HardOCP Wins Against Infinium Labs 323
An anonymous reader writes "HardOCP has won a huge legal round against Infinium Labs. The WhereIsPhantom website has all the details, straight from the court dockets. There is a list of orders a mile long for Infinium Labs and owner Tim Roberts to comply with by Sept. 30th."
That's... (Score:2, Informative)
They need to lose the fine horizontal lines.
Or maybe I need to get my eyes tested...
Text of article (Score:5, Informative)
Judge Kaplan has ordered Infinium Labs to prudce a series of documents by September 30th. These include:
1) "Documents reflecting the identity and location of potential investors, venture capitalists, investors, partners, shareholders to whom private placement memorandums were provided, or other stake or equity holders in Infinium Labs who are located in the state of Texas other than shareholders that acquired Infinium stock on the public market, and the transactions, proposed or consummated with same."
2) "Pleadings and final judgments from any Court of any Jurisdiction in which Timothy Roberts was or is a Defendant between the dates of August 1, 2001 and February 29, 2004; and; the 2003 Tax Return of Timothy Roberts when filed."
3) "All documents in their possession, custody, or control that evidence, reflect, relate to financial transactions (including any beneficial transaction) between Infinium and Roberts from August 2002 to the present, including but not limited to printouts of all bank, credit card, and other financial transactions currently maintained in electronic form."
4) "All emails sent or received by Infinium's Texas employees."
5) "All year-to-date payroll information and records for 2003-2004 for all of Infinium's Texas employees.
6) "All documents reviewed by Kevin Bachus in preparing the declaration submitted in support of Defendant's motion to dismiss that have not otherwise been produced."
7) "All loan documents between Infinium and Roberts, including but not limited to documents pertaining to the $50,000 loan Roberts testified about in his deposition."
8) "All archival data and all forum postings from Infinium's websites."
9) "A complete and unaltered copy of the 'Who's We' agreement."
10) "All Infinium board of directors minutes and resolutions, with the substance of the resolution redacted unless it pertains to Roberts. Defendants are also ordered to make unredacted copies of its board of directors minutes and resolutions available for inspection by Plaintiffs' counsel at the office of Defendants' counsel. Defendants shall make such documents available for inspection on or before September 30, 2004. If, after inspection, Plaintiffs believe that any redacted portions of these documents should be produced, they may seek appropriate relief from the court."
11) "Plaintiffs' may re-depose Infinium and Roberts, with questioning at the second depositions limited to documents and information not produced to Plaintiffs prior to the first depositions. The combined duration of the first and second depositions shall not exceed seven hours per witness. Additionally, at the option of defendants, the depositions may proceed by telephone... . Plantiffs shall pay the costs of the second depositions and each party shall bear its own attorneys' fees. The second depositions shall be completed by November 5, 2004."
Now, once you've digested all that you'll remember that the court also ruled against KB Networks in some parts. That is actually only one item which is: "Plantiffs' request for sanctions is denied."
Analysis
It appears that HardOCP came away with a large victory. Without the transcriptions from the first depositions, we can only speculate based on subsequent motions on what transpired that day. It's quite obvious that the focus is purely on Tim Roberts and following the extensive money trail that has resulted. Section Six is of interest since it's the only one dealing with Kevin Bachus. What did Bachus say (or not say) during his deposition that piqued the interest of Kyle's lawyers?
We now have mention of a $50,000 loan that Roberts testified to in his deposition. What is the significance of this money? Further, will the production of emails, the old website and payroll be enough to prove Infinium can indeed be rightfully sued in Texas?
Copied from HardOCP (Score:5, Informative)
HardOCP Vs. Infinium Update:
WhereIsPhantom.com has one of the latest documents filed in our case on-line for you to download and of course gives their thoughts on what IL's lawyers have to say about coverage of the case. To quote the filed motion from IL's attorneys:
Infinium is concerned about the tactics of the Plaintiffs and their lawyers in this case. This case has received an unusual amount of publicity for a case of its type. In fact, Plaintiffs' counsel has issued their own press release announcing the institution of this action and that the Plaintiffs stand behind their negative statements about Infinium and Roberts. Likewise, the plaintiffs run a website called www.hardocp.com wherein they continue to publicize this lawsuit. Additionally, a website has been established called www.whereisphantom.com which "exists for the sole purpose of brining to light as many details as [it] can uncover about Infinium Labs, the lawsuit with KB Networks, and anything else that IL is involved in.
It is my personal opinion that if they did not want this case to be publicized on the Web, they should have not threatened to sue a website multiple times.
Just as a note, all documents that WhereIsPhantom.com posts are a matter of public record. You just have to pay to download them. Sounds like a pretty solid "tactic" to me. Just wait till it gets exciting.
