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HardOCP Declares Win vs. Infinium Labs
Bill Bagel writes "Many of us have watched Infinium Labs' attempt to quash HardOCP's First Amendment right for the last year. HardOCP wrote this story on the Infinium Labs CEO, Tim Roberts, that was based on his own resume and some Google research. IL sued HardOCP, a home-based webpage business for $20M in Florida, and HardOCP fought back in a Federal Court in Texas for a declaratory judgment. HardOCP basically won when Infinium Labs finally gave up the fight citing great expenses involved in fighting the declaratory suit. The judge's order can be found here." The Cliff's Notes version can be found on WhereisPhantom.com.
Anyhow, congrats to Kyle & HardOCP.
WhereisPhatom.com should read WhereisPhantom.com, luckily it's correct in the link.
...the pockets of Infinium? Surely a "company" that's preparing to "release" a new "game system" should have enough "money" in the bank to fight a legal battle like this.
I wonder how long it'll be before IL throws in the towel completely... probably not until they milk every last bit of money from their investors.
:)
Have fun watching their stock flipflop over the next few weeks as the pump&dump crowd has fun with it.
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Who signed that order? I could have been anyone: Jesus The Christuuuuuuuu, Jed Clampetuuuuuuuu, Justin Timberlakeuuuuuuu? Who knows...?
NMG
Even when you win a decision, you still lose because you have to pay thousands to a lawyer for defense. Is it possible for HardOCP to countersue to recoup those fees?
Kudos to Kyle for standing up to the bullying tactics that seem to become more and more pervasive each year. Also, it is just absolutely astounding that IL would go after a site that caters news to a potential customer base easily in the tens of thousands for them. Guess they weren't planning on succeeding with their vaporous Phantom in the first place. ....unless it was to be the ultimate platform for the ultimate vapor-sequel, Duke Nukem....
...we can get a similar judgement with SCO.
Yes sir... 2005 is shaping up to be a GREAT year!
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
Because the console is supposed to be a PC more-or-less, I'm actually hoping that they get it right and produce something. That of course means no more sidetracking to sue people for mentioning them negatively. But if they plan to turn a PC into a retail gaming machine, it would follow that they have a control scheme(s) worked out for the PC games they will be running. In other words, I'm looking forwards to seeing if they can advance PC gaming control to something better than mouse/keyboard. Aren't you?
What do you mean, nothing happened? Infinium has given up the attacks on HardOCP due to HardOCP not bowing down and taking it. That seems fairly significant to me in the context of this case.
As for the point you make about NVidia, it's specious at best. NVidia isn't necessarily "happy" to be on the same press release. Infinium released that and NVidia released nothing of its own to accompany it. It's not a partnership either. Infinium bought (or committed to buy) a lot of NVidia cards; therefore they are allowed to basically advertise NVidia's products for free.
Thinkin' Lincoln - a web comic of presidential proportions
Can someone please explain to me why corporations are afforded constitutional rights? Was that really the intention of the framers? I was under the impression that rights were for individuals, not companies. Obviously, IANAL, so please correct me if I'm misguided.
Just another day in Paradise
Oh, and Will Eisner, who drew The Spirit died, after a magnificent career and giving so much. Seems like some could learn from such an example rather than pissing in their own coffee.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Those are to be submitted to the Judge within 15 days of the opinion. This *IS* the countersuit, BTW. (No, IANAL)
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
I for one, welcome our new OCP overlords.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
If HardOCP countersues to recoup legal fees it will result in an infinite loop, since the countersuit itself will result in more legal fees that will need to be recouped with a countersuit.
