November 16, 2007
Jack Thompson wants to sue me.
For a million bucks.
He also wants to sue the ECA, which represents video game consumers and is the parent company of GamePolitics.
Yesterday, the controversial Miami attorney filed a motion with the U.S. District Court in Florida seeking to add myself and the ECA as defendants in his ongoing lawsuit against the Florida Bar.
The Bar, as reported by GamePolitics, has disciplinary proceedings in the works which could see Thompson lose his license to practice law. Thompson's Bar trial before a referee appointed by the Florida Supreme Court is scheduled to begin on November 26th. Thompson is also suing that referee, Judge Dava Tunis.
So, what does Thompson allege that GP and the ECA did? That's a bit unclear. He seems to hang his hat on the fact that I filed a Bar complaint against him in April, 2006. The Bar investigated my complaint for several months before opting not to proceed on it. From yesterday's Thompson court filing:
One of Thompson’s SLAPP Bar complainants has been Dennis McCauley, who owns and operates the video game industry apologist site... GamePolitics is owned by the ECA, which is the Entertainment Consumers Association. The ECA is part of the collaborative effort within the industry to disbar Thompson. The ECA represents retailers and others who seek the continued distribution of Mature-rated video games to minors.
Wow. Quite a few inaccuracies in Thompson's opening paragraph...
For reasons known only to himself, Thompson has often tried to paint me as a game industry stooge. I think the various game industry entities I've zinged over the years would have a chuckle at that notion.
As for his assertion that the ECA represents game retailers? Hardly. ECA is a consumer group. It would seemingly be difficult for a regular reader of GamePolitics - like Thompson - not to be aware of that fact.
Collaborative game industry effort to disbar Thompson? The Supreme Court referee will decide Thompson's fate based on complaints filed by, among others, two judges, neither of whom has ties to the video game industry. As for the ECA, neither it nor anyone associated with it has ever filed a complaint against Thompson. My complaint, which I filed months before the ECA even existed, was closed out by the Bar in September of 2006.
Thompson has a longstanding, contentious legal relationship with a Florida attorney by the name of Norm Kent. In the motion he seeks to tie GP to Kent:
Mr. McCauley has provided Norm Kent... the opportunity to hold forth on Mr. Kent’s analyses of Jack Thompson on his http://www.gamepolitics.com/ site, with no opportunity by Thompson to respond.
I've searched Kent's name on GP. It appears only four times. Three of those stories carry brief quotes from Kent. A couple of those were published during a time when Thompson was not permitted to post at GamePolitics, so I guess that is what he is saying here. On the other hand, no one has held forth more fervently than Thompson in GP's comments area since I lifted his ban in July. And, thanks to his frequent press releases and high profile in the game violence debate, Thompson gets covered so frequently here on GP that we created a category tag for him. So it's not like he hasn't been given a chance to be heard.
More immediately, what seems to have sparked the attempt to add GP/ECA to the suit was an e-mail exchange yesterday morning. In the daily roundup GP blogged about a gameindustry.Biz interview with Lorne Lanning, Thompson's debate opponent at the recent VGXPO. Thompson took offense to one of Lanning's comments and let us know about it.
Based on Thompson's own words and writings, I didn't think Lanning's remark was especially off-base, but agreed to delete the disputed sentence from the GP story by way of keeping the peace. Within a few hours Thompson had included the Lanning quote as part of the basis for dragging me into his lawsuit. So much for making a conciliatory gesture...
Of the Lanning quote, Thompson wrote to the court:
As if trying to further prove the above-stated point, the ECA’s http://www.gamepolitics.com/ has linked to an interview of Lorne Lanning, whom Thompson debated in Philadelphia two weeks ago.
And then, along comes some anonymous idiot who proceeeds to post a quasi-menacing comment to GP's Lanning story. Thompson was upset about this and I don't blame him. However, I don't screen comments (unless the spam filter grabs them) and I never saw this one. Thompson started sending e-mails to me about the post at 12:12 PM but I was away from my PC for several hours. By 1:30 PM he had added it to court record as a basis for his ridiculous claim against me. At about 2:30 PM, I returned to my PC, saw the comment, deleted it and IP-banned the fool who posted it - as I always do in such cases.
