Evony Drops Libel Lawsuit Against Blogger

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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Evony Drops Libel Lawsuit Against Blogger


Notorious online game Evony [http://www.evony.com/] says a negative reaction among its players led it to unexpectedly drop its libel lawsuit against a U.K. blogger, but some apparent weaknesses in its case may have had something to do with the decision as well.

Evony, the game with the ads with the boobs, sued [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94680-Evony-Sues-Blogger-for-Libel] industry veteran and blogger Bruce Everiss in September 2009 over a series of highly critical articles in which he accused it of ripping off other games, linked it to some unsavory gold farming operations and suggested that the Evony client could in fact be malware. Making matters worse, Evony, nominally an American company (it's registered in the state of Delaware, a well-known corporate tax haven) sued Everiss, who lives in the U.K., in an Australian court, where libel laws are slanted in favor of plaintiffs and Everiss would be hard-pressed to properly defend himself.

Yet as the hearing entered just its second day, Evony dropped the suit completely, issuing a statement saying it wouldn't pursue the case further in Australia or anywhere else. The decision was made, according to Benjamin Gifford, the "vice-development director of Evony's legal and intellectual proper strategic division," in response to a negative backlash from players. "A lot of our players expressed opinions about the lawsuit and we reacted to that," he said.

Sources say that Evony also didn't want any negative publicity weighing down the launch of the sequel, Evony: Age II, which is set for "imminent" release. Furthermore, there may have been concerns that the case wouldn't hold up to scrutiny: Lawyers representing Everiss revealed that Gifford's claim to have BA and MBA degrees weren't true and also established links between Evony and two other companies, one in New York and another in Hong Kong, suggesting that Evony has far more than the maximum of ten employees allowed under Australian libel law.

It's not necessarily the end of the line, as Evony must pay AU$80,000 ($73,400) in partial legal fees by April 12; failure to do so could result in a resumption of the case, although Everiss' legal team now says it believes it could win a summary judgment if that happens. Along with its own costs, Evony is also on the hook for Everiss' legal expenses, to the tune of AU$ 114,000 ($104,600).

"It has been a very difficult 8 months or so," Everiss wrote on his blog [http://www.bruceongames.com/]. "But all along I could take comfort and strength from the support of those named above and my family. And the knowledge that I had only reported the truth."

Source: Guardian.co.uk [http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/mar/31/evony-libel-case-bruce-everiss]


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MurderousToaster

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Aug 9, 2008
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Well, I wish they'd change those adverts. They're so damn misleading. I click on boobs, meaning I want boobs. Not RTS-style web games.
 

Jared

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Jul 14, 2009
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Marq said:
How the FUCK can an USA-registered company sue an UK citizen in an Australian court?

That doesn't make sense!
seriously...talk about dodgy...

Well, I'm all for the journalist because he is right...evony is no better than cons
 

Rednog

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Nov 3, 2008
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Marq said:
How the FUCK can an USA-registered company sue an UK citizen in an Australian court?

That doesn't make sense!
I seriously don't get things like this, I wonder if anyone with knowledge of legal systems can shed some light on how this is possible. I don't understand how Australia feels it has the right to enforce judgment/laws on citizens of other countries. And this isn't a singular case of something like this happening. I remember Encyclopedia Dramatica got sued in Australia too. Correct me if I'm wrong but if I'm living in another country and I have never been to Australia, then Australia should have absolutely no jurisdiction over me in any way shape or form.
I personally think they shouldn't even have the right to give you a summons to court if you have never been to Australia. Hell if it were me and they convicted me of a crime saying that I broke X laws, was sentenced to Y years in jail, and had to pay Z fine I would tell them to blow me and hope that my country would laugh in their face.
 

SomeUnregPunk

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Marq said:
How the FUCK can an USA-registered company sue an UK citizen in an Australian court?

That doesn't make sense!
Ask an international lawyer to explain that mess to you. Anyone else will just befuddle you.

---

I just want Evony to die because of those damn ads. I'm hoping they don't pay in time and is forced back into the case.
 

