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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."
Are lawyers nerds? I'm seeing more and more "Here's a link to some legal documents, enjoy!" on the front page of slashdot. I can't read these things without falling asleep on the first paragraph. Is there some sort of hobbyist lawyer nerd demographic that i am completely unaware of reading this site? Legalese thrill seekers? Not only that, but this is the gamers section of slashdot... Dude, i'm so into GTA, QUAKE and LEGAL DOCUMENTS, woah! Anyone?
SCO just keeps getting crazier and cr...wait, this isn't SCO?!?
Mix the failings of Usenet with the shortcomings of the World Wide Web and the result is slashdot.
Now that Google has removed SCO as the #1 hit for the phrase, might I suggest Infinium Labs for the title of litigious bastards?
They want to invent the "Phantom Lawsuit" as well. I for one think SCO has already invented this, and will soon claim copyright to it. So Infinium Labs will lose their $25 million in capital paying off licesing fees. Darn, I was really looking forward to that amazing Phantom too........
Why would they use a pen when they can use crayons?
using namespace slashdot;
troll::post();
I love this bit:
These lawyers must get paid by the word. For their next threatening letter I'd recommend something that will get them a few more bucks. How about:
I really should have gone to Lahw Skool, the past 20ish years of geeking seem wasted by comparison..
Trolling is a art,
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.
"Stumble before you crawl"
These guys are trying pretty hard and haven't got one yet.
Nerd: Derogatory term typically directed at anybody with a lower Slashdot ID than you.
...trying to compete with SCO for most idiotic use of litigation is a poor hobby to have for 2 reasons:
1. SCOs litigation is pretty much about as inane and frivolous as it gets
2. see #1
I would LOVE to see what Gabe and Tyco would do. Probably ream them a new A$$.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
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?
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
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.
While it is true that HardOCP didn't seem to begin the article with the best of intentions, they didn't (as far as I can see) engage in any slander. What they did do was point out some very interesting facts about Infinium as a company and interpet those facts to state that the whole mess was just vaporware. It isn't against the law to write a biased article, just to write a false article with the intention of slandering someone.
1. ???
2. ???
3. Profit
Once again, I am struck by the double standard that, while our country's assurances of freedom of speech rightly protect claims made against our elected officials, whether substantiated or unsubstantiated, saying bad things about a company-- even a company that allegedly barely exists-- can result in threats of legal action. Is there a reason why some fly-by-night electronics outfit is entitled to protections not even the President enjoys?
I am Sartre of the Borg. Existence is futile.
A fourth grader wrote this with the help of Clippy. The innuendo is that the writer needs to use a little more variety, and fewer templates...
"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.
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.
- SCO plainly states they are going to sue a linux user today. When today comes, they do not do anything, but simply produce more elaborate threats and a new deadline of "tomorrow".
- Infinium Labs plainly states they are going to sue HardOCP soon. When today comes, they do not do anything, but simply produce more elaborate threats and a new deadline of "soon".
- NASA implies they are going to reveal an important Mars discovery today. NASA does in fact then reveal the discovery that Mars did in fact have significant and widespread liquid oceans in the distant past and that sediment analysis confirms this.
In short: Between SCO, Infinium, and Life on Mars, Life on Mars is at least for today far and away winning the credibility race.-- Super Ugly Ultraman
Shouldn't that be Infantile Labs?
I mean, the more someone gets upset at someone elses comment goes to show just how much the said comments actually bothered them.
If Infantile Labs just blew off most of the HardOCP comments as nonsense and got on with business, this issue wouldn't have surfaced and no-one would have batted an eyelid.
Now that they've blown the issue up (all by themselves), everybody sees them as being a big cry-baby just like SCO is - and HardOCP's comments as credible.
Can you say... shoot self in foot?
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
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.
From what I gathred reading the articles at HardOCP, IL, and Penny Arcade, this all seems like some kind of high school popularity contest. Let me explain.
Nintendo, M$, and Sony are your populars who will always be despite the mistakes they make. Everyone knows about them but in the long run no one seems to care because let's face it: their popular.
HardOCP and Penny Arcade are in the middle when it comes to the social mix. They are not producers of their hardware but have enough room to have their own opinions of such matters. They talk to everyone because they can. HardOCP is that trustworthy quiet guy from shop class and Penny Arcade is the class clown. When they say stuff people listen.