Yeah I agree it's not a big deal. But HardOCP was also proving the point that Tim Roberts, is a con-artist. Remember Media Fusion anyone? The ability to send internet packets over the magnetic waves of the power lines? The guy that started Media Fusion, used advanced technical jargon, and his charsima, to make people invest in a technology that did not exist, but he sounded like he could do it, so investors invested. So all these poor people, heh, not really poor, but they get con'd into investing millions of dollars, for whatever reasons they are investing (more for own profit, of course) into someone, that is lieing straight to their face, and really just going to steal their money. It happens all the time. Con-artists are everywhere. But this guy Tim Roberts, sounds like he's not just con'n the investors, but the whole world, making us all believe in the PHANTOM (key word) gaming console. Of course, he might really be building one, or, he might be a con-artist. And all while this is happening, he's gonna get another 10 mill from some smhuck, and it's not going to Infinium Labs, but right to HIS backaccount. And there is nothing we can do about it. Question is, should we care. It's a moral issue. HardOCP see's it, and saw Tim Roberts, as a obvious target, someone who they could go after and get. Most con-artists, you can't really catch. But remember, this can all be smoke and mirrors, because if the Phantom gaming console does come out, then it's a different story all together.
Black Sky
2D Elite Inspired Game
What in the hell is this article about, exactly? The articles are unclear, at best. There's nothing about a government clampdown on free speech (which is what the first amendment is about). Who are these companies, and what do they do? Slashdot's editorial ability (not that it was ever good) is just getting worse.
I don't respond to AC's.
Wasn't that thing supposed to be out last x-mas? i haven't kept up at all (too busy with WoW on PC and KOTOR II on xbox :), is the platform got a schedule released date or just pushed back infinitly (har har)?
The one with the smaller pile of funds folds..
The system is fatally flawed.. and its the lawyers fault.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Who signed that order? I could have been anyone: Jesus The Christuuuuuuuu, Jed Clampetuuuuuuuu, Justin Timberlakeuuuuuuu? Who knows...?
The Great Chtulhuuuuuuuuu knows...
You can't take the sky from me...
Don't you mean an Infinium Loop?
[
In more ways than one. You couldn't make this stuff up if you were writing for Arrested Development.
Wazzzzaaaaaaaap!!!
-Laz
Rather, the notion of corporate personhood got written into some other supreme court decision in the 1870's, by a former railroad executive who was working as a clerk at the Supreme Court. It wasn't part of the actual Court opinion but rather was part of the introduction or something like that, but regardless, later court decisions quoted it and it became binding law.
The Supreme Court in that era was very corrupt, even worse than now. The 14th amendment (resulting from the Civil War) spelled out a bunch of rights guaranteed to all "persons", i.e. all people (previously, only white people had rights). Corporations realized that they wanted to get in on the action and have those rights themselves, so after sufficient palm greasing, the decisions came down.
For more info, see the movie "The Corporation", which is really excellent.
See also: wikipedia on corporate personhood.
It wasn't Roomba, iBot, and XBox 8 all rolled up in one. It was a feature set that got a certain subset of the population excited while having the technical underpinnings to make it possible that it could see the light of day at a reasonable price point.
Call him a con-man or a snake oil salesman if you will, but give him some props for being able to identify the pavlovian triggers that have suckered investors into believing his concepts had merit over and over again. - Greg
Start a happiness pandemic
for putting publicly available but apparently embarassing information in a highly visible place.
Are they as irrelevent now as SCO will be after they lose their case? Yes. Do I still want to hear about it when it happens so I can laugh at them? Yes. Yes I do.
To Infinium Labs: Ha ha!
The enemies of Democracy are
Oh cool, I never saw the patent. How much money did that guy get anyway. All I remember it was in the millions. Sounds like an easy way to get rich.
Black Sky
2D Elite Inspired Game
This is news for nerds, not newsforge. Or its supposed to be.
Just about every geeky site has reported on Eisner's death, yet nothing on slashdot's front page today or yesterday. Speaks volumes of the editors really, and not in a good way.
By the way, an ED209 will be on patrol in your neighborhood later this week.
Remember, the ED209 still can't tell the difference between tinfoil and a gun, so don't point ANYTHING at it.
By living in an OCP owned neighborhood, you and your family wave all rights to restitution and legal action against OCP regardless of the actions or behavior of any OCP employee, contractor or product.
In short, if your kid points a water pistol at another kid, the ED209 sees it and it blows both of them away, you can't sue.
And thank you for welcoming us to your neighborhood.
