Blizzard Sued By South Carolina Inmate

Benjamin Duranske writes "Jonathan Lee Riches, an inmate in South Carolina famous for filing long, handwritten, rambling screeds against celebrities, politicians, and even buildings, has filed a third-party motion in Federal Court in Arizona in the MDY v. Blizzard botting case claiming that Blizzard's World of Warcraft 'caused Riches mind to live in a virtual universe, where Riches explored the landscape committing identity theft and fighting cybermonster rival hacker gangs. Riches was addicted to video games and lost touch with reality because of defendants. This caused Riches to commit fraud to buy defendants video games. Riches chose World of Warcraft over working a legit job, Riches mind became a living video game.'"

Please Don't Give This Man Attention!

[eldavojohn (898314)]

This is another ridiculous lawsuit. I was first aware of this when he sued Michael Vick a while back. He is an attention whore [justia.com], please do not give him anymore attention!

Check out this recent lawsuit [justia.com] and its defendents:

George W Bush, Richard B. Cheney, Condeleza Rice, Donald H Rumsfeld, John W Snow, Unknown Authors, Carlos M Gutierrez, Michael O Leavitt, Elaine Chao, Stephen L Johnson, Margaret Spellings, Samuel W Bodman, Norman Y Mineta, Hillary Rodham Clinton, James Hoffa, www.GOOGLE.com, Benedict, XVI, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Jerry West, www.ACCUWEATHER.com, Usama Bin Laden, William Gates, Hugo Chavez, John Deere, Adolf Hitler's National Socialist Party, Island Def Jam Music Group, Roc-A Fella Records, Shawn Carter, Queen of England, Jo Anne B Barnhart, Steven Spielberg, RJ Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc, Japan's Nikkei Stock Exchange, Gambino, Three Mile Island, Kofi Annaan, Tony Danza, Islamic Republic of Iran, Don King Productions Inc, Paris Hilton, Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah's Witness, Jose Padilla, University of Miami, Geico Insurance, Vienna Convention, Matt Drudge, Marion Blakey, Consulate General of Nigeria, The Salvation Army, Jewish State of "Israel", John E Potter, Soledad O'Brien, Miles O'Brien, Magna Carta, Tsunami victims, Alan Greenspan, American Red Cross, Mark Emerson, Jessica Alba, Sirius Satellite Radio, Charles Moose, Dalai Lama, Houston Chronicle, Al Qaeda Islamic Army, Fruit of A-Loom, American Civil Liberties Union, Out-Back Steakhouse, Donald J Trump, Chris Berman, Vatican, The, Shawn John Combs, Michael Brown, Vincent K McMahon, Taliban, The, Richard M Daley, Meals on Wheels, John Grisham, Columbine High School, Ariel Sharon, United Parcel Service, Tara Reid, Black Entertainment Television Inc, Saddam Hussein, Jewish Workers, Brad Pitt, Jack Welch, Elizabeth Smart, George E Pataki, Charlie Sheen, Surgeon General, The, Vladimir Putin, Oliver North, George Orwell, www.ASKJEEVES.com, Sean O'Keefe, Various Buddhist Monks, www.SECUREDPARTY.com, I Lewis Libby, Warren Buffett, Sierra Club, John D Negroponte, Christina Applegate, Jewish Mossad, National Vanguard Books, Air and Space Museum, Christopher Reeves, Gale A Norton, Halliburton Company, Kellogg Brown & Root, John Walsh, Mein Kampf, City of Crawford Texas, John P Abizaid, Venus Williams, www.DEFCON.org, John Dudas, Medieval Times, International Trade Commission, Anna Nichole Smith, United States Marine Corps, William F Buckley, Denny's, Brotherhood of the Snake, Larry King, Charles E Schumer, Rastafarian Natives, Spencer Abraham, Rollingstone Magazine, Monogram Bank of Georgia, Grace Jones, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, Planet Hollywood, Joseph H Boardman, Marshall Bruce Mathers, III, Uliminati,Founder Adam Weishaupt, The Apollo Theater, David W Anderson, Assistant Secretary For Indian Affairs, Jason Society, Wu Tang Clan, Wu-Wear Inc, Philip Purcell, CEO Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Nordic Gods, Presidental Emergency Operation Center, Screen Actors Guild Inc, R James Nicholson, New York Stock Exchange Inc, The Da Vinci Code, Moorish Science Temple of America, Sears Tower, Mike Tyson, Native American Fish Society, Holocaust Survivors, Byzantine Republic Army, Dennis Hopper, Mt. Rushmore, Barbara Walters, First Presbyterian Church, Gordan R Sullivan, Yellow Cab Company, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North America, Michael Savage, Dennis Hastert, Green Bay's Lambeau Field, Slobodan Milosevic, Pizza Hut, King James Bible, Scott Peterson, Department of Housing and Urban Affiars, Smithsonian Institute, Robert C Bonner, Ming Dynasty, Ray Nagin, Barry Bonds, Thomas J Ridge, Jenna Bush, Gangs in Hong Kong, United Methodist Church, European Union, Porter Goss, Harrah's Las Vegas Inc, Grand Wizard of Ku Klux Klan, General Motors, Christopher Cox, Proctor & Gamble, Jewish Synagogue's, www.ebay.com, Knights of Malta, A

