This little bit of news came to me today. It made my day.  Helton is a piece of garbage who has been writing as a "games journalist" on RPGs for a long time now, and was one of the first people to call for me to be blacklisted when it came out that I was one of the Consultants on 5th edition D&D.

He was one of a group of SJWs who had been trying to defame Bill Webb and Frog God Games while trying to pressure Steve Jackson Games into dropping their collaboration with Frog God.  So Frog God/Webb reached out to Ty Beard, a lawyer who is becoming increasingly famous for taking on cases of fighting back against SJW harassment and false accusations.  And Beard shared this tweet today, specifically stating that he looks forward to "discussing" Helton's allegations against Webb "under oath".

Marvelous.

Oh, and icing on the cake: they're suing Stacy Dellorfano and Jessica Price too!


RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Ashton Old Church Rhodesian + C&D's Crowley's Best

Some critical fail rolls were made by some.

Fire in the hole!!!  Haha!!!

Oh God make this happen please.  Those people ruined so many lives.

If you read your own forum more, you would have known this last night...

But I am skeptical much will come of this, given that it's people all over the country. They aren't going to fly in to Texas for a trial.

To me it's the shock and awe from the SJWs in the hobby. How dare Bil Webb, FGG and SJGames dare to defend themselves. After all they should have have bent over backwards to accommodate their and ever gamer SJWs feelings on the matter. They would have lost money if they did do that. Too damn bad all that matters in life is based on "reasons and feels" and not profit.

BTW Pundit you are on Chris Helton radar you should feel proud. I guess since Pundit is also not bending over backwards to accommodate Helton demand for a safe space he and we are bad people. https://twitter.com/JCTXS/status/1120942629313818625/photo/1 .

Quote from: JeremyR;1084499If you read your own forum more, you would have known this last night...

But I am skeptical much will come of this, given that it's people all over the country. They aren't going to fly in to Texas for a trial.

The framework for handling lawsuits when the parties are located in different states is well-established and robust, so the case isn't going to fall apart if the defendants choose not to show up.  However, that doesn't mean the defendants will have to move to Texas for the duration of the suit or anything like that.  Some form of teleconferencing is commonly used for things like depositions, and a lot of things can be handled by lawyers in Texas.

My recommendations: subscribe to Nick Reiketa's channel on youtube, watch it like a hawk.  When he does his Lawsplaining the Internet streams, which are long and late at night (but he re-uploads them) any with Ty Beard will likely have more information as the case goes on.  Keep an eye on the very weird website "kiwi farms"; they have a Games sub-forum where they're talking about this.  I went down a rabbit hole this morning; Reiketa and Ty Beard both have given thanks to kiwi farms for helping them archive stuff in the Vic Mignogna case, and they are interested in the RPG suit case too, and have started to talk about it.  While they have their own forum culture there one thing is they really, really stay on top of information.

Also I think if they defendants don't bother showing up in Texas or responding, it is a summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs.

Finally, this isn't defamation, don't mistake it.  This is Tortious Interference which is going to be a lot easier to prove.  Defamation strays into the area of free speech.  See, I can say, "I think Pundit is a cockholster who shouldn't get one one-billionth of the fame he has because he's a transphobe" and that's protected speech.  However, if I call up (say) his print shop that does his various RPGs and tell them "You should drop his business, he's a transphobe, it would be better for you to do that" and they terminate that business agreement...that's TI.  

N.b.: Pundit's not a transphobe, I was using that as an outrageous example.

But yeah, Dellaforino, Helton and Price better brace for impact.

Good.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;1084525My recommendations: subscribe to Nick Reiketa's channel on youtube, watch it like a hawk.  When he does his Lawsplaining the Internet streams, which are long and late at night (but he re-uploads them) any with Ty Beard will likely have more information as the case goes on.  Keep an eye on the very weird website "kiwi farms"; they have a Games sub-forum where they're talking about this.  I went down a rabbit hole this morning; Reiketa and Ty Beard both have given thanks to kiwi farms for helping them archive stuff in the Vic Mignogna case, and they are interested in the RPG suit case too, and have started to talk about it.  While they have their own forum culture there one thing is they really, really stay on top of information.

