HardOCP Sues Infinium Over Legal Threats 326
Cebu writes "According to GameSpot, in a less than surprising move, Kyle Bennett of tech website HardOCP has decided to file a lawsuit against Infinium Labs, makers of the forthcoming Phantom PC-based 'console'. On February 27, a lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division under the Declaratory Judgment Act to force the issue of Infinium Labs' repeated legal threats against HardOCP for an allegedly defamatory article written last year."
Here's my view on all this: (Score:5, Interesting)
I think this has gone a little bit too far. HardOCP posted an article that was quite misleading. I don't think they they maliciously *lied*, but definitely misled it's readers. I personnally don't feel it warrants a Libel case, however, it goes without saying: I am not a lawyer! Infinium sent the letter saying that it didn't like the article and was going to sue, and then HardOCp decided to escalate by countersueing. I bet that HardOCP could have let the "lawsuit" slide and an out of court settlement would have happened, if anything. Now there WILL be a messy legal battle.
Additionally, I don't see how hard it is to believe in the Phantom's existence. It's just a small form factor PC tied to a VPN which is the only way to purchase games. Yes, it has VERY powerful DRM, and is Microsoft's TCPA wet-dream. If the back-end didn't come together, Infinium could still make a killing selling complete systems that compete in price with the Shuttle barebones kits. It's standard PC hardware, with a few custom add-ons to integrate the hardware&softwaresides of the DRM scheme.
[Disclaimer: Views expressed are my own and not necessarily representative of those of Infinium Labs]
Interesting choice of law firm... (Score:5, Interesting)
Nice to see that they can take a
Good job HardOCP (Score:5, Interesting)
After all, failure to stand up to legal badgering is exactly WHY we're such a litigious society today - because of the payoff.
Re:Lawyer Central? (Score:1, Interesting)
SlashGrok would be better. I'm not sure what symbols you would use to represent it, though, both
Well, I guess it was inevitable... (Score:4, Interesting)
The article that Inifium is annoyed at is over a year old now. Wasn't Infium's Phantom supposed to have already hit the market by now?
If anything, HardOCP's article should act as a warning to investors that infinium is just a scam.
Re:Interesting choice of law firm... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Suggestion: (Score:5, Interesting)
Graphic suggestion: Justitia (Lady Justice) as a Borg. I suggest a cute one like Seven of Nine, robe optional.
Re:Here's my view on all this: (Score:5, Interesting)
To call the bluff would just be responding to the threat of a lawsuit with a challenge to sue. This is a little further, HardOCP filed the lawsuit for them...
Re:Here's my view on all this: (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Here's my view on all this: (Score:3, Interesting)
As for a messy legal battle, perhaps you don't understand what they filed. Kyle filed a "declaratory judgment lawsuit" in order to "clear the air and terminate the flurry of demands, allegations, and defamatory Internet posts directed against HardOCP..." This will bring the situation to a head. Hopefully, it will also be the first step to end this rather silly situation.
But really, do you feel that IL has been honest and open about the state of their, um, product?
Re:Lawyer Central? (Score:0, Interesting)
Re:Here's my view on all this: (Score:5, Interesting)
HardOCP offered compromise early in the game, they received a threat and politely offered to correct any (imaginary as it turns out) factual errors. I have a more hardline view: when any person or corp has a legal threat as their first resort I think that compromise has already gone out the window. The person threatening legal action has already discarded compromise as an option. More to the point that sort of oppressive nastyness should not be met with any toleration at all. Anyone who's thought process goes: "I don't like what this person is saying so I'll get my high power legal team to threaten his entire livelyhood" deserves no sympathy. The only appropriate action is to do whatever is in your power to ruin them because they've already decided to try and ruin you.
Had Infinitum Labs sent a non-legally threatening letter politely noting factual errors and requesting that they be corrected things would be different. But from what I can tell the thought of trying a non-litigous solution never crossed their minds. So screw 'em.
Great advertising (Score:0, Interesting)
To sue for libel you have to show damage... (Score:5, Interesting)
Now, as I understand libel, for the case to stand, two things need to be proven. First, the accused deliberately lied. Second, the accuser needs proof that they were damaged by said lies. Now, the first is hard enough to prove. I, personally, don't think HardOCP set out to mislead and lie in their article, but I could see how that could be debated. However, I don't think Infinium Labs has an iota of a chance proving HardOCP's article, published five months ago, has hurt their company. Infinium Labs doesn't even have a product on the market yet, and, as someone else pointed out, type in "Phantom Console" into Google and you'll find several slams on the company.
If Infinium Labs doesn't get launch that it expects, they only have themselves and their sketchy business practices to blame. They are an enigma wrapped in a puzzle drizzled with secret sauce. They created the atmosphere for speculation...and people began to speculate.
Now, I'm not someone who plans on linking to my site with every post I make here, but, again, I am linking to the message that was posted on my forums yesterday. It is a copy of the e-mail sent to HardOCP, before HardOCP made it public.
I checked the e-mail of the poster, which began with "twcbinc". I Googled that and it led me to a user at the Console Gamer Network [ocgn.com]. The user's e-mail at the Network was timr@phantom.net. Now, this didn't mean much, but it was interesting. A mod on my boards also found the post odd and traced the IP to Infinium Labs.