So apparently I am being sued for something inappropriate that someone else wrote. Something that I deleted when I discovered it. Something that, by banning its author, I took steps to prevent from happening again. Yeah, I guess that's justice...
Thompson, however, writes in his motion to the court that I have "allowed" the menacing post:
Dennis McCauley and his http://www.gamepolitics.com/, owned by the ECA has, for quite sometime, been part of that conspiracy... Now the conspiracy has taken the form of solicitations of murder against Thompson... McCauley has allowed the posting of... solicitation of murder...
It's always pleasant to see one's name attached to "solicitation of murder"... Oddly enough, Thompson, who seems to take this "solicitation" so seriously, jokes about it in his lead-in to the court:
WARNING: CONTAINS DEATH THREAT. THOMPSON DOES NOT WANT THE COURT TO BE OFFENDED… OR ENCOURAGED
Frankly, I don't expect Thompson's motion to go anywhere. Federal court cases involving alleged civil rights violations generally pertain to allegations of abuse by governmental entities. In this case, Thompson brought his original suit against the Florida Bar. So he's alleging, essentially, that myself, the Florida Bar and others are wrapped up in this vast conspiracy to get Jack Thompson.
What's more, Judge Adalberto Jordan has to approve this amendment to Thompson's complaint. I don't believe that's likely to happen. Did I mention that Thompson also tried to add Judge Jordan himself as a defendant last month?
Comments
Dennis, I just have to say that I envy your patience dealing with this kind of thing.
This is exactly the kind of abuse that makes our legal system look like a joke. If you don't like what's happening to you, legal basis or not, just sue!
Oy. Here we go again. Another frivolious lawsuit by JT. Where's my lawnchair and popcorn?
GP: actually, I think it's less about the money and more about the amount stress that can be created.
The very idea that GP would want Jack dead is proposterous. Much of GPs traffic is, I'm guessing, because of this extremist's antics.
As for a conspiracy to get him disbarred, it's only a conspiracy if the desired goal is illegal or immoral in nature. Taking away a fanatic's ability to practice law is not morally questionable, it's a moral imperative.
This will go nowhere.
One question though, is this an entirely new case that is being brought to the court system, or did Thompson file a motion on an already existing case? Wish you the best of luck (not likely to need it once the Judge realizes how much of a lunatic Thompson is).
GP: It's an existing case that he filed against the Florida Bar on May 15th. He's trying to add me and the ECA as additional defendants.
Oh, god, will he ever learn...
Thanks.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/11/16/jonathan-coulton-sings-still-alive/
Another thing I am curious about is the logic in aggressively suing (and harrassing) the very organization that has the power to take away his ability to practice law. It seems that you would want to play nice with such a group.
GP: It's ironic that he refers to my Bar complaint (which I filed to end some really unbelievable issues) as SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation)... This guy has "participated" to an amazing degree here. Yeah, I see this a true SLAPP suit. He wants to shut GP up, in my opinion.
He isn't paranoid everyone is out to get him. To be completely serious I have to give him a hand for standing his ground. Unlike most people to day at least he is willing to fight for what he believes in.
GP: Do you REALLY think he believes all of that nonsense?
True he does, unfortunately for him hes wrong.
This will get tossed pretty quick. Under "offensive content" rules, service providers are allowed a "reasonable" amount of time (hint: more than 2 hours), to remove offensive content once notified...
That and the whole idea that he has some inalienable "right" to post here. It's laughable.
Wouldn't that make Jack seem right that there is a massive conspiracy out to get him?
Because judging from the sheer insanity of his own filing, not to mention the plainly out-of-touch conspiracy theories, the man IS unstable.
The only reason why he hasn't snapped in public view already most likely lies with his obsession about (potentially) having a camera focusing on his balding old mug.
"Wouldn’t that make Jack seem right that there is a massive conspiracy out to get him?"
No. Think of it this way. Say you go into a bar and you one by one spit into the face of every patron in the bar. When they all gang up to kick your ass its not a conspiracy, rather its people you pissed off defending themselves. It just seems like a conspiracy when you've attacked a LOT of people.
GP: It's difficult, but given what we cover here, he is a newsmaker... So you just deal with it.
