Zardon

"A little while back you guys probably remember Infinium Labs threatening HardOCP with a lawsuit if they didnt pull down an article that documented a lot of the background of the company and founders who are working on the Phantom console. Well I've gotten word that Infinium Labs has in fact filed suit in federal Florida court as well as of course given a lengthy response to the suit in Texas. Infinium is hoping to get the Texas suit dismissed and drag out a lengthier (more expensive) suit in Florida. So here's a quick recap of what has happened:"

shacknews

WaltC

Briefly, this episode is one of the most bizarre and flagrant examples of "what not to do" that anyone running a web site might ever come across. Relevant points to me are as follows:

*[H] published an article several months ago which said some very unkind and inflammatory things about this small-time Infinium outift and some people in it. In response, Infinium made no public comment at the time of any kind that I recall seeing.

*Several months later, [H] receives a private communication from the Infinium principals asking him to remove the original article, for grounds that they stated, otherwise they'd be forced to sue. Consider that up to this point the entire matter is private, with Infinium doing nothing to publicize the issue to embarrass [H] in any form, and no lawsuit had yet been filed. Consider that 99.9% of everyone who was ever going to read the [H] article had already read it, and there was no request by Infinium that [H] do anything apart from silently and privately deleting the article from its archives. IIRC, no request was made by Infinium to make a public retraction of any type, and [H] might have complied with their request and deleted the article and I seriously doubt anyone would ever have known about the deletion--because, the damage was already done, since everyone who might have read it had already done so. Considering the charges the [H] article originally made against Infinium and its prinicipals, I felt this was an exceedingly reasonable request for Infinium to have made as a *resolution* of the dispute. It would have cost [H]...absolutely nothing, that I can see.

*[H] then, for reasons known only to itself, re-opened the matter publicly, and publicly reprinted the content of its theretofore *private* communications with Infinium, and opened a can of worms and made a big public stink about things which might've been successfully handled privately, as Infinium attempted to do initially, without resorting to a lawsuit.

*From what I understand, Infinium continued to try to resolve the matter in private, but [H] insisted on publicizing all of it publicly.

*Next, adding insult to injury, [H] then *sues* Infinium (note that at this point in time Infinium had not sued [H] at all) in a Texas court to try and get a summary judgement against Infinium which would have required that Infinium prove [H]'s charges made in the original article false, and enjoined Infinium from filing a suit based on it. I would be very surprised if [H]'s suit, such as it is, could avoid being thrown out, since it is clearly a misapprehension and misuse of the statute under which it was filed. [H] of course lost no time in publicizing "news" of its suit against Infinium, which [H] characterized as "preemptive." I would characterize it as "useless and a waste of money," but then that's just me...;)

*And now, at last, despite all of the reasonable, privately proffered attempts at solving this conflict that were made by Infinium and its principals, [H] is finally actually being sued in return by Infinum in Federal court. The very best outcome that I can see for [H] is a big legal bill and that both suits are thrown out. However, I have to say that if I had to pick and choose which position I'd rather be in here, I would not pick [H]'s position...;)

Basically, [H] stood on its head in the center of town and publicly begged Infinium to sue. When that didn't work, [H] decided to get the ball rolling by "preemptively" suing Infinium through an inapplicable statute. Now, [H] has at last been granted its wish and is finally being sued by Infinium. But not in a Texas state court, but in a Florida Federal court. Wow. What an amazing accomplishment. Yessiree, what a great way to resolve a dispute...;) I imagine [H]'s lawyers are having orgasms figuring their hourly bills...;)

Anyway, you have to wonder about all of this nonsense. [H] may not know it, and apparently doesn't know it, but if and when either of these suits makes it to court, they will be decided in a courtroom by a judge, and decided on the basis of applicable law, and it simply won't make any difference whatsoever if 99.9% of [H]'s readership is jumping up and down screaming, "screw those suckers--go[H]!" Heh...;) That won't make any difference at all.

mkk

Unless maybe the judge too is an "enthusiast".
That was a good read, as usual.

Judas

how is it what they did ilegal?

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EcPercy

I see no reason why HardOCP would not win this case. If the facts are accurate then they have done nothing wrong. Of course I know all about stacked jury's etc... I really don't see infinium winning this one... so they will wind up paying all their lawyers and HardOCP's lawyers for the frivolous lawsuit...

Matth

If the facts are on your side, hammer away with the facts.

If the law is on your side, hammer away with the law.

If neither are on your side, hammer away on the table.




If it's true, then it's not defamatory, however much you may hate it being mentioned.