Sincerely,
OCP Overlords
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
This is what happens when you fight instead of caving into a bully. Mattel tries the same sort of thing, and they have been made to pay over $1M. The RIAA tried that with Professor Felton, they caved, and their defense to the declaratory judgment is that 'we didn't mean it, when we threatended'.
Fight Spammers!
Anyone notice the 'Add to Cart' buttons!?
If you read the letter at the bottom of the page, supposedly from Tim Roberts, he says (quoted from page), "Kevin and I discussed whether it made since for the company to continue pursuing this....".
If this is an exact duplicate, wouldn't you expect your CEO (boss) to have good grammar?
Since should be, "sense".
What a moron. Way to go HardOCP.
Alcohol & calculus don't mix. Never drink & derive.
"HardOCP basically won when Infinium Labs finally gave up the fight citing great expenses involved in fighting the declaratory suit"
Don't the people who submit the stories RTFA? I mean CRIPES. No, they didn't give up because of expenses, they gave up BECAUSE THEY DID NOT HAVE A CASE. RTFA! I mean GEEZ....
To wit:
"..does not constitute unfair competition under U.S.C 1125 or an unfair business practice, trade disparagement, trade libel, and tortious interference with contract under Texas law, and that plaintiffs' use of Infinium's trademarks from September 7 2003 through February 19,2004 in connection with the article does not constitute dilution or infringement of those marks or otherwise give rise to liability under federal or state law. Because defendants have ADMITTED (emphasis mine) that plaintiffs are entitled to declaratory relief, they move for judgement on the pleadings in favor of the plaintiffs pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. (Federal Rules for Civil Procedures) 12(c)."
I mean, c'mon...there's nothing about cost of litigation. It's all the Infinium being full of horse manure.
--
BMO
So... you're saying that speeding and megadollar fraud are equivalent?
In a clear majority of cases where a corporation commits a jail-worthy crime, they negotiate a settlement with the SEC or other regulating body. The corp promises to avoid such behavior in the future, but there is no finding of guilt, no admission of wrongdoing, and no fines.
In 99.4% of cases where punishment actually occurs, there is still no guilty verdict, and the fine is miniscule compared to the illicit profit they made.
How is that "equivalent punishment"?
If you look at the yahoo link and show the past 1 year of trading you should see that the stock has split, TWICE! The first one was last Jan, a 5 for 1 split, and the second was May, a 4 for 1 split. And the stock has never gone over $2.50. So, even though the price is low, someone (hmmm, wonder who?) is sitting on 20x the stock they had last year. My guess is that after the next 'big announcement' about the product, someone will resign, then take the money and run.
so when does kyle get crowned the executive king of fighting stupid companies and their pissy "were going to make you shut up" lawsuits?
whats his tally now anyways?
#include sig.h
The "Phantom Game Console" is aptly named,
be your cup of tea irony, or soliloquy.
"Science is about ego as much as it is about discovery and truth " - I said it, so sue me.
Barry Zuckercorn that is.
Sounds like a way to clean money if you ask me. Has anyone looked into the vendors of these so-called companies?
Overrated moderation is not subject to metamoderations, so you can 'punish' views or people you don't like without any chance of losing mod rights.
:(
The system needs an overhaul.
IMHO, our fearless leaders should get rid of the overrated mod, but as you know in the slashdot community this kind of things are not up to debate.
The moderations system isn't all that bad, it's the meta that's all screwed up. I hardly ever bother to do it: What's the point? You don't have an acurrate idea of the ciscumstances, and like you mentioned, some are not even taken into consideration.
What I'd like is a way to metamoderate our own recieved mods and metamods. In this case, it wasn't right. I wouldn't have said anything if it had been modded offtopic, 'cause I'm a grownup and it was a tad unrellated to the topic. But I get a lot of... insane moderations that are clear cases of abuse of the system. Clearly the trolls have figured out that they can karma whore their way into mod points and are abusing them.
You can't take the sky from me...
I can't tell if you're being stupid, or just making a bad attempt at a joke. Apparently at least one mod agrees with me in both directions, since as of right now the post is "Score:1, Funny", which means its both gained and lost at least one mod point.
