WotC may have sent the Pinkertons to a magic leakers home. Update: WotC confirms it and has a response.

[ersatzphil]

...(no matter how much people played Red Dead Redemption 2)...

I've never played the game, and I did a spit take when I read that the Pinkertons were involved. We all saw how many lawyers hang out on ENworld during the OGL debacle, the sites audience seems to skew fairly educated; I'd think it fair to guess that quite a number of people around here are pretty well versed in US history and know exactly what the Pinkerton Detective Agency is.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I've never played the game, and I did a spit take when I read that the Pinkertons were involved. We all saw how many lawyers hang out on ENworld during the OGL debacle, the sites audience seems to skew fairly educated; I'd think it fair to guess that quite a number of people around here are pretty well versed in US history and know exactly what the Pinkerton Detective Agency is.

Well, yeah. I do. I already discussed this in detail. But if you're actually familiar with Pinkerton, you're familiar with them now, not only with what they were over a century ago!

As for trading on the reputation, fun fact- they actually sued Rockstar to keep their name out of the videogame.

Funner fact that I happen to remember too well (sigh, age). The best Weezer album (FIGHT ME!) was named Pinkerton. And they were sued by .... the Pinkertons ... over it. But the problem was the Rivers actually named the album not after the detectives, but Lt. B. F. Pinkerton from Madama Butterfly!

The More You Know!

Seriously, though, as someone who never played RDR2, I had no idea that they were the primary bad guys in the video game ... which explains the outsized reaction.

 

[delericho]

Eeeeh. The names are close, sure, but anyone who retails Magic cards regularly would easily distinguish the sets and packaging. I understand that Cannon said his dealer is more familiar with Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, but I'm still a bit surprised.

I find the whole scenario makes a lot more sense if I assume almost everyone involved is varying degrees of stupid. Never attribute to malice, and all that.

That may be a faulty assumption, of course.

 

[darjr]

I find the whole scenario makes a lot more sense if I assume almost everyone involved is varying degrees of stupid. Never attribute to malice, and all that.

That may be a faulty assumption, of course.

Or rushed.

 

[Umbran]

I think generally the right of people to not have threats of violence against them

Did the agents say, "We are going to beat you up, or shoot you, if you don't comply?"

This isn't an appropriate forum to discuss what qualifies as a "threat of violence" in the real world. Suffice it to say that there are reasons why, in general, "You are present," should not qualify.

 

[darjr]

Did the agents say, "We are going to beat you up, or shoot you, if you don't comply?"

This isn't an appropriate forum to discuss what qualifies as a "threat of violence" in the real world. Suffice it to say that there are reasons why, in general, "You are present," should not qualify.

Jamming your foot in the door when your target is scared and trying to shut the door, from the Pinkerton Agency, is a threat of violence

 

[Umbran]

Jamming your foot in the door when your target is scared and trying to shut the door, from the Pinkerton Agency, is a threat of violence

I just said this is not an appropriate venue to discuss what does qualify.

Next time, when someone states their limit, please respect that limit.

 

[The Scythian]

If you go through the weeds of various sites, you will find people that claim to have been watching the original videos. They all state the same things- that his story changed from the original videos (where he claimed to receive it from a friend, and knew what it was the unreleased version) to the later scrubbed version of "got it from some distributor who must have given it to me by accident." That there were comments (purportedly from WOTC) that asked him to contact them and to return the cards that were deleted. And so on. Obviously, I don't know what the veracity of these comments are.

What I'm asking about specifically is where people are saying "that Hasbro (WoTC) employees did attempt to contact [Cannon] through the comments on Youtube, but he deleted their comments on youtube." I haven't come across that anywhere. Not in any article. Not in the comment section of any article. Not in any of the Reddit comments that I've read. Nowhere. On the one hand, it would be a pretty big deal if it turned out that Cannon destroyed or hid evidence of WotC's attempts to contact him. On the other, it would be highly irregular for a company to attempt to communicate about a supposedly important investigation through the comment section of a YouTube video. I get that you might not remember everything you've read on the subject, but if there are enough examples out there for you to say that "[t]hey all state the same things", then hopefully you can remember one or two places where you've seen people say this.

 

[darjr]

I just said this is not an appropriate venue to discuss what does qualify.

Next time, when someone states a limit, please respect that limit.

Do not use italics at me again, Umbran.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

The internet is indeed a funny place with this story.

If I parse it together right, a Youtuber who unboxes Magic cards gets sent a box he would have every single idea is the wrong set, a set not even released yet. Wizards, fresh off their PR issues, hires a notorious (but recognized) investigative outfit to connect with the Youtuber and get their property back after trying and failing to get in contact with him.

I really feel with a lot of this, if you Mad Libs this, and change out names, the response is different. If, instead of what's going on, Paizo accidentally Fedex's playtest documents for their complete but unreleased adventure path to a Youtuber who likes to break TTRPG news, and Paizo hires the Pinkertons as legal, bonded third-party contractors -- no one bats an eye.

Clearly there must have been time between when he recieved cards that, due to his profession, he absolutely knew weren't released and when the Pinkertons showed up. The agents didn't show up the next day. This was someone I'm betting was hoping to beat people to the punch and do an unboxing at the soonest chance he thought he could do.

And it's not like they're just confiscating their stuff back - clearly, and rightfully, he's being compensated for it.