WOTC sues Rancored_Elf

[Dilligaf]

This suit isnt about the spoilers.

R_E posted scans of some Coldsnap playtest cards a while back, they were quickly removed, but the damage was already done at that point.

I'm pretty sure Wizards really can't hit R_E with the charges because they need to prove through "clear and convincing evidence" that R_E knew the playtest cards were obtained illegally, which is pretty hard to prove. What they really want to do is find the people who leaked the cards out. Anyone can be an R_E with the right sources, so the question is not about stopping the middleman, but the source.

While i don't have proof, i can say with a pretty damn good hunch that people with access to playtest cards are under legally binding NDA papers.. so sharing the information would consitute breach of contract and potentially corporate espianage, depending on who it was shared with.

Unless R_E was a playtestor, the images were supplied and recieved illegally.. by recieving them and then POSTING them online, R_E was party to several rather convincing, yet irritating, laws regarding corporate property.

[Hazezon]

I was curious, would WotC be able to go after R_E directly with him being Canadian. I'm sure that there are some limitations to American Intellectual Property Law or whatever else they are basing they're case on. If it was a criminal case they could ask for extradition but being as this is a civil case i'm really not sure what they could do to him.

[squt]

This is a little surprising to me - I always thought RE WAS a WOTC employee. I just thought it was their marketing machine that leaked out a few cards in the month before a new set. It was always through strange means- an Italian Foil sheet here, a playtest card there...you never saw all the commons until right before a pre (when the judges FAQ came out).

Squt

[Raven_Fire]

This suit isnt about the spoilers.

R_E posted scans of some Coldsnap playtest cards a while back, they were quickly removed, but the damage was already done at that point.

I thought it was playtest cards from "Snap" (of the Snap, Crackle, Pop Block), not Coldsnap. Anyway, the important point is that this is not primarily about the spoilers. Heck, WotC writers have suggested reading outside spoilers before going to a Pre-Release event. This is about developmental ideas being posted a year early, not about finished concepts that have already reached the printers.

[normalbrains]

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=29597

[phyconaut]

yes i think we will be seeing other sites get the same letter and it is proboly not WotC thats hate teh realings so much but it is thier parent company hasbro that is telling them to stop the leaks and showing of info.

[Ralph Herold]

update: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=32149