Yesterday Evony dropped its libel case against blogger Bruce Everiss that was in its second day in an Australian court. They now have 12 days to pay costs of A$114,000 or risk having the case resume. This has been a very important case for bloggers for a few reasons. Evony was accused of libel tourism, which means that they more or less shopped around the court systems of the world in order to find one in which they thought they had the most chance of winning. Evony is a Chinese company, which registered as a company in Delware USA after they initiated court proceedings against Everiss, a blogger living in the UK who had never been to Australia. You have probably seen Evony’s advertisements around the net, the ones that feature half naked buxon women telling you to “Save me my lord”. If you are not familiar with this game or the company itself, here is Bruces blog. He has done a fine job of digging this all up.
So here we have a gaming blogger being taken to court and sued by a game company, although a most obviously shady one at that. To be taken to court is one thing, to be taken to court in a foreign country whose court has no connection with either the plaintiff or the defendant is somewhat troubling. Needless to say, Bruce won. But it has obviously been a tough 8 months, with a lot of financial and psychological pressure. It is an interesting period for law. With the rise of the internet and the ease of communication all around the world, court systems are being faced with the unusual situation of these types of libel tourism. It will take some time for precedents to be set before the situation clarifies itself, and in the meantime we as bloggers could find ourselves in the firing line for something which we blog about.
I will continue to blog in my own irreverent way, as I am sure that most of you will also do. But it is important to know that these things are happening, and in case you find yourself in the same situation you have some sort of reference to go on. Here are some very interesting links that are worth reading. It may well be worth your time.
Excellent article on the case.
Transcript of the Law Report, an Australian radio program.
April 1, 2010 at 10:24 am
Whether they win or lose the case, Evony will have succeeded in intimidating other bloggers out of writing anything that could earn them similar treatment.
This is the main problem with our legal system in the west (especially England where I’m from). Rich companies can use it to bully the little guy into compliance simply because the average person cannot afford legal costs.
April 1, 2010 at 11:43 am
Libel tourism is a worrying development but consider both sides of the argument.
The net doesn’t have the traditional bounds such as country borders. Someone on the other side of the world could say something about you that is untrue and damaging to your reputation. If you seek reparation in your own country is that not the same as libel tourism ? It’s not exactly, but the measures required to stop libel tourism could effect your ability to protect yourself using resources where you live.
We could centralise and have one liable system, world wide, and pertaining only to the net but that smacks of a brave new world.
It’s a tricky situation.
April 1, 2010 at 12:23 pm
“Someone on the other side of the world could say something about you that is untrue and damaging to your reputation.”
But untrue and damaging to your reputation where exactly, and to whom? 80% of Everiss’s readers are in the USA, as are most of the Evoney players. That leads me to believe that if there is a case to answer for the logical place to try it would be in the USA.
I think a part of Everiss’s problem is that his blog is in his name and he is easily identifiable. If someone wants to sue me, who are they sueing? The noisy rogue? Someone called Adam? All I needed to start this blog was an emial address for wordpress. I could be anybody.
As is the case with Evony. Nobody really knows who owns the company behind the game. If trhe games want to play by those rules then the logical thing for bloggers to do is to hide behind the same degree of annonymity.
April 1, 2010 at 11:28 pm
I was thinking of the broader implications rather than the specific case. I read the links you put in the post and I have no sympathy for the company in question and every sympathy for Everiss.
What I was getting at is something I come across in my professional life all the time. The net is ubiquitous and yet law and the implementation of law are not. In the world of the net, there is no country boundaries or local law so how do we enact fair and reasonable justice ?
In the example I gave, rather than thinking of someone suing you I was thinking about you justifiably defending yourself against someone, somewhere slandering your name to the extent it had real material effect. If the net is the medium of such slander there is no legal system that works across the world.
If I gave the impression that I had any sympathy for that company then I didn’t explain myself well enough.
April 2, 2010 at 7:25 am
Clear point. It is interesting, to be sure. The cornerstone of the net is that it is not regulated, that anyone can start a site and put something up. That freedom could well be eroded under the guise of legalities such as these. Regarding the internet in its present form, I sometimes wonder if we are living in a wonderful time that may never be repeated.