I am not a lawyer, but are you allowed to insult people in court documents? I thought not.
But this is one of the best documents ever. John Bruce realized that it was not up to his usual length of 14+ pages so he had to use large fonts to fill it out. I also love the red font colors he used liberally through out.
Judging by the inacuarcies, lies and misinformation used frequently throughout the document, this will not last longer than the time the judge takes to stamp it "Denied"
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
I'll just be glad when his last leg of 'credibility' is gone.
As he adds more defendants it is becoming more clear how much he will abuse his privilege to practice law. I think it is just a matter of time before the lawsuit becomes the end of him.
That would be one of the best memberships ever. :D
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Whatever...
Well it is obvious that Jack has a habit of tweaking the facts to his own advantage. So he would just scream conspiracy.
I do think its funny that Jack Thompson calls us a conspiracy when its really just a bunch, well a massive amount, he pissed off and all wanna see him fail. He created the "conspiracy" against himself.
Don't hold back. Its okay. You are in no danger. The chances of John Bruce following through on one of his law suit threats is slimmer than the chance of you being struck by lightning while being hit by a train after falling out of a charter flight on a crash route into an iceberg. ;)
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Isn't that what paranoid people do?
The guy is a weasel.
Did Jackass just call Dennis immature? Oh god, that whole filing is hilarious. The changed fonts, the asshole sentiments...its classic. I'm making a poster out of it and hanging it on my wall.
Anyway - I don't see how he can get away with this whole "being mentally healthy" thing. I mean, the guy is engaging in self-destructive behavior for himself and his family. The old adage keeps coming to mind, "Crazy people don't know they are crazy..." as un-PC as that statement is, I think it's applicable here.
I really don't know what to do. Try to prove that he's a danger to himself and others, and have him committed for unbiased psychiatric evaluation for 48hrs. See what's really going on with him.
ha thats a good one. He should retake the 5th grade. well then lets see if we can get jack thompson on are u smarter than a 5th grader.
@GP
Keep up the great work! Obviously you're doing something right when someone tries such a desperate attempt at taking you with their dying career.
@GP
Is this really a concern? I'm not clear, but I was under the impression that he long ago lost his right to practice in many other states, which suing you would fall under eh? (unless your in Florida I guess...)
Either way, good luck and we're all supporting you.
In the spirit of the upcoming season we should be better than JT and get him a gift. Perhaps Manhunt 2?
Even if you didn't delete the comment (I'm glad you did tho, those people don't help anyone), wouldn't you be able to fall under the multiple ISP Safe Harbor Laws? If Jack wants to go after the numbnut that left the threat let him, but I would think you're covered.
if this was a criminal case, Dennis could use the insanity plea and back it up with what Thompson said. That's what happened with Charles McCoy Jr. (Thompson said McCoy was the “functional equivalent of a 15-year-old,” which ironically added to his insanity defense)
岩「…」
Can GP try to publish as little Jack Thompson stories as possible?
As Dennis rightly noted, 42 USC 1983 requires a deprivation oif civil rights by a state entity (e.g., the police) or someone acting as an agent of the state. How Mr. Thompson intends to make the arguement that any conduct by gamepolitics and the ECA falls under what the statute refers as "under color of state law" is beyond me, but'll sure be entertaining to watch him try.
If jackie feels insulted (the gods know we have tried) then he has always been free to post elsewhere.
There is a vast conspiricy against him... this is considered common knowledge since he has spounted that line of BS often enough. GP/Dennis is just another in the line of those like Norman Kent, Another that failed or refused to conceed that JBT is correct in all things (or much of anything really) or to bow to his greatness. Dennis even had the gall to ban jackie... obviously Dennis in the heart of the conspiricy and has to be punished I guess.
Mutter. Please, can someone tell me again how JBT was found to be sane?
Personally I think someone should send Judge Jordan a link to jackies wikiquote site (always fun readng). If anything would give an idea of just how unstable he is that would do it.
Don't forget Bioshock, Bully, and of course his favorite GTA. Maybe a 2 Live Crew CD as well.
Thompson has *never* answered my charges, which means he is:
A) A coward
B) Determined to prove my theory correct.
Thanks for showing us what true shysters you and Dennis are, Mr. Thompson.