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points by FLeXMurphy 1 day ago | 0 comments
It does not work that way. This is not the same when Thiel was financing the anti-Gawker lawsuit.

This has no direct precedents and the case and the lawyers involved need to be chosen carefully, because once the precedent is set it is used by the courts for ruling subsequent cases. You don't want a sloppy lawyer, and the case has to be bullet proof, the judges known in advance (hence why certain districts are chosen for certain types of cases) and so on.

A case of this sort would bring into question so many non-game related things, more related to recent AI copyright and IP theft, that it would far exceed what Valve would be able to bring forward in terms of an argument anyway. Computer game mechanics and game designs are already on thin ice in terms of copyright.

Valve isn't going to fund this, and it is not how legal works.

[–] bluGill 1 day ago
> once the precedent is set

One case does not a precedent set. Sure one case is a precedent and whichever lawyer it helps will be sure the judge knows about it. However any opposing lawyer will find plenty of details that are "different" and thus the judge should ignore it.

In the US you need to go all the way to the supreme court to get a binding precedent. However the supreme court wants to see a lot of other judge's with lots of different things considered before they set a binding precedent. They are well aware that they don't want to get this wrong and so want to review the thinking of a lot of different judges in lots of different circumstances so they can get the precedent right.

the other way to get a binding precedent is if lots of different cases refer to it and all get the same result and so there is no controversy.

[–] FLeXMurphy 1 day ago
Of course there are variances and the legal teams will find everything they can. But we're not talking about hundreds. I wanted to keep it simple for the crowd here, and furthermore a judge can look through the legal bullshit which they often do. Think about for example the way that Alsup handles his cases compared to the way a "stereotypical judge" is portrayed.

As an aside, other posters keep saying how Valve can regardless finance or file or whatever a lawsuit. Yes. Anyone can. It doesn't mean they will win. Lawsuits happen all the time brought upon by people who are wasting their time and money.

[–] maxbond 1 day ago
We're simply imagining different cases. I'm thinking about straightforward copyright violations I've read about recently in the games industry.

Regardless, I don't see why Valve couldn't fund a lawsuit based on a novel legal theory.

[–] FLeXMurphy 1 day ago
Share links to these violations, cases, case outcomes, etc.

I don't know why people are downvoting me. Folks, Valve aren't going to fund these lawsuits. It's a fantasy.

Edit: I keep trying to reply to you but you keep removing them before I can! It isn't personal in any way. I am simply looking to see what the arguments were and whether it was an already-released game having its assets stolen, vs. a game that is not yet released being knocked off with AI, vs. something else. I wanted to see what the cases actually played out like.

One of the threats that is highlighted in the article posted is that they want to extort games which are not yet released. Which is certainly juicy in its own right.

[–] maxbond 1 day ago
It's not personal for me either, but I am going to let you satisfy your curiosity on your own.
[–] hluska 1 day ago
Absolutely nothing that you wrote precludes Valve from funding a lawsuit. You wrote a cost-benefit analysis.