REACTION TO TWISTER’S “SUIT” [Author: lum]
Some points to consider:
(1) It is highly likely that Twister was served with a Cease and Desist order, not a lawsuit. In other words, he was given legal notice that if he did not pull the offending material off of his web site, he would be sued. You generall have to do one before the other. HOWEVER…
(2) …in this case, Twister has actually done serious and real harm to Origin/EA’s interests. Not from making you not want to play the game (and for every Ultima purist busily vomiting, there’s probably 3 guys going “Rock on! Juka Nation 4 Ever!”) but from posting detailed information (including dates for milestone targets, his last posting) that competitors would die to know. Just in case you forgot, Everquest 2 has been in development for about six months now. And while the guys at Origin and Verant con amiably to one another, they are business rivals, and in those sort of games, people tend to play for keeps. Posting UO2’s dev specs is way beyond posting how to dupe a house deed.
(3) Am I a hypocrite? After all, I posted a confidential Verant doc online not too long ago. Well, yeah. I also pulled it when they noticed the site. After all, it’s all fun and games until they figure out where to garnishee your paycheck. I’m sure Twister feels the same way. And I’m also pretty sure OSI is quite a bit more pissed at Twister than Verant was at me. I mean, the guide doc actually reflected well on Verant, and was 85% knowledge already in the public domain.
4) Do I want Twister to be financially ruined or go to jail or anything silly like that? Of course not, and I doubt any of these things would happen. More then likely, Origin’s worst-case scorched-earth scenario is to get Twister’s site hosts to kick him out, and it’s doubtful they’d even go that far. Never make martyrs of your enemies. Now of course if Twister actually kept the UO2 files up instead of pulling them when getting a C&D order, then he would be in serious legal kimchee.
5) I think we can safely assume Origin knows who Dr. Twister is.