Re:Please Don't Give This Man Attention!

[by Anonymous Coward]

Well, I always thought Al Jazeera and Bumble Bee Tuna were connected somehow.

Finally, proof.

Re:

[Cocoa Radix (983980)]

Most people forget that important little "Home Depot" bridge between the two...

Common mistake. Don't beat yourself up about it.

Re:

[nickheart (557603)]

He also sued Hurricane Katrina

Re:Please Don't Give This Man Attention!

[pcolaman (1208838)]

I guess that's why he was suing GWB, since Bush used the weather machine to create Hurricane Katrina.

Re:

[JCSoRocks (1142053)]

He's suing fruit of A-Loom rather than fruit of The Loom - that's how you know he's crazy.

Re:Please Don't Give This Man Attention!

[camperdave (969942)]

The Da Vinci Code? Magna Carta? Statue of Liberty? Miles O'Brien? George W Bush?

He's suing inanimate objects and fictional characters? Good luck with that!

Re:Please Don't Give This Man Attention!

[internerdj (1319281)]

George W Bush is a fictional character? That explains so much and is a great relief at the same time.

Re:Please Don't Give This Man Attention!

[Itninja (937614)]

No, that was one of the inanimate objects.

Re:

[internerdj (1319281)]

Awww. Well at least it still explains alot.

Re:

[Samah (729132)]

The two criteria were not mutually exclusive, you know. ;)

Re:Please Don't Give This Man Attention!

[firex726 (1188453)]

Looks like Pluto is off the hook. He calls it a "Planet".

Re:Please Don't Give This Man Attention!

[Adriax (746043)]

Lawyers don't play the Kevin Bacon game anymore, they play the 1 degree of separation to Jonathan Lee Riches game.

Re:Please Don't Give This Man Attention!

[Rogerborg (306625)]

Well, sure. "Lonely bored crazy guy yells at squirrels in the park" is not a headline either.

check out the last order in this case

[Rene S. Hollan (1943)]

"MINUTE entry before Judge Harry D. Leinenweber : It has come to the Court's attention that the docketing department of the Clerk's Office is still inputing the names of the hundreds of defendants named in this action. This action was dismissed on 8/17/07 for failure to state a claim, and the Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal on 10/31/07 for failure to pay the required docketing fee. It is a waste of judicial resources for the Clerk's Office to continue adding these names to a closed case that the Court determined was delusional in its order of 8/17/07. The Clerk is therefore directed to cease adding the defendants' names to this docket. As this is an internal housekeeping matter, the Clerk is directed not to send notice of this order to Plaintiff. No notice to be mailed (gcy, )"

Re:

[Pulzar (81031)]

Poor judge who has to deal with it and waste time on actually writing a full motion to dismiss the case [justia.com], including references to supreme court cases explaining what is delusional and what's not. A fun read nonetheless :).

