Epic Suing Former Contract Worker for Alleged Season 4 Leaks in Breach of NDA - Fortnite - MMORPG.co

SBFord

Epic Suing Former Contract Worker for Alleged Season 4 Leaks in Breach of NDA - Fortnite - MMORPG.com

Fortnite News - Epic is taking a hard line against a former contract worker who allegedly leaked information about Fortnite Battle Royale and season four. The spoilers, according to Epic, were first leaked to a second party and then posted to a now-deleted Reddit thread. The defendant, Thomas Hannah, has said that he was "pumped with a series of questions in a casual discussion to try to guess where the meteor (from Season 4) would hit". Epic says this provided secrets that it wanted kept under wraps.

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SBFord

A lot of people seem to think this is petty but I'm of a different mindset. I'm honestly sick and tired of everything leaking ahead of time. I really miss the days when a single screenshot released every 6 months or so was enough to generate discussion on gaming sites and forums until the next one came out. I miss not knowing every little detail. E3 brought it all home in a grotesque display of leak after leak after leak in the days and weeks ahead of the convention.

Honestly? I wish more companies were like Bethesda that still understands how to surprise its fans.

I hope they win and that other companies take note.

Xingbairong

Honestly the issue here is not the gamers finding out what's to come, but the competitors finding and copying or giving their own twist to Epic's idea.
I personally think it's not petty, BUT I don't see them gaining anything from this other than negative rep for being "petty" simply because people don't see the bigger picture most of the time.
That said I definitely wouldn't want that guy to be left homeless because of some careless talk. Hopefully it gets solved within reason.

Wizardry

Yeah idk,it sounds like a trivial mention and Epic is making it sound like the entire project was leaked.
Still i agree that you can't let contract workers free space to start releasing information,it would soon get out of hand.
So how to handle it?Well suing seems very harsh,like i said a small tidbit was released in a discussion ,i really don't know the answer, [mod edit]

Albatroes

I'm surprised Epic isn't developing a legal based game with how many times they've tried to publicly sue people.

Abimor

For me it's not even the spoiler. they paid a guy and part of that was agreeing not to leak things. I am so tired of leaks. Just look at the NFL a guy found out he was getting suspended from ESPN

FlyByKnight

Spoilers are there for people who look for them.

rojoArcueid

getting sued for a fart in the wind...

Only in America.

Sure, leaks are bad, but suing for anything is just as bad.

It's like lawsuits are the solution to all our problems.

FlyByKnight

rojoArcueid said:

getting sued for a fart in the wind...

Only in America.

Sure, leaks are bad, but suing for anything is just as bad.

It's like lawsuits are the solution to all our problems.

What do you suggest? Corporate hitmen and fixers sent holding pictures of family members?

Quizzical

Whoever owns the IP can "leak" whatever they want, whether in a formal announcement or by trying to make it look like an unauthorized leak. If you think a leak is beneficial to the company for hype reasons, it's better to let the company be the judge of that.

I think that whether a lawsuit is justified depends tremendously on the size and scope of the leak. Accidentally letting some minor detail leak that doesn't even make sense without context that hasn't leaked shouldn't be grounds for a lawsuit. But if the leak is clearly intentional, or on such a broad scale that it was at minimum reckless if not intentional, then sure, go after him.

I think that a major reason why such lawsuits aren't more common is that they either don't know or can't prove who leaked information.

rojoArcueid

FlyByKnight said:

rojoArcueid said:

getting sued for a fart in the wind...

Only in America.

Sure, leaks are bad, but suing for anything is just as bad.

It's like lawsuits are the solution to all our problems.

What do you suggest? Corporate hitmen and fixers sent holding pictures of family members?

whatever other countries do to solve it in a better way, i guess.

Lawsuits are treated here as the easy solution to problems when they should be more as the last resort to solve major problems, not shitty information leaks.

But that's just me.

