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."

Comments

Lawyers are not to blame, necessarily

[The Only Druid]

Just speaking from experience with corporate lawyers, what often happens is that a corporate leader (i.e. CEO, etc.) is upset by some event (i.e. the article), and they demand that Legal take some action. The lawyer, not wanting to be disbarred for malpractice, points out that they have no legal claim, but to avoid beign fired they then fire off a letter that simply states what the higher-ups say, with a small note about a law suit. I'd bet solid money no law suit ever solidifies.

The writers at Hard are pretty fucking funny though: they've done an excellent job of reforming their statements to accord with the demands, even while making them more acidic.

HardOCP must be doing something bad

[hayden]

These guys are trying pretty hard and haven't got one yet.

Legal question

[mcc]

I think HardOCP made it pretty clear last time that they stand by their reporting. If Infinium wants to keep making threats they're going to keep getting ignored.

I know there's nothing but wannabe pretend-experts on slashdot, but I'm going to ask this anyway, on the offchance maybe there happen to be some wannabe pretend-experts who mostly post on Groklaw who wandered in by accident. I've been wondering for awhile:

From a legal standpoint, exactly how far and how often can you move toward *threatening* a lawsuit before it becomes illegal to not actually declare one?

Penny Arcade woes

[storl]

People talking about Penny Arcade are leaving out the funniest bit. The best part of the Penny Arcade comic is the response from Roberts (or whatever the Infinium guys' name is). He claimed in a forum post that the penny-arcade comic was a response that they put all console designers through as a part of an initiation process and that they were hungry for bandwidth. Kind of funny when talking about a site that gets millions of hits a month. Read the post and the site's response at their site.

Here's the e-mail I sent them

[g33kgirl]

In case anyone is interested

Dear Sir or Madam,

I have been following with some interest your threats of legal action against HardOCP. I would like to think that you, both as individuals and as a company, are neither blind nor stupid. Surely you have noticed that a good portion of the online community agrees with HardOCP that your Phantom Gaming Console is vaporware - that it does not, and probably will not, exist.

I have no interest in arguing the finer points of your threatened litigation - whether the things HardOCP states in its article are true or not is immaterial. What is relevant is that, for all your talk, you still have nothing to show us.

According to Ferrago (http://www.ferrago.com/story/1018), the console should have been released November 2003. Now, according to the Phantom Gaming Console website (www.phantom.net) "on March 31st you will be able to build your high-octane Phantom Game System and for a limited time only purchase lifetime subscriptions." I am unclear as to exactly what this means - will the Phantom Game System be physically available for purchase, available for pre-ordering, or something else entirely? March 31 fast approaches. What will you have to give us? a product, or more promises? If the March 31 date does not refer to the Phantom Game System's release on the market, when will the system be available for purchase in stores?

You want to prove HardOCP and all of your doubters wrong, correct? Perhaps you should dispense with the handwaving and threats of lawsuits, and have your sweet revenge by living up to your promises. Put out the Phantom Game System. Make it everything you've claimed it to be, and more. Render us all speechless with your mastery over the console gaming world. Make us all bow before you, handing you our money hand over fist. I guarantee you, if you actually produce and sell the Phantom Game System, and it is all that you've promised it to be, the online community with be humbled, and cries of "vaporware!" will vanish overnight.

However, you must forgive me if I don't hold my breath.

Sincerely....

I'll let you know if they write back. *smirk*