Re:Please Don't Give This Man Attention!

[nizo (81281)]

Apparently he doesn't realize that when google lawbot indexes this, it is gonna toss out all these random keywords, right?

Or is there some secret message in there somewhere?

You say "attention whore", I say "insane".

[sgant (178166)]

Seriously, the guy is delusional. Insane. A nutter. Crazy. Over the rainbow. Bars in the window. Truly gone fishing. Out to lunch.

He's apeshit mad, barmy, batty, berserk, bonkers, cracked, crazed, cuckoo, daft, delirious, demented, deranged, dingy, dippy, erratic, flaky, flipped, flipped out, freaked out, fruity, idiotic, kooky, lunatic, mad, maniacal, mental, moonstruck, nutty as fruitcake, of unsound mind, out of his tree, psycho, he's round the bend, a schizo, a screwball, he has a screw loose, silly, touched, unbalanced, unglued, unhinged, unzipped, wacky.

(yes, much was copied and pasted from thesaurus.com)

Re:

[Chris Burke (6130)]

"Seriously, the guy is delusional. Insane. A nutter. Crazy. Over the rainbow. Bars in the window. Truly gone fishing. Out to lunch.

He's apeshit mad, barmy, batty, berserk, bonkers, cracked, crazed, cuckoo, daft, delirious, demented, deranged, dingy, dippy, erratic, flaky, flipped, flipped out, freaked out, fruity, idiotic, kooky, lunatic, mad, maniacal, mental, moonstruck, nutty as fruitcake, of unsound mind, out of his tree, psycho, he's round the bend, a schizo, a screwball, he has a screw loose, silly, t

Re:Please Don't Give This Man Attention!

[Rick Bentley (988595)]

He must be lonely in prison.

Maybe we can arrange for him to get a new friend...

Re:Please Don't Give This Man Attention!

[Bu11etmagnet (1071376)]

I wonder if he could be transferred to an Alaska prison...

Nah. Just put him in a cell with an ex-lawyer from Florida.

That would be classified as cruel and unusual punishment...

Re:Please Don't Give This Man Attention!

[thePowerOfGrayskull (905905)]

Yeah, but against which one?

Re:Please Don't Give This Man Attention!

[crawling_chaos (23007)]

I'm not sure what "Jewish Mossad" is though. Is there a "Hindu Mossad"?

Yes, there is. They are not as good at intelligence, but their song and dance routines are legendary.

Same thing happened to me after Metroid

[antifoidulus (807088)]

after I found out there may be a space-pirate-ass-kicking chick with a lazer and a "screw attack" out there, I couldn't stop masturbating.

Re:Same thing happened to me after Metroid

[RabidMoose (746680)]

Sue Nintendo for loss of genetic material.

Miscategorized

[davidwr (791652)]

This belongs in stupidpeople.slashdot.org, attentionwhores.slashdot.org, or the catch-all idle.slashdot.org, not games.slashdot.org.

Option past "dismissed"

[Alcimedes (398213)]

Can a judge just say "fuck off already" to this kind of crap?

Re:Option past "dismissed"

[by Anonymous Coward]

Can a judge just say "fuck off already" to this kind of crap?

Talk about a campaign slogan. Vote Judge Common F. Sense in 2008! If you don't like it, fuck off!

I'd sure as hell vote for him.

Counter-suit

[Shotgun (30919)]

Can the judge sue Riches for being driven from having to read such drivel?