Now, I'm not saying this is illegal, or even bad, but I think it's sketchy, to say the least...and I think acts like this pretty much destroy any libel case they may have. Infinium Labs is hurting themselves with every step they make...and I think any judge who looks at their tactics and history will see that. Here's the link to the post on my boards: http://www.lunabean.com/forums/index.php?showtopic =2428 [lunabean.com]
USPTO sucks at trademarks too it seems... (Score:5, Interesting)
But, seems like that's a pretty [wiredlabs.com] common [rainhosting.com] phrase [cybereps.com] in the [xtreme-solutions.com] industry [zeuspc.com] and has [themultiplayer.com] been [ideazon.com] so for years [microsoft.com]....
Hell, it's even used to refer to [H]ard|OCP's own RatPadz [thetechzone.com].
A poster above suggested a new section on Slashdot for lawsuits... I think that's a great idea. SCO's newsworthy lawsuits may be dying out finally, but Phantom might keep the section viable for a year by itself. Especially if that "Pre-Order" link starts working and consumers get suckered as well as investors, or if they decide to defend their *cough* "Intellectual Property" *cough* by suing half the gaming industry for trademark infringement.
Wonder if that's where they hope to make a profit?
From someone who lives in Sarasota.... (Score:4, Interesting)
When I first heard about Infinium I was curious myself, especially since it's hq is my hometown. After reading the original article, I too drove down to longboat key and saw the supposed "hq" which indeed fit the description in the article. Shortly thereafter, they did acquire some very nice rental space on main st. I haven't been in the building, but rent is definitely not cheap in this area.
The local paper has had a number of articles about Infinium and they might be of interest. You can find them at www.heraldtribune.com.
I too looked for info on the founder, and his own resume which I found published on the Internet did indeed make him seem like a shady, take your money and run type. The fact that he lives on Longboat Key where the median family income is $107,983 shows that he's done pretty well. [wikipedia] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longboat_Key%2C_Flor
I worked for Tim Roberts at BIG (Score:5, Interesting)
I worked for Tim Roberts at GlobalStreams under BIG. I was the webmaster for the only company that was purchased (rather than being created out of thin air) by BIG.
My observation of the general business strategy that was followed at BIG could be summed up in one phrase: "Fake it 'til you make it." When we were working under the [BIG] umbrella, it was remarkable. At one point our company was instructed to hire people, not necessarily because we needed more people, but rather to increase headcount. They were still hiring until 1 or 2 weeks before BIG shut down.
The often-expressed doubts surrounding this company and it's product (the name is completely telling) I believe are well founded. Simply reading the Phantom FAQ [phantom.net] and their product specs should be instant signs to any observant individual.
Step 1: Create website. (See their job postings for 3d renderers, Flash developers, etc...) Make it cool, fill it with the latest (OBVIOUS) buzzwords. DRM. Pay-per-play. Promise to deliver the cool dream application that might be possible.
Step 2: Try to [maybe] actually deliver a product. Image is everything here, gotta keep the investors happy and the money flowing.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Prof^H^H^H Take the money and spend it / run. Anyone who might think about investing in this company, or who even really hopes that what they say or sell might be worth spending some money on should do some research, due diligence and move on with their life.
I often had a hard time working in an atmosphere where it was more important to seem successful than to _BE_ successful.
BIG didn't work out. A lot of people quit perfectly good jobs to work with Tim and were pissed when it didn't work out. They spent a LOT of money. After that experience for some reason I REALLY wanted to work in an environment where, say for example, a real product was worked on to solve a real problem, that had real customers.
Ah, the bitch of the reputation economy. Hope I don't get sued for sharing my personal experience and opinions.
--
Gabriel
Suspicious (Score:5, Interesting)
Can we use this DJ Act to sue SCO? (Score:3, Interesting)
In a press release soon to be made public, lawyers representing KB Networks (the Bennett-founded entity that owns HardOCP), refers to the suit as one based on a legal statue commonly referred to as the "Declaratory Judgment Act." HardOCP lawyers explain the act as one that "permits a person or entity being threatened with lawsuits from another party to force the issue to be decided, rather than having to operate under a cloud of uncertainty and intimidation."
Could linux users use the same approach to sue SCO for threating them too??
"..will have.."?!? (Score:2, Interesting)
Maybe this will be the second coming of home entertainment, but until I see a dev machine with my own eyes (hey, I signed up as a developer over a year ago!) they are not worth my time.
Re:Interesting choice of law firm... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Here's my view on all this: (Score:2, Interesting)
The comics PA does are one thing. There is very little you can say in a comic that isn't parody or protected somehow, that much is true, but the front page which usually harbors some more biting commentary is probably open season as far as libel is concerned.
Re:Here's my view on all this: (Score:3, Interesting)
The "Senior Software Engineer" only has to have a Bachelor's degree? Four years experience? Strange.
No mention of what test tools are to be used. This is bizarre. They vary somewhat, experience with one or another seems to be kind of, well, important.
What dev platform is to be employed? Seems you'd want your coders to be familiar with it. Maybe they feel that the uber-coders with 3 years experience they're hiring will be competent and churn out perfect code with any or all of them.
Software Program Manager performing systems engineering duties? Peculiar.
This all strikes me as somewhat odd, certainly like nothing I've seen in my dev experience. Perhaps someone more enlightened than myself can grant me the benefit of their wisdom, for I am puzzled. Or geniunely retarded.
Is anyone surprised... (Score:4, Interesting)