Lawsuit – Page 12 – MMO Fallout

IPE Update: Judge Strikes Digital Homicide Complaint

ss_5884a5bc03c163727ca5cb2e5953b68191546d58.1920x1080

Small In Plain English update on the Digital Homicide v James Stanton (Jim Sterling) lawsuit that took place over the past week. On April 13th, James Romine filed a 77 page amended complaint against Stanton. If you don’t have a drink and perhaps a snack, don’t bother getting up to get one. This is simply an alteration of the previously submitted lawsuit and doesn’t contain much new information other than an increased demand for damages. Romine is now suing for $15 million in total, including $4 million in product damages, $5 million in emotional distress, and $6 million in punitive damages.

As we’ve reported in our previous coverage, plaintiff James Romine (Digital Homicide) is not represented by a lawyer, which might have come in handy since Arizona court requires you to file a motion to amend. Romaine did not do so, and as such the judge has struck down the amended complaint. As part of the ruling, Judge Tuchi also gave James Romine until the 27th in order to file a motion to amend.

As always, MMO Fallout will update you will continued coverage as it appears.

(Source: Arizona court dockets)

In Plain English: Bassett V. Electronic Arts Dismissed

bassett

It’s been over a year since we last checked in on the curious case of Justin Bassett and Electronic Arts, so a brief history may be in order:

Justin Bassett sued Electronic Arts over the company shutting down their game servers even though the games are still available in stores with online play advertised on the box. EA attempted to take the case into arbitration, citing their EULA, and Bassett argued that the arbitration clause was not valid as it was added later on. EA argued that Bassett agreed to the new EULA when he attempted to log into the online servers. Last year, the judge sided with Electronic Arts and threw the case into arbitration.

As I said back then, we will probably never know what the final ruling was as arbitration results are almost always sealed to the public. What we do know is that, as of last month, the case has been dismissed with prejudice.

Plaintiff Justin T. Bassett (“Plaintiff”) and defendant Electronic Arts Inc., the parties to the above-captioned action, stipulate and agree, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(A)(ii), that Plaintiff hereby does and shall voluntarily dismiss the above-captioned action, and all of the claims within it, with prejudice.

What does that mean? Dismissal with prejudice bars Bassett from bringing an action on the same claim in the future.

Digital Homicide, Jim Sterling, Lawyers, Slander, And A Lesson In Legality

ss_5884a5bc03c163727ca5cb2e5953b68191546d58.1920x1080

Digital Homicide is an enigma. All but one of its games carries a “mostly negative” rating on Steam, its games are critically panned mostly for being lazy, uninspired hobby projects cobbled together with pre-made Unity assets, and the developer is constantly getting into childish squabbles with internet critics like Jim Sterling. Despite the overwhelmingly negative response to his games, Digital Homicide continues to pump out more and more asset flips. As of this writing, DH has 18 games on Greenlight.

If you don’t follow Jim Sterling on Youtube, you may not be aware of the ongoing feud between the Youtube personality and Digital Homicide over the former’s very negative coverage of the latter’s video games. The back and forth banter culminated in a rather lengthy interview last July in which Digital Homicide threatened to sue Sterling. Nearly a year later and it looks like Digital Homicide is making good on their word, and has filed a lawsuit in Arizona district court.

Now neither side are discussing the details of the lawsuit, and for good reason. Talking about a court case in the middle of litigation can backfire and potentially lose the case. Basically lawyers are afraid that the person will say something stupid or incriminating and wind up blowing their arguments. James of Digital Homicide wants to make the details of the case very clear once it is over.

I have an excellent lawyer very interested in this case but they only take retainer. Very few lawyers take contingency now for defamation lawsuits. For this reason I will also be documenting the process of this lawsuit(not the contents or personal information) and making it publicly viewable after the case is over so that others in similar dire situations can figure out how to defend themselves from online harassers and defamers.

Very few lawyers take contingency for defamation lawsuits because doing so would likely mean not getting paid. Luckily, you don’t have to wait for the case to be over to view, as MMO Fallout has access to the Arizona public court records and will be adding this case to our In Plain English coverage.

