Default judgement of $3.6 million awarded to Nexon in the case against pserver

[byakugan]

Look it seems Nexon is greedy even to hire a competent lawyer. I just had to read a little info from here about the trial to see that. In a past time I would have been with Nexon on this as there is no way to justify others for stealing their property, but right now, all it looks like is an attempt to bring back potential customers by force and raise their profit, instead of luring them back by improving the quality of the game with something more than patches which only work as bandaids over an infected wound.

I think it was Valve the one that, when asked about their stance about SOPA said "the best way to fight against piracy is to provide a better service then the pirates". So much truth in that.

Anyway, is there any data about the lawsuit Nexon started against that famous group of hack developers? Even if the game crumbled down and years passed since the last time I played, I'd still dance to hearing they all got sentenced for this much or even more.

[Shidoshi]

Specially if you take into account that a lot of people who play in a private server either have an account on MS as well, or only play the PS because of the perks (100x exp or whatever, free NX items, active GMs, events), and wouldn't play MS on the official servers anyway.

That's basically the same argument people would want to use when fighting against copyright infringement accusations for music or video downloads. Just because you have 1000+ songs in your computer doesn't mean you would have ever bought them if you didn't have access through pirating. Case in point:

this case does provide an excellent example of the ridiculousness of anti-circumvention statutory damages. $3.4M can't be the right damages award in this case, and it's so guffaw-inducing that it further erodes the legitimacy of our copyright rules.

[Killed]

Anyway, is there any data about the lawsuit Nexon started against that famous group of hack developers? Even if the game crumbled down and years passed since the last time I played, I'd still dance to hearing they all got sentenced for this much or even more.

http://www.rfcexpress.com/lawsuits/c...nwall/summary/

All they've been doing recently is adding in regular moderators they can get info about to their "list", but still don't even know info about some of the current admins.

[Eos]

What proceedings did the court take after the defendant was in absentia? Were any preemptive notifications given to the defendant before the court case? I think stupidity is showing from both sides.

You don't show, you get a default judgment. That's what actions the court took. You don't get a slap on the wrist and "please show up next time, we'll reschedule at your convenience".

You could actually go read the trial document; http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/0...91-ODW-PJW.pdf

Plaintiff has satisfied the procedural requirements for default judgment pursuant
to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 55(a) and Local Rule 55-1. Specifically, Plaintiff
established that (1) the clerk entered default against Defendant on February 7, 20121;
(2) the default is based on Defendants’ failure to respond to Plaintiff’s December 22,
2012 Amended Complaint; (3) Defendants are neither infants nor incompetent
persons; (4) Defendants are neither members of the U.S. Military nor otherwise
exempted under the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act of 1940; and (5) Plaintiff
served Defendants with notice of its application for default judgment by mailing a
copy of the Motion and all supporting documents to Defendants’ home addresses.

Finally, the Court finds
that Defendants’ failure to answer or file a responsive pleading was not the result of
excusable neglect because Defendants failed to respond despite repeated notice of this
action and their infringing conduct. (Mot. 17–18.) Accordingly, Plaintiff’s Motion
for Default Judgment is GRANTED as to liability.

What I found interesting is the court rejected Nexon's "proof" about income from UMaple, saying that the paypal, alertpay and google adsense accounts that the defendents had setup were not demonstrated to contain profits solely from UMaple or even in conjunction with. "Plaintiff only satisfactorily proves that $398.98 in profits from Google was reasonably related to Kumar’s infringement." lol.

So... Denied the request for the 60K in profits, reduced it down to $400, but then applied the statutory minimum damages of several million per the "In lieu of actual damages and profits" clause of the DMCA.

Nexon also got shot down on their attorney's fees.

Calculated pursuant to Local Rule 55-3, Plaintiff’s “reasonable” attorney’s fee in this case would be $77,359.98.3 The Court deems this amount patently unreasonable in light of the amount of substantive work this case demanded. This case was filed on August 24, 2011, and thus is barely eight months old. Because Plaintiffs have prevailed in this case upon entry of default, Plaintiff’s counsel necessarily has expended little substantive effort on the prosecution of this action.

ie: Your sorry ass did no work and won by default, put your money grubbing paws elsewhere. They gave them 30 days to submit an itemized invoice of attorneys fees proving actual cost.

I don't agree with the theory that 17,938 accounts equals that many members or that many cases of infringement, but alas, the defendant didn't bother to contest it. Tempted to pay for the exhibits just to see what was submitted.

http://www.rfcexpress.com/lawsuits/c...nwall/summary/

All they've been doing recently is adding in regular moderators they can get info about to their "list", but still don't even know info about some of the current admins.

Actually as of yesterday you'll note they've asked for default judgments against the identified defendants, just as they did in this case.

[Sarah]

Looks like these guys actually intend to fight back.

Also, having read more of that actual court document this seems like it should have been horribly embarrassing for Nexon. This judge really ripped into their pomegranatety lawyers.

[Eos]

Also, having read more of that actual court document this seems like it should have been horribly embarrassing for Nexon. This judge really ripped into their pomegranatety lawyers.