Along comes the transfer student, Infinium Labs, who is trying to make a name for himself by being cynical of those who are clearly above them. His best friend is N-Gage. Together they follow every move and try to emulate their superiors formula to better their status.
IL , despite his efforts, fail at presenting themselves in a way their peers deem acceptable. Well Nintendo, M$, and Sony laugh hilariously at them because to put it briefly, they know what their markets. HardOCP and Penny Arcade don't buy it because they represent the market. If either peer fails to buy what you are selling you are out of luck.
So IL attacks his peers as being hypocritical liars although he secretly wishes to be one of them. Four years later they all graduate. Nintendo, M$, and Sony go on to college and are succesful. HardOCP and PA too. IL fades into obscurity... and N-Gage is killed in a fatal car crash.
Years later whenever anyone remembers IL they have a good chuckle. N-Gage unfortunately was killed in a car crash soon after graduation.
.deviatefromtheabsolute.
OCP don't need to take nobody's bull.
Call up the fellas in the 95th floor and have them round up ED-209.
"Drop your lawsuits. You have 20 seconds to comply."
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
This is FUNNY! the letter sent to HardOCP is really, really amusing... it's written as if by a primary school child.
It's basically... "You wrote that we have not shown any real machines yet... you imply that we don't really have any"
"You wrote that you haven't seen an office yet... you imply we don't have an office"
It's just paragraph after paragraph of them saying things like that... it reads so very, very badly.
Plus it falls into periods of text which CANNOT have been written by anyone with ANY sort of legal training:
"The article inaccurately claims that HardOCP 'Compiled and researched all of the publicay available information we could find.' Clearly this is not the case or you are not very good at finding publicly available information."
Dear god that's terrible... it's so much like "you, you, you're a poopy pants... and, and, my dad says that what you said is wrong... you poopy pants"
I can see why they have not taken this seriously.
Did anybody else sign up for the beta test. I submitted for the test. They emailed me, told me they were having trouble and resubmit at their website. I had to write a fucking essay AGAIN. Worst, they never sent me the email that said that they have made the decisions for who got into beta, and didn't list the news on their site, like they said they were going to. These people have been full of shit from day one.
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.
In case anyone is interested
I'll let you know if they write back. *smirk*
You don't have to be the person you've become.
13. "...Your article has obviously damaged Roberts and Infinum in the millions of dollars."
I know I hate it when someone damages me in my millions of dollars.
Nope! I don't think any of your assumptions are true. All us nerdfolk are accustomed to following rules and thinking logically. We love to solve problems!
Hey, lawyers are smart, they study for years to practice law. They must follow rules and logic too! Trials are just an expression of a problem, right? When we parse legal problems, the solution seems obvious. We can't understand why the other people don't see what seems obvious to us.
Our expectations are that the law, and the legal profession, should follow rules and be logical. The problem is that legal rules are convoluted and dense: they include not just what makes sense to us, but also case law and previous judicial decisions that we've never been exposed to.
There's a fair amount of marketing and spin that goes into making legal arguments. Often, the win goes to the side with the clever argument, rather than the side with the logic. Questionable decisions get turned into hard rules and affect future decisions. (Not to mention all the greedy bastards who try to "play" the system.)
That's why we pick apart this stuff, have disdain for the system, and dislike lawyers -- they're not logical from our perspective.
...with a lot of contacts throughout the industry (the exodus from two imploded companies that had a lot more industry experience), I can say that these /. stories are the only reason I have heard anything about Infinium since their comical launch way back when. Haven't seen them at GDC, haven't seen them at E3: if they have a presence at the shows, it's a very small one.
I know no developer working on an Infinum title: unless their box emulates something else, or plays PC games or something (which cannot possibly be the case if the thing has a TV for a head), or they are porting or creating titles themselves, then they Have. No. Developers.
No one I know anywhere in the industry even has any awareness of Infinium.
I run a video game message board that is fairly active. It seems someone from Infinium Labs (traced their IP) posted the five page letter on my site. Now, I wouldn't be bothered had they identified themself...but they didn't. They called themself "monkey" and titled the thread "Ilabs sues HardOCP, looks like HardOCP is screwed ugly". What is that about? Lawsuit by Mrs. Johnson and her third grade class. http://www.lunabean.com/forums/index.php?showtopic =2428