SUE NOW, MY LORD!

Aug 25, 2009

By Patrick.

Gaming

Ken has written previously about Evony, formerly known as Civony, the "free-to-play-forever" online game which promises players, through spam and a barrage of offensive Google ads, the prospect of dominating large-breasted submissive women, forever. What Evony actually is is a badly implemented clone of Sid Meier's Civilization games, with artwork that looks, well, borrowed from other games.

For instance, you won't see anything resembling this in a game of Evony:

But we're amateurs when it comes to criticizing Evony for its offensive and misleading marketing strategies. The professional is Bruce, of Bruce on Games, who, stung like us by a barrage of spam advertising, delved deeper into what Evony actually is than anyone else on the web.

But as it turns out, deceptive marketing through pictures of large-breasted women isn't Evony's only sin. They're also libel tourists. They're now threatening to sue Bruce, a citizen of the United Kingdom, in Australia, a third-world country which, like North Korea, censors its citizens' access to the internet.

I'll leave aside criticism of the amateurish take-down letter, by one Dean Groundwater, of the firm of Warren McKeon Dickson, Lawyers, of Miranda New South Wales, to note the irony that Evony proposes to sue a resident of the United Kingdom, famous for its draconian libel laws, in Australia. At least in the United Kingdom, truth remains a defense to libel, and Bruce's posts on Evony are demonstrably true.

God only knows what Evony's case is, if they didn't think they could win a UK libel suit. Evidently in Australia, the winner is the party that brings the most soft-core internet porn to court.

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12 Comments

asshats, Australia, Evony

11 Comments

Ken • Aug 25, 2009 @9:46 am

DAMMIT.
Scott Jacobs • Aug 25, 2009 @1:34 pm

Evidently in Australia, the winner is the party that brings the most soft-core internet porn to court.

I want to be on that jury…

Crap, did I say that out loud?
Bruce • Aug 25, 2009 @5:09 pm

They've even cited Dow Jones vs Gutnick.

I remember thinking at the time that case would be the thin edge of the wedge as Australian legal minds think that they are in charge of the whole internet.

I'm embarassed.
Bruceongames • Aug 26, 2009 @12:41 am

I have now written up whyat they are trying to do here: http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/08/26/why-use-warren-mckeon-dickson-to-threaten-me/
Adrian • Sep 8, 2009 @7:49 pm

"At least in the United Kingdom, truth remains a defense to libel"

Er, better check your facts.

In Australia, truth is NOT a defense to DEFAMATION. Defamation is different to Libel – libel is spreading untruths, Defamation is 'causing harm to another party's reputation'. Evony simply have to prove someone said something masty about them.

So for example even though they might be scumsucking spammers who'd do their own mothers if they stumbled over her drunk on a moonless night, but if you were to call them, say 'paedophiles' even though that may be provable, they could sue you for 'hurting' their 'reputation'. Reputation simply is – our courts don't care if it's good or bad.

These same laws are consistently used by criminals, businessmen, developers, politicians all the time here to stifle bad press.

So, yes, you are right, Australia IS a thrid-world country, run by large scale corporate corruption and nepotism. China eat your heart out. It really says a lot about us, that these clowns are firing their legal-bombs from down here.
IRGRL • Sep 13, 2009 @2:42 pm

another article quoting bruceongames.com has just been published in thirteen1.com's online gaming magazine, in their forums I am getting a huge amount of grief from people for it

we did screen shoot everything we quoted and wrote about.

http://www.thirteen1.com
Ms Random • Sep 22, 2009 @4:43 am

Australia is not a third world country. It is a very good country to live in and in many ways progressive. We have some laws that are bad. So does the mighty US, last time I checked. We laugh here at the ridiculous frivolous litigation for which America is famous.

It is entirely possible for you to cover this case– and criticise the law in question– without the pointless Australia-bashing.
Ken • Sep 22, 2009 @8:09 am

I'm sure I could cover it without Australia-bashing. I could also cover Canada's embarrassing failure to protect freedom of expression without Canada-bashing. I could cover Florida's legal excesses without Florida-bashing. I could cover a multitude of legal and law enforcement excesses in America without America-bashing.

But that wouldn't be personally entertaining. And then I wouldn't have made your acquaintance. And then what would I have?
Ms Random • Sep 22, 2009 @9:01 am

Well, if you do this to everyone as a joke, I don't mind so much. I just came through the link on "Overlawyered", without knowing much about your site.

So I'm sorry if I misunderstood. You must understand that we people in smaller are used to Americans believing all kinds of bizarre stuff about us.
Ms Random • Sep 22, 2009 @9:02 am

Erratum: I meant to say "we people in smaller countries". Left a word out.
Morgan F • Nov 28, 2009 @5:20 pm

If what Adrian has stated is true, and Evony has to prove that Bruce has harmed their image, then they have a long way to go.

I'd bet that many people would be willing to admit that their opinions of Evony are much lower than what Bruce has depicted. If on a scale of 1-10 Bruce has rated them a two, and my opinion of them is they're a 0, then Bruce has actually painted them in a good light. Perhaps he should charge them advertising fees.