure is basically the same thing.

For the record here is Tim confirming that the quote is in context.

It’s a good article. Hey critics, please read what I said and tell me if it’s actually wrong: When the rules were wrongful, it was right to disobey them. That’s the comparison to the civil rights movement. pic.twitter.com/WMomQXwEjr

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) November 18, 2020