For those inclined, you don't need to countersue for damages. While you can, its generally more effective to just move for costs. That said, judges are extremely loathe to provide costs to winning defendants, since it discourages lawsuits (you heard me). Since [H] acted in the premptive manner it did, however, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see costs granted (in particular because Inf. didn't provide any evidence worthwhile, and didn't seem to understand the torts it was alleging).
[IANAL]
"Stumble before you crawl"
If you read the comments pertaining to settlement of legal fees, it refers to Rule 54d of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
I honestly can't get a rational redux from the actual law code (IANAL, so lawyers please weigh in), but it seems pretty straightforward that since Infinium Labs has admitted that they have no cause to bring action, in effect winning a summary judgement for [H]ardOCP, they COULD be liable for Kyle's legal costs, which he lists as 200,000 dollars.
As someone who has followed this for almost 18 months (the original article was 9/2003), I am loving the prospect of Tim Roberts et al. having to cough up Kyle's costs!
NVidia will give space to anyone who buys a lot, as it's basically free advertising for NVidia. Microsoft will be giving them some space too because they've bought a lot of copies of Windows for the things.
Thinkin' Lincoln - a web comic of presidential proportions
Infinium Labs basically has no money for attorney's fees or anything else since the last I heard, they had failed to get any additional investor funding. So I think throwing in the towel on the lawsuit is part of their endgame strategy. Don't be surprised if this is soon followed by Chapter 7 Bankruptcy following CES. Unless they get more money real soon, they are DEAD and the show is over. I think whatever they show at CES is their last chance. Though I still wonder if success was ever even an option.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
WANFORCE was an aftermarket networking equipment company based in the St. Louis area. I saw this article, called a friend who is still in the business, and Peter Roberts died some time in December. The official cause was listed as 'heart attack', but at age 34 given the other stuff that was going on around these guys we're 99.44% sure it was cocaine overdose that got him.
My contact said "they're both swindlers, but Tim is better at it than Peter was". A sad epitaph for Peter and hopefully a message that will lead Tim to mend his ways.
I am very easy to get along with, but I don't have time to waste being nice to people who are being stupid. -Theo
http://www.thecorporation.tv/
It's 3 hours long but worth every minute. I believe it's coming on dvd soon
100% Overrated
How can the BASIC score be overrated?
Cute.
You can't take the sky from me...
You mean Infinium really does exist?!
No, more like a message that says "This moderation has been judged fair/unfair by the author." when you metamod.
So that you could give your opinion on any mod (up or down) you recieve.
Taking this into account, you could better metamoderate the trolls who always disagree with down and always agree with up: "this person has agreed with moderation that were metamoderated fair or unfair x% of the time.", "This person has disagreed with upmods y% of the time, and with downmods z% of the time".
You know, a system of stats:
"This person has been modded at a ratio of x ups for y downs", "This person has been modded up in this thread x times, and down y times", etc.
I don't want the moderated to have the power to decide to maintain or remove the mods they recieve, but to provide additional information that can be used by the metamoderators. Because as it is now, it's the blind leading the dumb.
You can't take the sky from me...
While I agree with most of what the original HardOCP article states, I think some of it is very unprofessional.
Especially the comments about the guys past failures. Anyone in venture capital knows that a failed business is not a death-blow. Actually most of the VCs (many angels) are more receptive of people that actually went out and tried something and failed (and has knowledge as to why it failed vs some newbie with a great idea).
I still think this console system company is a sham, but the HardOCP author puts his foot in his mouth by stating the failed businesses as a tragedy to the man's resume.
You know... little nekkid girls with huge eyes. School uniforms and huge guns (both sorts) never hurt either.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
(and notice how I "quote" you), I presume that you'll be able to cite the part of the article that says "the failed businesses [are] a tragedy to the man's resume."
What I notice that they actually said was:
"We liken investors giving Mr. Roberts money to people playing dice in Vegas. You just have to roll enough times and sooner or later you'll get a winner. Obviously, this isn't a solid winning strategy in Vegas or the business world."
You'll notice that I've again used quotation marks to indicate that this is something that they actually said, rather than something that I just believe that they might have said.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.