NCsoft files lawsuit to thwart TERA launch

[Ambrosia]

New update from Scapes:




Evening again, folks. We have updated our official response with a quoted statement from En Masse Entertainment's Publishing VP Chris Lee:

Originally Posted by Chris Lee:

"We are disappointed that NCsoft is attempting to mar the launch of TERA. Unfortunately we can't discuss much publicly due to the sensitivity of legal actions, but we do outright reject the NCsoft claims, and we are going to do everything in our power to defend and protect ourselves.

To all our supporters who have been anticipating the arrival of TERA – please know that this situation has no impact on our continuing efforts to realize the vision we have for our game. We are committed to making TERA awesome and delivering the game to you on time on May 1. Thank you for your patience and support."

[Eanae]

Knew this would happen when the news broke in like 2007 that NC Soft Employees stole shit and started Tera. What the hell did they think would happen when they stole intellectual property so blatantly. If they wanted to make a game they should have started from scratch.

[Meresgi]

NC soft is balls anyways. Everything i've ever played that they have had a hand in has gone down in a blaze of smoke, fire and shit.

[Eanae]

Your opinion of the company means nothing. Theft is theft is theft.

[Rulke]

We still have to see if these allegations hold any/some/no truth -_- Lets not jump the gun either way.

[Eanae]

The allegations have been pretty common knowledge since like 2007,2008 for anyone following Lineage 3.

[Katlan]

Lights up the *BG Signal*


I know that the BG community is large (and no I don't mean heavyset). I was wondering if folks out there including Mods know of any lawyer (or are one) or are currently law students that can give their opinion on what may be:


A. The most likely positive outcome(s) out of this lawsuit.

B. The most likely negative outcome(s) out of this lawsuit.


as far as awarding damages and imposing a temporary or permanent injunction etc. Personally I can see how the game's launch can be delayed (as one of the likely outcomes) but don't know much of anything else that may or may not happen. (Of course everyone's opinion is welcomed). I'm not an expert!

Law student here, but fuck if i have time atm to read that complaint lol. w/o reading anythin in the complaint and going by what i read here though, unless there was a "trade secret" provision (which 99.9% companies have w/ former employees), it depends on how long it was for. Can only keep a provision like that for X amount of years.. its only intended to prevent ppl from immediately jumping ship and then going to a competitor right away. But what most ppl don't realize is that filing a complaint means jack shit. Anybody can file a complaint against anybody for anything if they want to realistically. A complaint is just saying "we want sue you for XYZ." Defendant than can try to file for summary judgment, it can be dismissed right away by the judge for being lolworthy, or Defendant basically says your wrong because of so and so reasons and then after extensive litigation and stuff it then goes to trial if no early settlement was reached.

This really means nothing unless something comes from the complaint

[madpersian]

That's a very good point. Nothing says any of the allegations in the complaint will hold up.

But the reason we have to give the complaint some credibility is because they succeeded in their suit in South Korea.

It would be good to wait until we see the Answer to the complaint and any Motions for Summary Judgment before assuming that the complaint is valid.

[MaachaQ]

If they've already sued and won, why are they suing again? Did these guys steal more trade secrets after they were convicted the first time? I just don't understand how they can be sued for the same thing more than once... even if they are suing in a different country this time.

edit: Just read through the PDF, apparently the Korean decision is still being appealed which is why there wasn't another suit after the release here. Still odd that they'd sue for the US release separately but not the Japan release....

Just heard about this news, I haven't been playing TERA or any other game lately, but I've still been trying to follow the news.

The pictures of similarities in characters between the games make me laugh, since they are the same character types in basically every MMO ever, same goes for the map and city layouts. Their strongest evidence is probably the political and action combat systems.

