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

[Cordwainer Fish]

The friendly thing to do

would be for Wizards to say "We know you did nothing wrong and we'd like to get a win-win here. How about you unpublish the video until street date and you let us know who shipped you the cards, and in return we give you some cheap crap we keep on hand for situations like this?"

 

[darjr]

So...I am trying very hard to wrap my head around this idea that suing him would somehow have been a kinder, gentler way to handle the situation.

WotC literally did one of the things that you are suggesting: they just talked to him. For whatever reasons, he was not responding to other attempts to communicate, so they sent investigators who literally put him on the phone with WotC, after which the situation was resolved without any lawsuits, and with him even getting product that WotC did not owe him.

This is a guy who somehow came up with their IP and was leaking it to the internet, but they took him at his (eventual) word, gave him a pat on the head, and a nice stack of magic cards. Yet they are the villains here because "the Pinkertons." This does not make any ethical sense to me at all.

Edit: WotC did not create this situation. This guy somehow got his hands on their IP, and was immediately trying to monetize it. They treated him with kid gloves. He is not a victim.

They did not talk to him until after they sent the Pinkertons. Who went to case the neighbors and threaten him and his wife.

 

[Mannahnin]

They did not talk to him until after they sent the Pinkertons. Who went to case the neighbors and threaten him and his wife.

They were apparently unable to talk to him until they sent professional agents to physically go to his house and ask him to talk to them over the phone.

 

[theCourier]

What is e-mail?

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

They did not talk to him until after they sent the Pinkertons. Who went to case the neighbors and threaten him and his wife.

And, I say again, in 2023 calling someone and not leaving voicemail does not constitute talking to someone.

 

[Mannahnin]

"Remember that your responses must be in the form of a question."

"This form of electronic communication can be read or ignored at the recipient's leisure. The software presenting it also usually offers a preview allowing you to decide whether you wish to open it, before doing so."

What is e-mail?

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

"This form of electronic communication can be read or ignored at the recipient's leisure."

The deputy director where I work has a habit of sending junk emails with return receipts requested.

My mail client asks me if I want them sent.

I always say 'no', because I was administering mail servers before he was born.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

These are different in that they intentionally broke their ndas to get the product. Supposedly, this guy got his stuff by accident. Me personally would have told the guys no thank you but I have a 357 hollow point you can have.

This is an interesting point because I have the feeling even if you're in a 'stand your ground'. However, I would imagine if you hollow point an anyone who is doing their legal job and kill them, you would open yourself up to a civil lawsuit for depriving them of their 14th Amendment right to life. They haven't entered your home. They're at your door, made your wife cry, and are on your property.

You absolutely pay people with your taxes to come deal with that situation. Especially if you're apparently aware they've been talking to your neighbors about you before they come to your door.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

I just got an email about the latest bundle from Bundle of Holding . . . it's called the "Solidarity Bundle" and is being marketing as "Pinkerton-free"!!!

From their site:

Adventurer! Nobody will send security agents to your door to confiscate the tabletop roleplaying game ebooks in this Solidarity Bundle. By focusing on corporate accountability and citizen empowerment, these .PDF RPGs – about modern life, cryptography fantasy, and dystopian futures – help you understand why a Hasbro executive feels free to dispatch private security to your home to seize your purchases – and how we can start addressing that fact.

Ahh, so we've again reached the point in the story where the controversy has led to being a way to market things to people

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

On the one hand, you are totally right.

On the other hand, its another example of WotC saying its one thing, and then acting another. One would think that after the OGL fiasco people would get it, but they dont want to.

Mostly though, you are right. Sound and fury, signifying nothing. AKA: A (checks day) non-Tuesday, on the internet where everything is magnified into the end of the world, an actual personal trauma, and its all totally not hyperbole.

I would say it's WotC saying one thing, and a third-party doing another, or am I misreading this?

If I hire someone to serve you papers for a civil matter, and they cause the kerfuffle and make your wife cry, is it my action or the people I hired?