Evony threaten to sue me to suppress the truth.

/obvious

 

Lordy, Bruce, I sincerely hope, for your sake, they won't ask any of us as character witnesses.

 

Stolen for use in later threads

 

Couldn't you just ignore them Bruce?

I mean you're not an international corporation trading in Australia. What's the worst that could happen?

 

This is serious guys! They could sue him for all the profit his blog has made!

 

I have emailed the solicitor:

Hi,

1) Can you clarify what plaintiffs in Australia you represent.
2) Presumably you are aware of the Barbra Streisand effect. Just as this story was dying down you have dug it up to be even bigger.
3) Everything I have written is the truth, which is a good defence.
4) Your client is trying to remove fair criticism from the internet, suppressing free speech.

Bruce

 

The problem here is that Australia has the same archaic libel laws as the UK where the onus is on me to prove that every single thing I said was the absolute truth. They don't have to prove anything, just make lots and lots of allegations against me. Read their letter and some are just plain silly.

With the physical distance to the court, defending this could cost several hundred thousand pounds.

So basically they are abusing the legal process to censor the web of fair criticism of themselves.

 

In the interests of free speech feel free to copy and paste my Evony articles and the comments anywhere you want on the internet.

 

I've never heard that euphemism before.

 

Fixed.

 

Sock it to 'em, Bruce.

 

If you want to be a martyr then go ahead, but I fear that TCE may inadventently become 'collateral damage'. Please do the right thing as far as this forum is concerned. You will generate far more support here if you do, I think.

 

Wait, what? Are we being sued?



Err, with regards to item 4 on the last bit, should we be seeking legal advice?

 

Shouldn't think so, its a public forum, where anyone is allowed to make a post, but it might be wise for the mods to kill the thread or at least Bruce's posts, and make a front page statement that they are not responsible for the posts made on the public forums and will delete any posts made on the public forums which they consider to be....something something..

edit..also this is not a blog...its a forum, Bruce was acting on his own by posting links to HIS blog and reprinting comments here.

 

Indeed, they seem very much more interested in Bruce himself, and in TCE only in that it is another place where he has replicated his posts that they claim are defamatory. I don't think they're foolish enough to go after TCE, any more than they're foolish enough to go after Bruce's web-hosting. We are simply an avenue by which the information is being spread.

I'm not taking a position one way or the other - I don't like their adverts, but have no corroboration of Bruce's claims against them, nor experience with the game.

What seems odd to me is that Bruce need take any action at all. Surely to have any effect at all, a defamation case needs to be undertaken in the jurisdiction of the perpetrator? Even if a judge in Oz were to side with them (and I don't see how, as they're not Australian), what would the judge action: extradition of Bruce to Oz? Some restriction of his business affairs in Australia, if he has any?

Smells like Evony brought the case in Oz to maximise the potential cost of actively defending the case, and so maximise the desire to settle or back down. A lawyer here should be consulted of course, but I'd be asking: "do I have to do anything at all?" If Bruce didn't even respond to their claims, what would be the likely/possible end results?

I would question the action of deleting the potentially offending posts anyway, as it would jeopardise the standard defence that ISPs also use. The ToU for the forum state that people's posts are their own responsibility, no? If the moderators act as policemen on this matter, then they make themselves responsible for making sure that the content of all posts on the board is above board. I think that's an unnacceptable burden to place on the moderation team, and jeopardises the viability of the board long term. Our posts are our own, our mistakes are our own, not TCE's.

 

Agreed - it all became very messy from both sides (Bruce and the anti-Bruce) and he should get another (final) chance.

 

Internet forums are not responsible for the posts of their users for the most part regardless of TOU's. (With a few exceptions) In this case he is cutting and pasting his own hosted content onto TCE, so it comes down to him.

Although if you are really worried, just delete em all. *shrug*

 

The reason I am making the point is that TCE is specifically cited in the letter. I agree, it's a forum and we are not to be held accountable, but as Bruce has used the public area of TCE as his private billboard to attract hits to his own site (with complete impunity) then why even take the chance that TCE be in any way implicated? It's his mess (here) which he should clean up. I don't think it's unreasonable, and I'm not saying it's even a form of moderation. This is a unique situation and regardless of the actual content/opinion stated within the offending thread(s) it would be respectful of Bruce to remove them in order to eliminate any further potential TCE exposure.

This isn't even a legal issue, I see it as one of principle.