HardOCP Article (Score:5, Informative)
Re:0 posts (Score:5, Informative)
It didn't make it to this article, but four employees quit yesterday from Infinium Labs for various reasons including a late paycheck. The Sarasota office is expected to close (the one with the $300,000 sign) and all operations move to Seattle. There'll be more tomorrow I promise. (And hopefully that'll include more bandwidth.)
Re:0 posts (Score:5, Informative)
Re:0 posts (Score:1, Informative)
Well, as I type this, Coral isn't helping. Mebbe if next time the submitter coralizes you before the
Re:That's... (Score:5, Informative)
You can get rid of it by removing the first part of the URL, like chage games.slashdot.org to slashdot.org.
The following is from another comment to help you in mozilla automatically drop the it. or games. part:
Create New bookmark.
Label something useful - "/. it fix"
In location insert this
javascript:void(location.hostname = "slashdot.org");
Re:A little background please? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:That's... (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, infants' first crap (tm) is green / black. Meconium. Horrible stuff to clean up. It turns that attractive mustard color after a couple of days.
</pedant>
Past slashdot articles. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:A little background please? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Who did what to who in the what now? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:A little background please? (Score:5, Informative)
The article did some probing into the company, and some of their claims, such as the history of the president of Infinium.
Infinium stated they would sue HardOCP over the letter, and sent e-mail to tell HardOCP to change or remove parts of the article [hardocp.com]. HardOCP didn't cave, and so, there was a lawsuit, and now it's progressed to this (which isn't really a win).
Re:A little background please? (Score:4, Informative)
I can't remember what HOCP was suing them back for, though.
what this is all about. (informative) (Score:3, Informative)
Ok whats the battle about?
stolen from CNN
(CNN) -- A few weeks ago a new game console was unveiled on the Web called Phantom.
Its developer, Infinium Labs, promises it will be the "must-have high performance game console," and that the Phantom will provide "more access to more games of every genre than any competing product," all "with blazing speed."
Six months ago, it was only a rumor among hardcore gamers. In fact, it seemed Phantom was, as the American Heritage dictionary put it, "an image that appears only in the mind; an illusion."
The juiciest rumor was that there never would be a console called Phantom. The conspiracy theory went that the whole thing was a hoax, concocted as a PR stunt.
Looks like Hardocp called bullshit and now a judge is agreeing with them and infinium is getting slapped.
now read on...
Re:0 posts (Score:5, Informative)
Re:A little background please? (Score:2, Informative)
Understandably Infinium Labs sued [H]ardOCP for slander.
Not so understandably. Actually HardOCP pre-empted Infineum by filing for a declaratory judgment. Infinium is thus in an ugly position of having things they have been trying to gloss over proved in court. Tim Roberts must be a SCO-quality knucklehead. This is a lawsuit he didn't need to be involved in.
Re:A little background please? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Coral doesn't work 1/2 the damn time (Score:5, Informative)
Coral is a cacheing solution; unless it can get a copy of the site to cache it, it can't serve it up.
This is why Coral needs to be used beforehand (IE, in the slashdot post) in order to be of any use. And even then, it works best on sites that have relative URLs on the images.
A suggestion to the owner of said site: Coralize as much of your site as you can, and enable HTTP compression (mod_gzip, mod_deflate, IIS6's compression, etc) for whatever else you can. With all that combined even a home connection should be able to handle a slashdotting.
Re:0 posts (Score:5, Informative)
Just be sure to come back later and visit. We've got over 200 articles covering the entire saga from beginning to end. The tale includes money trails, court intrigue, drugs, hackers and phreakers... you just can't make this stuff up.
Re: Seems pretty childish, Kyle [H]... (Score:5, Informative)
[H] simply called bullshit on IL's claims about the phantom. IL responded in the fashion that Mark Felchstain, Spammer Lawyer, would be proud of: a SLAPP [wikipedia.org] suit. That kind of garbage sure justifies the "dick up [Kyle's] ass." You don't see that kind of crap lawsuit flying around whenever someone makes a crack about DNF.
Re:In case it's slashdoted (Score:2, Informative)
Re:A little background please? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Coral doesn't work 1/2 the damn time (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Can we just ignore infinium (Score:2, Informative)
There are peaceful ways to try and resolve such things however IL didn't do either, it didn't try to clear up the mess but simply sent a threat (most likely assuming HardOCP would cave in). Hell, you can even ignore the editorial, and in all honesty after 4 months that's probably the best solution. It was simply a horrible PR move on ILs part, and now they're paying for it.
And if anyone is wondering, if I remember correctly around the time the [H] editorial came out there was a lot of speculation about IL. Mostly it wasn't the good kind either, and Kyle, I guess, decided to use it to his advantage and look into IL. Whatever the final story was it would give him readers (hell, finding out the thing is legit may have given him more immediate publicity)..
Re:Boilerroom (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Suspicious to say the least (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Excellent news (Score:3, Informative)
While it is a victory for truth, it's a pretty small one, as it is hardly a case of David v. Goliath. Indeed, I suspect the whole matter is primarily an ego thing for HardOCP, having gained some insight into the personality of the owner after an e-mail exchange several years ago. Yes, Infinium was dishonest, but the key factor was that they were weak--as mentioned by others, they didn't even have a storefront--so it wouldn't surprise me if HardOCP saw it as a perfect opportunity to kick some butt and show off. It actaully reminds me a bit of the kind of small-target consumer advocacy that sensationalist current affairs programmes love. They go after individuals and small, shonky businesses that can't fight back, while large companies that screw their customers get more conciliatory treatment.
So we should see it for what it is. If a website goes to court against a major peripheral manufacturer to defend their rights, that will be noteworthy and deserving of our respect and admiration.
Re:what this is all about. (informative) (Score:5, Informative)
In actuality, the address was a Mailboxes Etc mailbox. The vacant storefront just happened to be in the same strip mall, thus the initial confusion.
Another fact that you got wrong is that Kyle didn't counter sue, he sued pre-emptively (justifiably, imo) after receiving various legal threats. Read about it here.
Re:Cite for original post (Score:1, Informative)
Go to your settings homepage tab and check the "Light" box. Black text on white background, all the time. No shitty [slashdot.org] colour [slashdot.org] schemes [slashdot.org].
Re:That's... (Score:3, Informative)
Re: Why was IL attacked in the first place, tho? (Score:3, Informative)
Why did [H] write an article about IL? because they made huge claims and people were interested, that's why.
Re: Seems pretty childish, Kyle [H]... (Score:5, Informative)
When that article was posted 12 months ago, Infinium had burned through several million dollars in venture capital with nothing to show but some renders and a glossy page of marketing lingo. They were "quite anxious" to get their hands on another 25-50 million US dollars. And it was pretty evident to those who were trying to get info on the console that- not only was it vaporware, it was vaporware hawked by a guy with a really shady history of business dealings.
Kyle's article, while written in a sophomoric style, was very enlightening. It was truthful and Infinium's complaint is that it chased away potential investors. Damn right it it did, and rightfully so!
Re:Poof (Score:3, Informative)
Re: Seems pretty childish, Kyle [H]... (Score:3, Informative)
- It costs $30 US / month to play, PLUS any fees for games you want to play on it.
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Multiplayer, if present, is online only, unlike other consoles, which allow you to play with friends
- It has no "killer app" games, it only runs PC games...
- ...but not PC games you already own. Oh no, you need to buy them again
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Although it is a PC, you cannot upgrade it. (Although this is true of any console, such as X-Box, you will continue to get games tweaked for the console. Not so here, new games for the phantom will continue to have higher and higher requirements, and will not be optimized)
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You don't install the games, they all stream from the IL server
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Even if your games are cached, you still need to authenticate with the IL server
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If your internet connection goes down, you cannot play games.
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Regardless of their claims, I don't see how they can possible stream such large games in the background as you play them. As Tom's Hardware pointed out, most games have all of their music and such in one big file, and it is quite difficult to only select the stuff you need for the current level
Want a good point? If you can hack the DRM, you can get a pretty sweet Linux box for $199. Athlon XP 2500+, 256 MB DDR RAM, GeForce 5700 PRO, 40 gb HD. But even if they sell millions as a result of this, it will still go bad, because I bet they are eating a loss and hoping to make it back on subscriptions (And so will probably be quick to DMCA any hint of hacking it)Re:INVESTOR FRAUD (Score:2, Informative)
Somehow I don't think that VC's losing 10-25 million dollars is quite on the same level as thousands of employees and investors losing billions upon billions of dollars.
I don't want to say that the VC's who stand to lose their money on IL deserve what's coming, but they at least know (or at least should know) the risk of being a VC, especially when you are investing in a new company and haven't done any research on them. I am surprised that people will invest millions on a company without doing the research that HardOCP did, and I can't really feel sorry for those who did.
Enron investors, on the other hand, were investing because they were employees of what they thought was a successful company and/or they believed all the documents that the company was filing with the SEC and the NYSE. To make matters worse, they were also misled (deliberately, in some cases) by their financial advisors, who were also looking to make a profit on the whole ordeal.
Bottom line, while this is an unfortunate situation for the VC's who invested in IL, it is by no means even remotely comparable to the whole Enron debacle. [cnn.com]
Re: Why was IL attacked in the first place, tho? (Score:3, Informative)
There was no commercial gain from this journalism worth the risk of getting it all wrong and making enemies of future industry players.
It's good to see this sort of questioning in the games industry. Often journalists write trite fawning nonsense or rehash press releases.