BurroDiablo

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Marq said:
How the FUCK can an USA-registered company sue an UK citizen in an Australian court?

That doesn't make sense!
My thoughts exactly. I find it funny that the guys at Evony know much too much about legal processes, they're probably well equipt for matters like this in order to get a quick buck off anybody who wrongs them. I'd like to have seen a UK company try and do this to an American who made defamatory accusations.

SomeUnregPunk said:
I just want Evony to die because of those damn ads. I'm hoping they don't pay in time and is forced back into the case.
I feel they're going down hill, I don't see quite so many Evony ads as I used to say, 8-10 months ago. It's all been replaced by fucking teeth whitening and weight loss ads.
 

AgentNein

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Hey pal, good article. Real informative. Might want to change that pic though, or if you keep it add a NSFW tag? Because you know, some of us are at work, and sometimes work and random boobs popping up on their computer monitors can be an issue. You know. KThx
 

JourneyThroughHell

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I really hope those guys go bankrupt or something. I mean, it's one thing to mislead people with bullshit advertisements, but it's another thing to sue people over completely legitimate blog posts.
Good to hear that they dropped the charges.
 

Tairan

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I hate those adverts they put it on websites that children play, iv seen it.
 

Jinx_Dragon

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Rednog said:
I seriously don't get things like this, I wonder if anyone with knowledge of legal systems can shed some light on how this is possible. I don't understand how Australia feels it has the right to enforce judgment/laws on citizens of other countries. And this isn't a singular case of something like this happening. I remember Encyclopedia Dramatica got sued in Australia too. Correct me if I'm wrong but if I'm living in another country and I have never been to Australia, then Australia should have absolutely no jurisdiction over me in any way shape or form.
I personally think they shouldn't even have the right to give you a summons to court if you have never been to Australia. Hell if it were me and they convicted me of a crime saying that I broke X laws, was sentenced to Y years in jail, and had to pay Z fine I would tell them to blow me and hope that my country would laugh in their face.
If I remember right... only a few country extradites over matters of non-violent crimes. This wasn't even a criminal case, it was a civil one, so the UK would be even less likely to extradite for 'contempt of court' of he told the court to go screw itself and refused to pay. True he won't be able to go to Australia after that but that just means he won't 'accentually get killed.'

Vague references are vague.
 

Therumancer

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Nov 28, 2007
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I have some issues with the whole idea of the guy being sued for expressing his opinion and the way it was done internationally.

I think the issue isn't just with Evony but with free speech laws. I also think the guidelines for accusing someone of Libel, Slander or Defamation of Character or whatever are generally too loose and too easily abused as a punkhammer for businesses and such to silence opposition due to the costs and difficulty of legal defense.

Any way it goes, I don't play Evony, but I'm not going to begrudge them for making a game (even a derivitive one) or it's player based from enjoying it. As far as the game being sold with fantasy erotica, it's been turned into a pretty funny joke, but honestly it wouldn't be the first time game packaging had minimal connection with the game content itself. For example putting busty barbarian swordswomen on the cover of a general fantasy RPG that might not even involve a busty barbarian swordswoman in any meaningful way. Heck, depending on the era the game might even be entirely text based.

The Libel suit was going too far, but at the same time I think just because Evony is a crappy game (hard to say, I haven't played it) doesn't mean it should be relentlessly harassed for it's ads.

Heck, even though she was apparently a producer, Saint's Row 2 was heavily promoted by Tera Patrick as a member of the Saints, something which had nothing to do with the game until the later release of DLC. A lot of people wondered where she was supposed to be because of the promotion (before the DLC) but nobody was going "OMG, we must attack the game".

The point is that there is such a thing as false presentation, but I don't think Evony is really guilty of that. They are promoting a fantasy game with babe-centric fantasy art.
 

Pills_Here

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Dec 10, 2009
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I occasionally find out that certain friends of mine play Evony and I really can't describe the emotions that come out (something like shame or pity, but with a lot more laughing than either of those usually invoke).