Despite his claim of an “excellent lawyer,” James has gone ahead and filed the lawsuit early. An attempt at crowdfunding his lawsuit of Sterling was quickly shut down over claims that people were charging and then quickly using chargebacks to hit Romine with fees. Court dockets list James Oliver Romine Jr. as a “Pro Se Litigant,” meaning Romine is representing himself without a lawyer. Romine is claiming in excess of ~~$2.636 million~~ $10 million USD in libel property damage. Romine has invoked 28 US Code 1332 which grants district court jurisdiction in civil matters where the damages exceed $75 thousand and is between citizens.

Interestingly, the case also invokes International Shoe Co. V Washington, a lawsuit from 1945 in which the courts ruled that a shoe company with salesmen that sold shoes in the state were subject to Washington jurisdiction when the state sued to recover unpaid unemployment fees. Romine is claiming in the dockets that Sterling’s videos being available in Arizona is enough to give jurisdiction even though Sterling himself does not live within the district.

Romine is suing Sterling and claims in his blog post that he will be suing the people leaving anonymous mocking comments, whom he believes to be overseas competitors, and is simply building a case file for the time being.

If you believe being anonymous will prevent you from recieving said justice you will be surpised when the summons shows up, this goes for competitors in foreign markets using alternate accounts as you may be foreign by you will be sued in the US. This is the first case. More are expected to be filed soon.

What Romine may not understand about US defamation/slander law is that winning the lawsuit is heavily slanted against the plaintiff, especially when dealing with a public figure such as himself. The plaintiff is required to prove, beyond a doubt, that their reputations were harmed as a result of the allegedly slanderous material. In order to prove harm, Romine must provide quantifiable damages.

Romine claims he has been falsely accused of:

Stealing artwork
Stealing assets
Flipping projects with no work put in
Doxing
Had products misrepresented with intention to do damage
Of illegally using another companies name
Conducting illegal business activities
Impersonating someone
Being incompetent and unable to perform my job

For the record, Digital Homicide was caught stealing assets and artwork which Romine admitted to in his interview with Sterling and blamed on being a new developer, the same interview containing a thinly veiled threat of doxing, and we have covered here on MMO Fallout that Digital Homicide has used multiple company names in the past, including one of an established developer.

As is custom here at MMO Fallout, we will be offering regular updates as they become available. I may space out coverage depending on how quickly the case proceeds because access to the documents is not free and can very quickly add up and get expensive depending on how many there are and how long each document is.

38 Studios Lenders Hit With Fraud Charges

The Securities and Exchange Commission is now involving the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation and Wells Fargo Securities, levying fraud charges against both groups in relation to the bankruptcy of former game developer 38 Studios. In its complaint, the SEC is alleging that both groups knew that the $75 million loan that brought 38 Studios to the state would be insufficient to cover their costs and withheld that information. In addition, it is alleged that Wells Fargo had a conflict of interest with 38 Studios that it should have disclosed during the loan period.

“We allege that the RIEDC and Wells Fargo knew that 38 Studios needed an additional $25 million to fund the project yet failed to pass that material information along to bond investors, who were denied a complete financial picture.”
-SEC Enforcement Division Director Andrew Ceresney

The SEC joins the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation alleging fraudulent dealings in the $75 million loan given to 38 Studios for the now-defunct game Project Copernicus. 38 Studios went bankrupt in 2012 after releasing their game Kingdoms of Amalur, leaving state taxpayers on the hook for $115 million in unpaid principal, interest, and fees associated with the loan.

(Source: Providence Journal)

$12.5 Million Deal Reached In 38 Studios Lawsuit

In what is certainly not the final chapter to the long and twisted story of 38 Studios, Curt Schilling, and Kingdoms of Amalur, Rhode Island has announced a $12.5 million settlement with four more defendants from the original lawsuit. To the unfamiliar, 38 Studios headed by former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling relocated to Rhode Island on the promise of a $75 million state-backed loan to create their game Kingdoms of Amalur and eventually develop an MMO. Amalur failed to sell and 38 Studios went bankrupt, making the state (ie: its tax payers) liable for paying the rest of the loan.