Ganksinatra

I'm gonna guess this guy signed an NDA. That is ironclad 99% of the time. There is no argument in that case. He broke the NDA, he should have to pay the price.

Growing ever tired of the "We should only uphold the laws I think are neat" mentality around my country. Either we are a country of laws, or we scrap it all and go full scale Thunderdome and get it over with.

Cryomatrix

I gate spoilers to the point where I don't even watch trailers of movies I'm gonna see. I hate people who can't keep their word. You sign an agreement, don't be a punk and break it. If you do, then you deserve the consequences especially if they were done on purpose.

synn

I think this is mostly being done to make an example out of him.

calibek

The man signed an NDA therefore he knew the risks of what would happen if some of the information got out. It's like the hippocratic oath doctors take. It is a code their profession is sworn to uphold. Same goes for people who sign NDA's. The company is trusting you with information that could be damaging if it got out before they were ready. In this case I do not feel bad.

FlyByKnight

rojoArcueid said:

FlyByKnight said:

rojoArcueid said:

getting sued for a fart in the wind...

Only in America.

Sure, leaks are bad, but suing for anything is just as bad.

It's like lawsuits are the solution to all our problems.

What do you suggest? Corporate hitmen and fixers sent holding pictures of family members?

whatever other countries do to solve it in a better way, i guess.

Lawsuits are treated here as the easy solution to problems when they should be more as the last resort to solve major problems, not shitty information leaks.

But that's just me.

I repeat, what do you suggest? Corporate hitmen and fixers sent holding pictures of family members?

lahnmir

FlyByKnight said:

rojoArcueid said:

FlyByKnight said:

rojoArcueid said:

getting sued for a fart in the wind...

Only in America.

Sure, leaks are bad, but suing for anything is just as bad.

It's like lawsuits are the solution to all our problems.

What do you suggest? Corporate hitmen and fixers sent holding pictures of family members?

whatever other countries do to solve it in a better way, i guess.

Lawsuits are treated here as the easy solution to problems when they should be more as the last resort to solve major problems, not shitty information leaks.

But that's just me.

I repeat, what do you suggest? Corporate hitmen and fixers sent holding pictures of family members?

I would start with a horses' head in his bed. But hey, if that doesn't work....  

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

FlyByKnight

lahnmir said:

FlyByKnight said:

rojoArcueid said:

FlyByKnight said:

rojoArcueid said:

getting sued for a fart in the wind...

Only in America.

Sure, leaks are bad, but suing for anything is just as bad.

It's like lawsuits are the solution to all our problems.

What do you suggest? Corporate hitmen and fixers sent holding pictures of family members?

whatever other countries do to solve it in a better way, i guess.

Lawsuits are treated here as the easy solution to problems when they should be more as the last resort to solve major problems, not shitty information leaks.

But that's just me.

I repeat, what do you suggest? Corporate hitmen and fixers sent holding pictures of family members?

I would start with a horses' head in his bed. But hey, if that doesn't work....  

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

LOL.

Here's some footage of Epic Games dealing with Thomas Hannah without lawyers and lawsuits:

Scot

We have seen over the past twenty years a huge shift in how entertainment is released, not just games. Trailers now tell you major plot elements and reveal the most surprising elements of the film.

I remember when I had already decided to not watch trailers, kicking myself for watching the Men in Black (SPOILER) one and seeing the alien in the head.

Surprise and mystery are now pleasures of the past. Gaming is no different, the hype train knows we pay less attention to press releases because there are so many. To combat this we now have them leaking material so that the public thinks they are getting secret information and takes notice.

The last time I can remember that it was important to know everything about the latest TV we were watching was the schoolyard. We grew out of that and now here we are taken back to it.

Octagon7711

I don't really care about spoilers either.

The big issue here is signing a contract which means giving your word about what you will or won't do as related to that contract. If your word and signature mean very little to you then that's something that should be looked at and can follow you around throughout your work history.