I really just want to spend five dollars to buy them a copy of Civ3 just so that they'll be playing a better game (and learning city names while they're at it).
 

GrinningManiac

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Jun 11, 2009
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Mr. Everiss, I salute you

In the words of a very good JRPG all my friends play (and never SHUT UP about...)

[HEADING=2]REACH OUT TO THE TRUTH[/HEADING]

Doubly so, when the truth is advertised soley by busty female torsos
 

Poomanchu745

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MurderousToaster said:
Well, I wish they'd change those adverts. They're so damn misleading. I click on boobs, meaning I want boobs. Not RTS-style web games.
Well those boobs in the ad in this article are very misshapen and pretty weird looking tbh.
 

Rednog

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Jinx_Dragon said:
Rednog said:
I seriously don't get things like this, I wonder if anyone with knowledge of legal systems can shed some light on how this is possible. I don't understand how Australia feels it has the right to enforce judgment/laws on citizens of other countries. And this isn't a singular case of something like this happening. I remember Encyclopedia Dramatica got sued in Australia too. Correct me if I'm wrong but if I'm living in another country and I have never been to Australia, then Australia should have absolutely no jurisdiction over me in any way shape or form.
I personally think they shouldn't even have the right to give you a summons to court if you have never been to Australia. Hell if it were me and they convicted me of a crime saying that I broke X laws, was sentenced to Y years in jail, and had to pay Z fine I would tell them to blow me and hope that my country would laugh in their face.
If I remember right... only a few country extradites over matters of non-violent crimes. This wasn't even a criminal case, it was a civil one, so the UK would be even less likely to extradite for 'contempt of court' of he told the court to go screw itself and refused to pay. True he won't be able to go to Australia after that but...

means he won't accentually get killed.

Vague references are vague.
Non violent or not, I don't think that another country should have any say in the matter. Say I am an American and I slaughtered a Canadian in the UK. Say for some odd reason the family finds out and reports it to the police in Australia. In no way shape or form should the Australian police and or judicial system have absolutely any authority to convict me or sentence me for any crimes. At best they could tell the police in the UK of my crime, but that should be the furthest extent of their power. If I was running a country and Australia suddenly demanded something from my citizens even though those citizens have had nothing to do with Australia I would be incredibly offended and be outraged at Australia infringing on my citizens' rights.
 

Fappy

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You'd think Evony would be considered libel-proof at this point considering how the vast majority of the internet scrutinizes them for their add campaign anyway.
 

Jinx_Dragon

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Rednog said:
Non violent or not, I don't think that another country should have any say in the matter. Say I am an American and I slaughtered a Canadian in the UK. Say for some odd reason the family finds out and reports it to the police in Australia. In no way shape or form should the Australian police and or judicial system have absolutely any authority to convict me or sentence me for any crimes. At best they could tell the police in the UK of my crime, but that should be the furthest extent of their power. If I was running a country and Australia suddenly demanded something from my citizens even though those citizens have had nothing to do with Australia I would be incredibly offended and be outraged at Australia infringing on my citizens' rights.
Nor would the Australian courts touch you for such a case. See this comes down to a loophole in the 'location of crime' part of the law. Us Magna Carta countries agree that the case should be tried in the very city the crime itself was committed. Unless of course, the defence can argue that the jury of said area would be unfairly bias but that is a side point.

The problem here is that the Internet itself is technically anywhere, and everywhere, that it can be accessed. For this reason they can file in Australian courts because the article can be read in Australia. Hence they can, and did, argue the 'crime' of libel also happened in Australia and so the court do have jurisdiction.

Don't get me wrong, I think it is pretty stupid as well, just stating how it is. What we do need is a international court of law that holds power over such matters that cross international boundaries. Not going to happen for a long while given that many countries feel such courts are 'stealing' their sovereignty somehow and refuse to recognise the international courts we do have.

Likely such a court wouldn't focus on civil issues though, you know having crimes like people smuggling or terrorism to deal with. Hence they would, at the very most, have said to hold it in a US or UK court where it should of been in the first place. Either of these courts would of thrown it out completely, as Australia should have.