Re:

[Shotgun (30919)]

From being driven INSANE from having to read such drivel.

amazing how video games warp the mind but ads dont

[GeezTheGeeza (896424)]

its amazing the continuing trend of folks using the 'my mind was warped by the normalisation and glamour of violence in video games and horror films' but these same people have sufficiently strong minds to not succumb to the continuous deluge of advertising thrust upon us every day. in the 90's we had advertising everywhere, the sidewalk, the urinals, the sky, but NEVER in our dreams

I, for one, want his number...

[kaizendojo (956951)]

I'd like to sue the game Dead or Alive. I can no longer perform sexually unless my girlfriend wears tight clothes and high kicks me repeatedly in the groin.

Re:I, for one, want his number...

[by Anonymous Coward]

Move to germany.

Thats normal over there.

Obligatory

[dedazo (737510)]

http://www.instantrimshot.com/ [instantrimshot.com]

Re:

[Lobster Quadrille (965591)]

I recommend a rehabilitation program- play DOAX until you are comfortable with them wearing bikinis and jumping around.

Thank goodness the election is over

[by Anonymous Coward]

Now we can get back to the quality stories that Slashdot is known for.

Because it's fun?

[nine-times (778537)]

Riches chose World of Warcraft over working a legit job

So he's suing because he'd prefer to play the game than have a legit job? There are tons of things I'd rather do than my job, and my job isn't even all that bad. But here at work, I'd rather be watching a movie than doing my job. Yet here I am, at work.

... posting on Slashdot. Can I sue Slashdot for being more interesting than my job?

Has he even played the game?

[RichMan (8097)]

Given his history when would he have been not in jail and playing the game in the last 4 years?

He gets out in 2012. I could not find the date he was committed.

"Riches has court cases in Pennsylvania dating back to 1996. In 1996 he was arrested for a bomb threat to Conestoga High School."

Re:Has he even played the game? - No

[RichMan (8097)]

World of Warcraft Release date 2004-11-23

JLR was convicted of fraud in 2004 and incarcerated.

I can't find a date on it but unlikely he was caught and convicted between Nov 23 and the end of the year.

His release date is 2012-03-23. And he was sentenced to 8 years.

Re:Has he even played the game?

[DarthVain (724186)]

Isn't that when Sarah Palin will run for President? Perhaps she needs a running mate?

So a crazy person...

[Itninja (937614)]

....does something crazy. Big deal. Why is this even on /.? Oh, I see, it marginally relates to video games. News? No. For nerds? Maybe. Stuff that matters? Not remotely. Epic fail.

I'm a victim too.

[bennomatic (691188)]

I should sue /. for forcing me to live in a fantasy universe where my input is considered, alternately, funny, insightful or merely overrated.

Some Legal Clarification

[314m678 (779815)]

the inmate has attempted to join the suit even though his presence is not requested or required by the plaintiff or defendant. He can do this under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24(b), however the judge will quickly dismiss it because FRCP 24(b)1b requires that his claim shares a common question of law or fact as the main case.

Better lawsuit against Blizzard

[Hoi Polloi (522990)]

If he wants to sue Blizzard at least sue them for a real crime, like the warcraft reputation system.

Re:

[TinFoilMan (1371973)]

Wouldn't "poor riches" be an oxymoron?

Re:When the death penalty is appropriate

[mapsjanhere (1130359)]

That's a bit extreme, simply write a bot program that can do "meaningful" judicial exchanges with the person in question. Let him have his fun writing long memos, and the program sends him back memoranda, motions and decision. He's happy, and no one else notices.

Re:When the death penalty is appropriate

[by Anonymous Coward]

FOR SALE: Sense of humor.

Mint condition - never been used.

Re:Hahah, Oh wow.

[compro01 (777531)]

Unfortunately, I don't think any state besides California has a vexatious litigant status.

Re:throw a guy a bone here, will ya?

[Lobster Quadrille (965591)]

You bolded 6 instances of his name, but only two deserved apostrophes.

Re:

[MindlessAutomata (1282944)]

Isn't WoW a prison unto itself?