Second both of these great recommendations. The Farms link to the sub-forum dedicated just to what they have named the "Weeb Wars" is: https://kiwifarms.net/forums/weeb-wars.98/

This is the Rekieta law channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbkjX3E0IhuUfPzL0FjSPaw/videos

Quote from: thedungeondelver;1084525Also I think if they defendants don't bother showing up in Texas or responding, it is a summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs.

I doubt they'll sue in Texas. If they were to do so, unless the Defendants are also in Texas, the defendants would have an argument for lack of personal jurisdiction which would make even summary judgment not a slam dunk. (The defendant could do what's called a collateral attack when the plaintiff goes to enforce the judgment, asserting that the judgment was improperly granted for lack of personal jurisdiction.)

What they'll likely do is sue in Federal Court siting in diversity in the defendant's state. If they do sue in Texas, and the defedant's lawyer is not a moron, he'll show up, claim there's no personal jurisdiction, and then if that fails, move for transfer of venue back to his own turf, which the court would be likely to grant.

It'll be an interesting process.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;1084525However, if I call up (say) his print shop that does his various RPGs and tell them "You should drop his business, he's a transphobe, it would be better for you to do that" and they terminate that business agreement...that's TI.  

N.b.: Pundit's not a transphobe, I was using that as an outrageous example.

Not necessarily. One of the elements in TI is that the interference must be improper. Not just any interference. In the 3rd Restatement of Torts, an example given is something along the lines of "D could refuse to do business with P after learning that P has a contract or business relationship with an organization that D finds morally distasteful. D knows that his business is worth more to P than the other organization's and that his refusal to deal is substantially certain to cause P to terminate his contractual or business relationship with the other organization. Since his motivation is not improper, P's actions would not satisfy a claim of tortious interference by the other organization."

However, Restatements are not law, so it depends on what the common law (not the statutory law, although that is also important) of the state sued in actually says. So, again, it could be TI, but it is not likely, as a matter of law found to be TI. So the fact-finder (i.e., Jury) would have to make a decision.

Quote from: Tanin Wulf;1084533Not necessarily. One of the elements in TI is that the interference must be improper. Not just any interference. In the 3rd Restatement of Torts, an example given is something along the lines of "D could refuse to do business with P after learning that P has a contract or business relationship with an organization that D finds morally distasteful. D knows that his business is worth more to P than the other organization's and that his refusal to deal is substantially certain to cause P to terminate his contractual or business relationship with the other organization. Since his motivation is not improper, P's actions would not satisfy a claim of tortious interference by the other organization."

However, Restatements are not law, so it depends on what the common law (not the statutory law, although that is also important) of the state sued in actually says. So, again, it could be TI, but it is not likely, as a matter of law found to be TI. So the fact-finder (i.e., Jury) would have to make a decision.

Ahh...that is interesting, I did not realize that.  A little less cut and dried than I thought.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;1084525Keep an eye on the very weird website "kiwi farms"; they have a Games sub-forum where they're talking about this.  I went down a rabbit hole this morning; Reiketa and Ty Beard both have given thanks to kiwi farms for helping them archive stuff in the Vic Mignogna case, and they are interested in the RPG suit case too, and have started to talk about it.  While they have their own forum culture there one thing is they really, really stay on top of information.

Honestly, KiwiFarms is not an ally I would like to have. It is a site populated by the same kinds of amoral shitheads you would find on 4chan and Something Awful, engaging in doxxing and some pretty psychotic stalking behaviour.

Quote from: Melan;1084536Honestly, KiwiFarms is not an ally I would like to have. It is a site populated by the same kinds of amoral shitheads you would find on 4chan and Something Awful, engaging in doxxing and some pretty psychotic stalking behaviour.

I had heard that but never gotten "close enough" to really dig in to it.