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Infinium Labs Threatens HardOCP Again
XBox4Evr writes "In a follow up from two weeks ago, Infinium Labs is again threatening the tech website HardOCP with legal action. This in itself, is no big deal, but to actually read the letter from Infinium Labs lawyers will make you wonder if an educated person actually penned the documents. This seems to another huge blow to IL's credibility in the console market in general, now that ex-Xbox manager Kevin Bachus is on board with Infinium Labs."
I just checked
That's because they (according to Tim) had a deal worked out before hand.
Personally, I think the whole thing is just one big crock, but at least they give me an excuse to cook some popcorn and watch some Jerry Springer style action.
However, this Penny Arcade comic was able to highlight some of Infinium's lies (under the heading Let the Dog go!).
Under most interpretations of libel law, there are three things that Infinium would need to prove.
The first is that not only did HardOCP publish incorrect information, but they did so willingly. In other words, they had to know at the time the article was factually incorrect. If Infinium provided correct information at the time, then this might not really be in dispute. That said, many of the items in the letter appear to be judgements and opinions.
Second, Infinium would have to prove that HardOCP published incorrect information with malice. This is not easy by a long shot, since you are trying to prove motivation.
Finally, Infinium has to prove that they were damaged by the article in clear monetary terms. This is always one of the hardest things to measure in a libel action.
All that being said, I think it is clear that HardOCP has some valid points in the article but at the same time, has been given corrected information (such as location of offices, etc). If HardOCP truly takes journalism seriously, then a few corrections should be forthcoming. The fact that an expense paid invitation to view the facility was turned down suggests a strong anti-Infinium bias.
This is one of those things where both parties stop the shenanigans and own up to the truth. Each is falling far short of being forthright about the matter.
Momentum.
I do side work updating a few lawyers computer networks around town. Way back in the DOS days, word perfect was the standard. Lawyers tend to have money, so they were the first to adopt computers for their secretaries. And to do word processing on a 386/486 with DOS, you bought word perfect. Well technology has gone forward, but their secretaries still want to use wordperfect because all the other law firms are using it.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php3?date=2004
At the bottom, you'll see Gabe saying:
Lucky for me I always have Emergency Pants!
I've always considered slander to be more destructive towards people than libel. I suspect that in 30 years no one will nit-pick about them anymore, since print and speech hold no special legal protections over eachother. One can be saved as easily as the other.
However after googling a bit I did find some info, I think.
James Aker seems to be a real lawyer at least.
He seems to do Litigation, Employment law, construction, and personal injury. Not really specilized it seems.
Eventually, Word gained the same features but now many legal offices are used to and have no need to change from WordPerfect.
It's a damn good word processor, too!
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/08/27/hln.game.phanto m/
It's interesting that no matter what you see from these guys, it somehow appears there's just no substance to it, just like their fluffy website, that says they're a leader in the 10 billion dollar gaming industry, and all their online store sells is t-shirts, mugs, teddy bears, and frisbees sporting the Infinium logo, and the link for their stock quotes just features blank spaces where the quotes should be.
Wonder who they managed to sucker VC dollars out of? If they don't see the train wreck coming, they deserve to lose their money.
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
Well, for those of you who want to view the profile/credentials of James E. Aker, the man who penned the letter, This appears to be it.
I don't know how many civil trial lawyers named James E. Aker there are working out of Sarasota, FL, the same city Infiumium Labs is based, but my guess is that it's the same guy.
-R
IANAL, but have worked with enough of them to at least speculate on your question...
As others have posted, simply threatening a lawsuit is not, per se, illegal. The actual content of one's public communications regarding legal action is open to scrutiny, however. If the language is incendiary enough, the threatened company could make a case for basic libel/slander/defamation. Whether this would hold up in court is debatable--and the offending language would have to be pretty extreme to warrant a successful tort prosecution, IMHO. However, the folks lobbying these "poison pen" letters probably aren't going to be scared too much by a little counter-suit for defamation... (grin)
One aspect I would be interested in hearing a Real Lawyer's perspective on would be if "tortious interference" could be applied to a company like Infinium in this case. I am aware no proceeding has actually been filed--but do the principles guiding this apply in the absence of an action? Just curious.
From what I understand its because wordperfect has better metakeys. Basically wp users never need to touch a mouse, which slows down typing speed, which in a legal office is very important. I've heard it said that wordperfect users can reach 100 wpm, while office dosn't offer the same flexibility. Dunno myself, and mind you this was a few years ago...
Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt. --Herbert Hoover
While not linked to on the actual Infinium Labs website, I was able to find the stock price($7.50) and SEC Filings on Yahoo! Finance. It makes for mildly amusing reading, especially the charts that show a 15,000% gain over the last year.
"I would give my right hand to be ambidextrous."
What are lawyers supposed to sound like?
Click over to Groklaw and take a look at some of IBM's pleadings. Clear, elegant prose (mostly) readable by non-lawyers, couched in impeccably-used technical terminology when needed.
Sorry, me again. I've been poking around the web and I came across this Phantom feature document. There are some images of the console in there, and they almost look like photos except something's not quite right. Look at the connectors on the back, especially the RCA jacks. See any reflection from the metal? Me either. I think they're 3D renders. No sign of a real photograph.
One bad monkey spoils the whole barrel.
Actually the growing trend taught in law school is never to use legalese for exactly the reasons /.'s decry: no one can understand it except lawyers. This book is a required text for my Legal Practice Skills course.
psxndc
The emacs religion: to be saved, control excess.
Penny Arcade Comic
PA Comment RE: IL Forums
Original PA Article
I was just poking around the infinium labs site and ended up over at robrady designs. Lo and behold I found this! http://www.robrady.com/infl.html It looks like actual hardware......not a computer rendering. I think there may be some crow to be eaten in the future.....at least in small quantities :-)
Sorry, but on this point HardOCP are (potentially) in the wrong. They state he was not an employee, but his resume says otherwise.
Actually, although I initially agreed with you, on re-reading the relevant section of HardOCP's article (HardOCP only changed the name of the company, as per point 5 on the nastygram, despite having originally quoted TR's resume accurately to get the "wrong" name), that simply does not hold true. HardOCP did not say TR did or did not work for, or direct, MedHire. The nastygram makes the claim that they did, but I would recommend you re-read the relevant section of the original article as well.
Not a single "allegation" of anything, HardOCP does nothing more than relate an anecdote, of sorts. The wording does have a certain sarcastic sense of disbelief to it, but they don't ever say TR did or did not work there, just that two different people who did work there, both named Lo/au/ra Roberts (ie, his own mother), had no contact info for him (and one had never heard of him).
Offhand, I'd say that point 8 counted as the only truly libellous one - And on that one, HardOCP agreed to change the wording to something less speculative (though more damning, I have no doubt intentionally). Additionally, I can see how an overly zealous lawyer could stretch point 12 into a copyright violation (though any even remotely fair court would dismiss it with prejudice a fair use)... But on that one, again, HardOCP agreed to back down slightly, and remove IL's logos from their site.
I'll add one more point of interest to this... HardOCP does claim that "Mr. Roberts is the registered contact on the MEDHIRE, LLC. website", and they provide a screenshot of their whois query to prove it (as an aside, notice that the screenshot amusingly shows the domain name as "emedhire.com", the same name that appeared in TR's resume, and that point 5 in the nastygram demanded they change). So, this company, including TR's mother, has no way to contact TR, the registered administrative contact for their domain name?