The state of Rhode Island filed lawsuit against a wide variety of people involved, including Schilling himself, executives, former agencies, and banks involved in the loan. 38 Studios was accused of everything from fraud, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and more. The settlement is supported by both sides, with the state looking to recoup what is left of the defendant’s insurance and the defendants simply seeking to end the trial.

There are still other lawsuits ongoing, including one against Curt Schilling himself.

(Source: SF Gate)

In Plain English: The Curious Case Of Jagex V John Doe

Those of you who play RuneScape or World of Warcraft are likely well acquainted with a popular phishing technique that made its rounds over the past few years, or at least you would be if you took a gander through your spam filter. The email warns players that they’ve been caught either botting or engaging in real money trading, and that further cheating will add them to a list of John Does in a pending lawsuit. While the email links to a fake login page designed to steal your account information, you might be surprised to know that the body of the email itself is indeed legitimate, or I should say was originally written by a legitimate source.

Jagex once filed lawsuit against cheaters, and it didn’t end in their favor.

No, seriously. I reported on this way back when it initially happened, getting confirmation from Jagex and from the central district court of California where the lawsuit was filed. The email cites both a valid case file and specific laws under which Jagex planned to file suit. The email threatened users that they could be hit with a fine ranging anywhere from $200 to $2500 per act of botting, past, present, and future. Recipients were informed that their accounts were on watch, and that they would be granted a one-time leniency. Cheat again, and be sued.

A bold move, certainly, but one that you wouldn’t really need a law degree to know is total bunk. While bot makers have been successfully sued in the past, cheating in a video game is not in itself a crime and there isn’t legal precedent in the United States to take a contrary position. For that matter, there isn’t a law specifically prohibiting making cheats either. In the past, developers like Jagex and Blizzard have gone down various avenues to shut down bot makers. Accusations include everything from DMCA violations by bypassing anti-bot software, copyright violations for using the game’s logo/trademark/assets without permission, receiving and then violating injunctions against maintaining the software, and raising costs/damaging revenue due to increased customer service and lost business from disgruntled customers.

But as far as players go, while there isn’t any precedent in the successful prosecution of cheaters, there is in their defense. In the case of Blizzard V Glider, the 9th circuit court of appeals ruled that the Glider bot did not violate Blizzard’s copyright because it didn’t modify the software. As a result, using the bot software was not illegal, noting that Blizzard cannot claim copyright infringement just because their terms of service prohibit such activity.

The court notes:

Were we to hold otherwise, Blizzard — or any software copyright holder — could designate any disfavored conduct during software use as copyright infringement, by purporting to condition the license on the player’s abstention from the disfavored conduct. The rationale would be that because the conduct occurs while the player’s computer is copying the software code into RAM in order for it to run, the violation is copyright infringement. This would allow software copyright owners far greater rights than Congress has generally conferred on copyright owners.

While we will likely never know how many people Jagex targeted with these emails, we do know that the lawsuit specifically mentions ten John Doe defendants. In July 2011, the court approved a motion for Jagex to serve Paypal in order to obtain information on the defendants, with the addition that in the event that Paypal is unable to provide sufficient information, Jagex could go after the ISP of each John Doe to get more data.

The lawsuit references four attorneys representing Jagex, two of whom had to be approved by a judge to appear “pro hac vice,” allowing the lawyers to practice in jurisdictions that they are not licensed. Following the court dockets, Judge Cormac J. Carney approved both applications on July 6th and 7th. At this point, the lawsuit goes dark for a while.

Fast forward five months and on December 1, 2011, Jagex files an ex parte application for a hearing telephonic status conference. A telephonic status conference is essentially where the plaintiff gets in touch, by telephone, with the judge’s clerk to let them know how the case is proceeding, to ensure that requirements set out by the court are being kept, and to resolve any other issues before a trial. It’s pretty standard, but in John Doe cases the courts have a tendency to lose their patience when the investigation phase drags on.

