Agoraphobic PS3 Owner Sues Sony over PSN Ban

[LilGherkin]

$55,000 sounds like a far too overpriced damage fee for a free online game service that he could just sign himself back up for if he's willing to change a few details.

If I were the lawyer for him I'd be burying my hand in my face and just shaking my head back and forth saying to myself, "You've gotta be kidding me..."

 

[roboosh]

Firstly, I think fear of crowds is actually demophobia (at least that's what the Call of Cthulhu rpg book's section on phobias says).
Secondly, as pointed out by several others, you sign an agreement when sign up, so he's breached that if he's behaved wrong.

Yeah, agoraphobia is fear of the outdoors I believe.

 

[squid5580]

*Fanboy mode on*
Just buy an Xbox
*Fanboy mode off*

Because the 360 only bans you if your gay.

Correction MS bans you for breaking the rules. Don't confuse one with the other.

 

[Graustein]

Oh for fuck's sake.

You do not have freedom of speech on a public forum. When you sign up, you agree to abide by their rules, and they reserve the right to ban you if you violate those rules. It's as simple as that. The rules are not to be lifted just because you have a mental disorder and being banned would cause you to suffer more than the average person. If that's the case, then the onus would be on you to avoid getting banned, hmm?

Of course, I don't know what he did to deserve being banned. It may very well be true that he didn't deserve it, which still isn't grounds to sue them in my book.

 

[Joshimodo]

Freedom of speech? Does he realise there's a TOS list he has to accept before going on anything online?

Besides, he needs to get a decent online game before he has anything to complain about.

 

[Hyrulian Hero]

in almost ever User Agreement based on something that involves social interaction (WoW, XBL, PSN, etc...) you have to agree to a clause that says you will not impeed the ability of others to enjoy the interaction. That is how they can rightfully and LEGALLY ban anyone that cheats, swears, boots or drops from games, or spams stupid messages. If at least one other person had a worse experience because of his behavior, then they can rightfully ban him and don't have to pay him anything.

And as for his social interaction. It's called Myspace! Go talk to all the other losers that want to interact with other human beings without actually having to go near other human beings.

 

[Natsu_Blaze]

Firstly, I think fear of crowds is actually demophobia (at least that's what the Call of Cthulhu rpg book's section on phobias says).
Secondly, as pointed out by several others, you sign an agreement when sign up, so he's breached that if he's behaved wrong.

Yeah, agoraphobia is fear of the outdoors I believe.

As someone who just took a psych 101 course (and aced it ^_^v)...
Agoraphobia, lit. "fear of the marketplace". Fear of wide open spaces, particularly without a visible/defined escape route.
Basically, it means this guy has a "home base" or two and is petrified of leaving them. Agoraphobia also usually comes bundled with anxiety disorder (panic attacks, basically), so in short it's difficult to impossible for him to leave the house.

It's a real psychiatric condition, all right. As somebody with one myself (Asperger's), I can understand sort of his need for networking. But if you shoot yourself in the foot, nobody's going to help you sue the gun makers. Moron should have his case thrown out at preliminary hearing. Sure, sucks to be him, but if you do stupid things you get punished. That's how the world is.
*sigh* except this is America, where somebody won thousands of dollars in a lawsuit over a cup of hot coffee that didn't say "Warning! Hot coffee is hot!"

 

[axia777]

He is an asshat. He signed the EULA. He broke the EULA with his bad behavior. Freedom of Speech? Private Corporations don't have to respect our Freedom of Speech. He got banned. HAHAHAHA. End of story.

 

[Ariyura]

I doubt he read the user agreement when he clicked okay and made his account. Most user agreements state that the can ban you and or change the agreement at any time during the term of service without having to report that fact to you right away.

Besides PSN is free and he can set up as many accounts as he wants. Why not just make another account and move on if it's causing so much stress.

 

[Brotherofwill]

*Fanboy mode on*
Just buy an Xbox
*Fanboy mode off*

Yeah you're right, he would obviously be around like-minded people on live. Cough-bloody-cough.

The American way of suing just has to stop, it's just getting more ridiculous. When will it stop?

 

[Satin6T]

I can see the kids point if he does have those medical illnesses but $55,000 is pushing it, just get yourself re-instated on PSN and don't exercise your "inappropriate behavior" any more.

This is really all I could say.
If he got banned, it's his fault. Not Sony's.

No one told him to behave inappropraitly.

plus they usually have guidelines

guidelines that nobody ever reads

 

[DazedAndConfused]

I genuinely feel sorry for him. He actually believes, in his tiny little mind, that his case has a leg to stand on. The funniest thing is by the time the court case is finished, his ban probably would have been lifted anyway. Just take the couple-day ban like everyone else, it's not a court-worthy matter.

If he gets that $55k, I'm gonna rip off my face and mail it to him. You guys really need to set up a proper ADR system over there, it keeps pathetic stuff like this out of our courts.

 

[AbsoluteVirtue18]

Honestly, is there a firm of lawyers who take cases like this? This reminds me of that story where the girl sued her dad because he grounded her from a school trip.

Also, love the new avatar, Keane.

 

[kibayasu]

Yet another person who thinks the First Amendment applies to private businesses and spaces? It's always funny when people skip over that "Congress" part...

 

[Heart of Darkness]

...Really. It's these people that give Americans a bad name. Not only could he have taken this more as a "I shouldn't do this thing anymore and I should change for the better" kind of deal, but also he could have actually read the ToS or equivalent and find out why he was banned.

Off topic, I could've sworn this article was titled "Autographed PS3 Owner etc." Stupid monitor cutting off the bottom half of the letters at the bottom of my screen....

 

[bue519]

*Fanboy mode on*
Just buy an Xbox
*Fanboy mode off*

Because the 360 only bans you if your gay.

Correction MS bans you for breaking the rules. Don't confuse one with the other.

So being not a lesbian is a rule?

 

[smithy1234]

If he really suffers from all these afflictions then I can kinda get why he would want his PSN back. I can bet that his lawyer probably pushed for the extra cash grab so probably not the kids fault.

 

[Gerazzi]

*Fanboy mode on*
Just buy an Xbox
*Fanboy mode off*

Because the 360 only bans you if your gay.

Correction MS bans you for breaking the rules. Don't confuse one with the other.

So being not a lesbian is a rule?

I'm terribly confused, but I have been dying to link to this video [http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1907543]

Did they ban lesbians once? For what reasons?


Also, if he was banned from Resistance it would take a lot.

I reported someone once for racist and sexist comments, not to mention generally being the kind of person who was just taking a break from trolling /b/.
He never got banned and I had to put him on my ignore list in order to keep it under control.

/rant.

There are also EULAs and things like that, so the lawsuit won't go through

 

[Devil's Due]

Woo, go little man! Fight Sony for banning you from their forums! It's not like they have a right to!

 

[bue519]

*Fanboy mode on*
Just buy an Xbox
*Fanboy mode off*

Because the 360 only bans you if your gay.

Correction MS bans you for breaking the rules. Don't confuse one with the other.

So being not a lesbian is a rule?

I'm terribly confused, but I have been dying to link to this video [http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1907543]

Did they ban lesbians once? For what reasons?


Also, if he was banned from Resistance it would take a lot.

I reported someone once for racist and sexist comments, not to mention generally being the kind of person who was just taking a break from trolling /b/.
He never got banned and I had to put him on my ignore list in order to keep it under control.

/rant.

There are also EULAs and things like that, so the lawsuit won't go through

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/02/26/consumerist-self-identified-lesbian-banned-from-xbox-live/
boosh