[FriskUni]

The pictures of similarities in characters between the games make me laugh, since they are the same character types in basically every MMO ever, same goes for the map and city layouts. Their strongest evidence is probably the political and action combat systems.

there's no doubt that they did infact steal shit from NCsoft but "4 continents surrounding a small island" as an example was pretty amusing, that shit had me in tears

there's things in TERA that are a lot like things from AION though, animation wise, the way skills are performed they're almost identical if not exactly alike, same goes for lineage eternal, even the char at the start of this video has the same running/holding sword animation as TERA human male slayer has


having said that if they've already given back the shit/paid their dues, redoing this all over again kinda sucks :<

[FriskUni]

for those interested, link to a korean post on inven about the current lawsuit as well as the old archived lawsuits in korea, it is translated with google though so it's not word for word but you can get the general idea

[Foxer]

Knew this would happen when the news broke in like 2007 that NC Soft Employees stole shit and started Tera. What the hell did they think would happen when they stole intellectual property so blatantly. If they wanted to make a game they should have started from scratch.

Wut.

NC has sued BHS before and they haven't won a single case. I guess reading a few old posts here and there automatically qualifies a person as knowing what's going on.

NCSoft is terrible. It's OK.

[Eanae]

Might wanna wipe the dirt off your knees there.

[Katlan]

If they've already sued and won, why are they suing again? Did these guys steal more trade secrets after they were convicted the first time? I just don't understand how they can be sued for the same thing more than once... even if they are suing in a different country this time.

international v domestic lawsuit. its a federal lawsuit anyways, but easier to go after each entity over trying to sue em all. And regarding the case being on appeal (lol). any big company who lost ALWAYS appeals unless its a 100% losing case and deemed a complete waste of time. An appeal, at the very least, holds off the final holding until the appeals court reaches a decision. But also, you don't argue new facts at the appellate level, only thing they do is review the alrdy existing facts and determine if the trial court ruled correctly or not

[madpersian]

There are countries that allow new facts in appeal. In South Korea they don't have juries. Not sure how their appeal system works.

[Cian]

Eh, Idk...seems like a stretch really. I see little resemblance, the same resemblance found in any other MMO while compared to a similar counterpart. Sounds to me that NCSoft noticed Tera has potential and wants to ruin it for them the best they can. Just hoping this doesn't ruin the current release date for us.

[Senji]

Eh, Idk...seems like a stretch really. I see little resemblance, the same resemblance found in any other MMO while compared to a similar counterpart. Sounds to me that NCSoft noticed Tera has potential and wants to ruin it for them the best they can. Just hoping this doesn't ruin the current release date for us.

Employees working on NCSoft's L3 jumped ship. Whether NCSoft didn't like their direction, and they had disagreements, or they just got greedy, we don't know. Hilarious if they didn't change any file names and referred to it as L3-based MMORPG internally before they settled on Tera.

Ran some of the situation by my lawyer(paraphrased):

Whether or not they felt slighted or created it all themselves, assuming they were not contracted out and worked in house, NCSoft owns ALL their properties.

They tried to cover their asses by being "hired" by Bluehole, rather than forming their own company. Their employment contracts would obviously be subpoenaed to find the true details of the employee/studio relation. The former employees would have had to also sign a non compete, though the time would have most likely expired. This is how Bluehole got off in Korea, but its the former employees they are still sorting.*

NCSoft has them red handed and are threatening delays, but really they want monetary damages and a cut. Causing a delay would be counterproductive.

*Checking up on people involved after talking to him, Bluehole and EME seniors are just about fully comprised of the L2 and L3 team.

[Eanae]

There's near 0 doubt that they took some of the lineage 3 stuff when they left. It really does come down to how much they ended up using in Tera.

[Rulke]

Hookay, bowing out of this thread for now until real progress is made. (suppose thats not very moderatorly of me, but meh). Last thoughts: not too worryed about release of Tera, agree that NC Soft most likely wants a cut and profits. Probably will get some if claims are true. They can be rich and I can play Tera. Happy ending? O_o

[Eanae]

I would hope nc soft would just ask for a settlement or a cut, but with the pending release of gw2 I think they're going to go all out and try and shut the release down.