On December 9th, Judge Carney rejected the application with no documented opinion. The following month, January 20th 2012, Jagex filed a notice of voluntary dismissal, dropping all charges. There are no official opinions noted either by Judge Carney or by Jagex in their dismissal, but the answer should be obvious. They didn’t have a case, the court likely recognized it as a waste of time or the judge requested that they show up in person and they never did, and everyone went home with nothing accomplished.

I should make a note here that I reached out to Jagex’s press relations in the hopes of at least giving them a chance to comment, and I received no response. It’s hard to imagine that Jagex intended this to be any more than a scare tactic to hopefully convince some teenagers and the occasional person using bots to make money, to change their ways. It took about forty minutes of searching court dockets to find precedent against cheaters being sued, in an appeal case ruled one year prior.

The original copyright ruling against Glider cited a court ruling from 1993 that stated a technician operating a computer for the purposes of repair constituted a copyright violation, in that the technician creates an unauthorized copy when the program is started and loaded into RAM. That provision of the case was overruled with an addition to title 17 of the United States Code dealing with maintenance or repair, however since the defendant had unauthorized copies of the software on their computer, they were still found guilty.

So now you know the story of when Jagex filed lawsuit against ten unnamed bot users. If I do get a response from Jagex, I’ll put it up at the top.

If you have any thoughts, drop us a comment in the box below.

In Plain English: Bassett V. Electronic Arts

Here at MMO Fallout we take strides to keep you up to date on ongoing litigation, because generally the news only covers the start and the end, but not the years in between or the actual arguments being made. The case of Bassett V. Electronic Arts involves the termination of online services and accusations of misleading advertising. While it wouldn’t normally make it to MMO Fallout, I see the case being poorly referenced enough in MMO discussions to warrant some clarification.

All of the information is directly sourced from the court docket, which I have access to.

The basics of the case are as such: The plaintiff, Justin T. Bassett (on behalf of himself and others) is suing Electronic Arts claiming that the company misled customers about its online services, particularly that they eventually shut down in contradiction with online play still being advertised on the box. Electronic Arts attempted to bring the case into arbitration by citing its EULA, which the plaintiff is challenging as unenforceable because the arbitration clause was not present when he bought the game and was instead added later on as part of a newly modified agreement.

The case has been going for nearly two years, during which the two parties have done a lot of orders, objections, responses to objections, and responses to responses. The plaintiff wants his case to carry out in court, while EA is attempting to bring it to arbitration.

That’s it. I see this case brought up quite a bit in conversation about services shutting down, eventually someone will say “well EA got sued for it” and cite this case. Since very few websites cover lawsuits past their initiation, and since you need access to the court records and some knowledge of legalese, not to mention money, to look it up yourself, it can be very difficult to find coverage later than 2013 when it all started. Because of this lack of coverage, people have no problem citing the lawsuit as though EA has already lost.

So here is where the lawsuit stands presently: The court needs to decide whether to push the case towards arbitration or allow it to go to trial. As far as the original complaints about misleading advertising and services rendered, those aren’t even being addressed yet. If the case goes to arbitration, odds are that’s the last we’ll hear about it. If it goes to trial, it could be a long time before it comes to a conclusion.

There you have it.

(Source: Bassett V. Electronic Arts Inc Court Dockets)

NCSoft Employees Caught Embezzling Development Funds

MMO Culture is reporting that three staff members have been fired after it was discovered that they were embezzling funds from Project HON, with the possibility that the police may become involved. It was apparently discovered that a third party company had been hired to handle graphics development with ties to the three employees.

This is not the first time NCSoft employees have been accused of criminal actions. Back in 2012, a Korean court convicted three employees of Bluehole Studios for leaking trade secrets about Lineage III, ordering the trio to pay a fine of two billion won.

(Source: MMO Culture)

Spread It:

Spread It:

Spread It:

Spread It:

Spread It:

Spread It:

Spread It:

Spread It:

Spread It:

Spread It: