The scam artists, gold farmers, and IP thieves behind Evony have gone to step 4 in The Path Of Internet Bastardy: sue people on the Internet and newspapers in Britain that you don’t like.
Disgusting. If it DOES go to court I eagerly await how Evony explains that it’s fine for them to use Age of Kings art assets in their game (which they deny), while it’s not fine for horrible mean bloggers to point out that Evony uses spam to advertise (which they deny).
Not that third parties have evidence of this or anything.
#1 by Gx1080 on August 25th, 2009
They actually think that they can get away with that? LOL.
Pathetical attempt of intimidation.
Of course they demand that all the post that make fun of their fail attempt of a game be removed. This its the Internet morons. Theres is already copies of all those evil documents in my desk in a nice little folder called “evony sucks”. Too obvious?
Oh and Lum, I would expect a letter of those arriving soon if I were you.
#2 by Scott Jennings on August 25th, 2009
I’d be amused if one did. I have no problem with hiring an attorney who would no doubt derive great amusement from drafting a response.
#3 by Bonedead on August 25th, 2009
That’s a nice big ol pair of boobies in that first link, good thing I’m at work!
#4 by Simple Pieman on August 25th, 2009
Please don’t pimp Bruce. He doesn’t deserve it.
#5 by hitnrun on August 25th, 2009
I remember being struck as a young lad with the novelty of this new school of Stupidjitsu. Remember Red Dragon Software?
Now it’s not quite as funny anymore. It’s actually a little scary that these people grow up in the same country as the rest of us. The recipe is a little hazy, but it seems to be arrogance, nepotism, and a considerable-but-not-quite-large-enough sum of money, overexposure to movies and network legal dramas, and a desire to succeed without actually accomplishing anything.
#6 by Gx1080 on August 25th, 2009
@Simple Pieman
Why not?
#7 by geldonyetich on August 25th, 2009
They’ll need a big courtroom if they plan to sue everybody who commented over the hubris of the Evony ad methodology.
#8 by Cosmik on August 25th, 2009
The lawyers are based in Australia? I always knew those New South Welshmen were dirty. If you get a letter, Scott, I’ll represent you. I’m familiar with how dingoes are used in a court of law.
#9 by Dblade on August 25th, 2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libel_tourism
Essentially you find a place where the libel laws are most suitable to silencing your critics, and your critic can be read there. Then you go and sue them there, regardless of nationality. The wiki article explains it better.
#10 by D-0ne on August 25th, 2009
Simple Pieman
11:08 am on August 25th, 2009
Please don’t pimp Bruce. He doesn’t deserve it.
WTF?
#11 by Pat on August 25th, 2009
So, Simple Pieman, are you just one of those jackasses who spews his agenda on another person’s blog post and then run off? You aren’t even making sense. Linking an article is not the same as pimping. Your use of the word pimp just shows that you have a serious hate-on for this guy, which leads me to wonder why you think any of us care about your secret butthurt.
#12 by Gophur on August 25th, 2009
Meh. The game can be fun to play and I like my ads with cleavage. Their antics seem to be rocking their bank account so that is a marketing win. Of course as with all stealers of IP who use it to amek money and spammers in general, I hope there is a special circle of penal hell set aside for them. Just leave the servers up m’kay? We’re raiding the shit out of CHAOS this weekend…
#13 by xzzy on August 25th, 2009
This link has been doing the rounds today too, even though it was posted back in May:
http://blog.costumecraze.com/2009/05/dubious-civony-game-uses-costume-photo
I can’t get past the humor of these people actually paying lawyers to file lawsuits, when it seems like every single art asset associated with their products has been stolen from someone else. It’s like bank robbers getting angry that police are shooting at them.
#14 by Rofltaters on August 25th, 2009
This grossly reminds me of the “SHADOWBANE ROXXORS” era of “viral” advertising by encouraging fans to spam forums about the game, with promises of beta invites and the likes.
#15 by J. on August 25th, 2009
Yeah, don’t sue PopCap for making fun of the bullshit banner ad campaign.
http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/07/29/evony-advert-ridiculed-by-popcap/
#16 by Bruceongames on August 26th, 2009
Thanks for this, I have now written up more comprehensively what they are up to: http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/08/26/why-use-warren-mckeon-dickson-to-threaten-me/
#17 by EpicSquirt on August 26th, 2009
Please sue me in Australia, I’ll send my fart over to there.
Wouldn’t this be a civil criminal proceeding? At least in Germany, in such a case, a non juristic person has to be sued at his residence city.
We have a lot of those wanna be lawyers over here too, sending legal notices like they’re in the money printing business. Best thing to do is to call them and to tell them to bring it to court.
#18 by Arkenor on August 26th, 2009
I can report that nobody has threatened to sue me yet. I am slightly disappointed, considering my post was used as a source for so many others, but I didn’t flat-out accuse them of anything I couldn’t absolutely prove, which probably helps. There tends to be a bit of an escalation of language as posts get recycled through the blogosphere.
I’d quite enjoy calling Firaxis and Microsoft as witnesses.
“This yours?”
“Yup.”
Though the whole getting myself to Australia bit might be tricky.
#19 by Joshua Meadows on August 26th, 2009
As I live in Sydney now I just want to extend an offer to any bloggers suddenly finding themselves sued by Evony’s big-breasted discreet lawyers that you’re all welcome to crash on my couch should you find yourself summarily litigated on this side of the pond.
#20 by Joshua Meadows on August 26th, 2009
“Please don’t pimp Bruce. He doesn’t deserve it.”
Oh anonymity, is there nothing you can’t make better? <3
#21 by Scott Jennings on August 26th, 2009
I suspect the reason why no US bloggers have been slapped with legal fish wrapping is due to that the US does not enforce Australian civil suits and the UK does.
#22 by geldonyetich on August 26th, 2009
Personally, I’m mostly annoyed that Evony hasn’t taken the hint. They’ve continued to roll out increasingly more scantly clad women. It’s probably only a matter of time until their ads comprise of a textless picture of a vulva and the correlation with their product is considered implicit.
#23 by Arkenor on August 26th, 2009
Careful, Joshua. I may end up having to take you up on that.
#24 by Arkenor on August 26th, 2009
I reckoned the reason they were using the Australian courts was because they figured Bruce must live there.
#25 by Joshua Meadows on August 26th, 2009
@Scott, that’s that whole silly Commonwealth thing at fault. Queen’s own and all, tot tot, oi, etc. I keep telling them to secede but nobody listens to the weird American ranting on the corner of the street. My chance at starting an international incident is looking grim.
#26 by EpicSquirt on August 26th, 2009
Ah… Commonwealth… Medieval times…
#27 by IainC on August 27th, 2009
We send them convicts, they send back soap operas. It’s an equitable arrangement.
#28 by Viz on August 27th, 2009
I don’t know man, I think they’re getting the better half of the deal.
#29 by wufiavelli on August 27th, 2009
They could have a case. It is very easy to sue for destroying character in England. Might be why they choose to go after british newspapers.
#30 by JuJutsu on August 27th, 2009
I always assumed that if it was true it wasn’t libel.
#31 by Tremayne on August 27th, 2009
JuJutsu – spot on. Truth is an absolute defence against libel cases. However… establishing that what you have said is true in a court of law tends to take a lot of expensive lawyer-hours to do.
You can’t get legal aid (state financial assistance) in England to defend against a libel suit, which means that the rich can silence critics by threatening them with a libel suit – even if the person making the allegations would win in a court case, they can’t afford to do so. Unless, of course, they save on costs by representing themselves and then get panned by the professionals arrayed against them (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mclibel )
#32 by Muckbeast on August 27th, 2009
Wow. Evony is taking marketing sleaze to an epic level.