Wizards of the Coast Sues Rumor Site

foo fighter writes "Wizards of the Coast is suing the owner of MTG Salvation, a site that posts rumors and spoilers about upcoming releases of Magic: the Gathering. This suit has come as a disappointing and disturbing shock to Magic's large and diverse community and raises several questions too familiar to Slashdot readers: Do leaks of upcoming products really hurt sales of those products? Do these kind of lawsuits damage the companies initiating them more than they help?"

Comments

Actually...

[Toloran]

I read TFA and they AREN'T sueing him over cards that were spolied before the set came out. They are suing him over posting prototype cards for a set another year off. These cards aren't supposed to be EVER seen by the public. In addition, unlike other leaks, these can only come from someone working at Wizards of the Coast.

This lawsuits primary purpose is to find the names of Darons sources. The only reason they are going after him is because hes the only one whos name they know.

Article incorrect

[1WingedAngel]

The suit is being filed against one of the Site Admins (who partially got his admin status due to his consistency on posting spoilers). The site owner is not the target of the suit.

Re:Article incorrect

[Anonymous Coward]

This is correct, the suit is pending against one single user at MTGSalvation, not the site itself or the head anmin. Daren aka Rancored_Elf has only been an admin 2 months and stepped down to global mod this morning (the promotion was originaly announced as temporary)

MTGSalvation would like to have the article edited to point this out

from the thread at MTGS:

-The slashdot article is INCORRECT. Can members please contact the appropriate parties to rectify and correct it?
-We aren't supporting boycotts, hate mailings, or other forms of protest along these lines.
-The best way to let your voice be heard is probably this:
Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
PO Box 707
Renton, WA 98057
Snail Mail WoTC with your INTELLIGENT, COHERENT thoughts on this issue.
-The exact reason for the suit is not 100% sure, but we are reasonably sure it does not pertain to the leaks for GP or the reactions of forum members to the GP cards.

Almost 2 months ago R_E recieved a picture of "playtest cards" for an expansion (Cold Snap) that is suppossed to be released this fall. These were cards at a very early stage of testing and most of the forum members thought they were fakes. The cards were stickers stuck to basic land with playtest names and card effects, these were for R&D to use to playtest the expansion set. The playtest cards had "Confidential" printed in red down their sides. If looks likes these cards were real and R_E is being sued for posting them when he did not know (untill now) if they were real or not.

IMO if WotC's R&D can't keep their mouth shut WotC should fire all non senior members and re-hire from the pool of thousands of aplicants. Pressing charges against a forum member of a rumor site that has never paid for information, sol information, or is held liable by a NDA is IMO bad publicity.

Re:Well that's pissed off the comunity

[skroz]

This was explained by Wizards at GenCon several years ago.

WotC is the Big Kid on the Block... very big. And as a result, WotC is slow... very slow. The products they'll be releasing six months to a year from now are already done, and in some cases, printed.

Other, smaller gaming companies are far more nimble, and can react to WotC rumors by producing simlar products, bringing them to market FIRST. So the rumor sites can hurt WotC by giving competitors ideas that can be used to reach market first.

I don't agree with it, I just repeat what I heard. One thing that puzzles me is why it takes Wizards (and White Wolf, and Paizo, and any other big gaming house,) so long to bring a product to market. Yes, they have have high quality standards (some would disagree, but I digress,) but that's no excuse to sit on a product for months after it has been completed.

Re:Well that's pissed off the comunity

[GMontag451]

There's apparently an internal Magic league in the design department of Wizards designed to help these kind of broken things float to the surface. Most of the time it works well enough. It kept them going well up until Mirrodin, where they were 100% blind to the fact that they had printed Skullclamp, the most overpowered card since Memory Jar.

The problem cards that have come out of WotC recently (Skullclamp, and to a lesser extent, Umezawa's Jitte) were all the result of modifications to the card *after* being playtested.