Yes, yes they did. It was great comedy.

Looks like these guys actually intend to fight back.

Have you read the 19 page rebuttal? I'm still debating getting it, but more inclined to wait for the reply that rips it to shreds.

[Sarah]

Have you read the 19 page rebuttal? I'm still debating getting it, but more inclined to wait for the reply that rips it to shreds.

Nope! You should get it and sum it up for the masses.

[Eos]

Nope! You should get it and sum it up for the masses.

Eh, considering it.

[byakugan]

Maybe Nexon thought that the case was so easy to win that there was no point preparing or working for it. See stupid Nexon? this is what happens when you decide to save money and hiring a cheap lawler.

Thinking about that... is it in any of the pages about the trial, the reason why the defendant didn't show up? Maybe it was Nexon's that kept thim from showing up, sounds pretty convenient considering how bad they did

[Eos]

Thinking about that... is it in any of the pages about the trial, the reason why the defendant didn't show up? Maybe it was Nexon's that kept thim from showing up, sounds pretty convenient considering how bad they did

They didn't just not show up, they didn't reply at all. They were sent several notices of the legal proceedings and failed to defend themselves in any way.

[happylight]

So probably they're in a foreign country and couldn't care less, or they're 15-year-old kids who're sticking their heads in the sand.
Either way Nexon's not gonna see a penny out of this.

[Eos]

Never rule out "stupid college kid who wasn't aware the rules of the real world have actually begun to apply to them".

[Spiral]

"MapleStory, of course, asked for the statutory maximum of $44,845,000, which the court refuses to grant. In fact, the judge chides MapleStory for its request for the maximum -- even to the point of noting that the arguments by MapleStory make it 'question very seriously whether Plaintiff intended to actively mislead the Court or whether these oversights were merely the result of poor legal research.' "

"this case does provide an excellent example of the ridiculousness of anti-circumvention statutory damages. $3.4M can't be the right damages award in this case, and it's so guffaw-inducing that it further erodes the legitimacy of our copyright rules."

You guys may think this is a win or whatever for Nexon, but it's also kind of pathetic of them. Oh no they stole a potential $68,000 from us even though we make millions, let's sue them for $44 million.

Exactly. I could understand suing OdinMS and the other source creators, but this is a bit ridiculous. As they say when considering an Intellectual Property lawsuit, is it worth it? Was it really worth suing probably a few kids for $3.4 million dollars over a measly sum that is probably exaggerated? We all know the DMCA is bullpomegranate and needs to be thrown out and replaced with something that is sane and fair. I think Nexon underestimates the amount of damage they do to their reputation by filing lawsuits against children/teenagers/young adults. Looks like someone is taking a cue from the record labels.

[ChronosXIII]

~$45,000,000... I don't remember exactly what they made last quarter, but isn't that close to approximately half of what they made in that quarter? They really think a private server caused that much in potential profit losses? Pfffft.

Ahahaha, from reading the trial document, it seems even the courts are tired of Nexon's bull. "These 252 pages of documents, but where's the evidence? Haha, no."
Hell, they actually didn't even want to give them the statutory minimum? Wow. DEM Nexon lawyers. Although, $3,000,000 is a windfall for Nexon? Huh?

Lol, I bet Nexon is just going to create an even more outrageous "attorney and staff hourly wages" on their affidavit. Geezus, they are so greedy.

[DamageCalc]

The big problem nexon has is the "private server players" are nomad's. They expect every server to shut down, they just refuse to go back to GMS because of the ridiculously retarded methods of playing. It's sad when a private server is more legit than the main server.

But joe, of course nexon is attacking them for money, they called their bluff, and nexon went for their throat. It's not a question of greed in my opinion, just nexon finally showing it's fangs.

Cause this is Nexon's first time sueing a pserver, right?

-eye roll-

Examples my ass.

[Rick]

Read the whole document and feel the courts would have given Nexon nothing if they legally could.

[KhainiWest]

Cause this is Nexon's first time sueing a pserver, right?

-eye roll-

Examples my ass.

Ignorance is bliss, I won't ruin it for you

[koplje]

Never heard of this private server, I'm surprised they're not going for the REALLY big private servers out there.

[Eos]

Never heard of this private server, I'm surprised they're not going for the REALLY big private servers out there.

Consider your statement and put some basic facts together.

• They have multiple suits already in progress.
• In order to sue anyone they have to be able to identify who they're suing
• In order to do a discovery process they have to have legal representation where the infringement is occurring or have some other means of specifically identifying the infringing parties, who also must be in an area they have legal representation or can pursue legal action.

[ZeekFox]

I gotta say, though I'm no lawyer, perhaps if the defendant had showed up, they could have at least pleaded some case. I'm looking up some anti-circumvention stuff, and for the most part, it talks about removing locks and copy-protection and whatnot, but doesn't mention anything about connecting to a different IP address other than the one of the original copyright holder. It seems that they could be able to argue that not every 17K registered user is an anti-circumvention charge against them since the only thing each player needs is a new client, whereas all the real work goes into developing the server source code.