YouTube critics can rest easy because the verdict of Digital Homicide vs. Jim Sterling proves game companies still can't sue people just for trashing their games on the Internet, Kotaku reports. Digital Homicide is responsible for the video game Slaughtering Grounds, which Sterling declared the "New 'Worst Game of 2014' Contender' on his Youtube channel years ago. Digital Homicide filed a copyright with Youtube and got the video breifly taken down.
"We find the usage of the terms ‘WORST GAME OF 2014 CONTENDER!' and ‘Absolute Failure' to describe the entirety of our product while not actually evaluating it in its entirety unfair and unreasonable use of our copyright material," they stated. They also accused Sterling of purposefully playing the game wrong. However, Sterling petitioned YouTube and the video was reinstated. You can see it below:
Not content to give up there, Digital Homicide then filed a $10 million dollar lawsuit. They submitted a suit accusing Sterling of "assault, libel and slander" to the Arizona District Court. In addition to demanding a large sum of money from Sterling, they also wanted "apologies in place of every offending article and video for a period of no less than 5 years." However, the suit didn't make it very far and the claim has been thrown out.
Kotaku notes this isn't the only lawsuit Digital Homicide has tried for. They attempted to sue 100 Steam users for $18 million dollars for making negative comments about their games. This resulted in Steam removing all their games, citing their hostility to the users as a reason.
It's surely a relief to YouTube critics and video game critics in general the case died so quickly, but also a bit frightening to realize a video game company could target a critic like this. Sterling notes, "Yes, this case was frivolous, but it still had to be taken seriously once it was served."
I feel sorry for Sterling that he had to go through all the trouble of hiring a lawyer over criticizing a video game on Youtube. I hope other game developers take warning from the outcome of this. What do you think of the kerfuffle?
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