You know it’s a lot easier to think about pulling a “Tee hee who released this game? Not me oops.” then it is to be the person staring down the idea of actually having consequences from it.
If Disney sues you, there’s basically no upside.
The downsides are, that even if you win or come to a settlement that you’re on the hook for lawyer’s fees. How many thousands of dollars do you have sitting around to burn on lawyers?
A settlement agreement would of course end with Disney getting the payout, not you. So, decide how much that is.
And that’s all assuming you end up either winning or not going to trial.
If you go to trial for IP infringement, it’s a civil case. That means that Disney doesn’t have to show proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but only that it is more likely than not you infringed. So if a jury needs to be 99% sure in a criminal trial, they only need to be 51% in a civil trial.
And for a trial you will be deposed, which is sat in a room an interrogated by Disney’s lawyers. And you have to answer their questions and you have to tell the truth. Want to pled the 5th? Guess what, it’s not a criminal trial so pleading the 5th in a civil deposition can be used against you to draw the worst inferences. They will ask if you worked on it, and if you distributed it, and they’ll ask in every way possible so you can “technically tell the truth” while trying to weasel out of it. And if you do lie, and your lie gets caught, you’re toasted.
Depends where they sue him but regardless, when Disney’s lawyers serve you for x- million you have to lawyer up, that costs big money… can you afford a lawyer that would go up against Disney’s legal team…? I couldn’t…
Realistic likely hood: out of court settlement for 10s of millions.
Court settlement: who the fuck knows but realistically if your defense rests on ‘it wasnt me that leaked it i was hacked’ I suspect you best have the receipts to back that up in court and have experts willing to testify under oath…! Regardless of legal precedent and standing copyright law a part of the Mouse’s legal team would also be leaning on the politicians, judges and press to make 'an example, bare that in mind…
This is a firm that can hire Info-Sec specialists to prove that he wasn’t hacked and the exact path of the data and hold them in contract, well, permanently… it’d be like going toe-to-toe with the US government only laser focused and far more efficient… would you want to get into a he-said-she-said with the NSA…? No? Imagine if the NSA just wanted to fuck you up…! That’s what’d happen… The Mouse would financially cripple him or drive him to suicide…!
Disney is a monopoly with power akin to a nation state when it comes to their industry…!
If people get their hands on this game, via him, his life is pretty much over…
Why keep such an accomplishment secret?
One thing Disney is known for is relentless legal pursuit of IP theft. Oh, and cartoon movies. Sometimes they do that too.
But if he releases it and it’s alrdy out there, there’s nothing they can do
Disney would sue him so hard he’d spend the rest of his life in poverty…
What if he says he didn’t release it, he got compromised and his name isn’t in the credits?
Then he’d better be able to prove it in court or the mouse would eat him alive…
Wouldn’t the burden of proof be on them that he purposely released it?
You know it’s a lot easier to think about pulling a “Tee hee who released this game? Not me oops.” then it is to be the person staring down the idea of actually having consequences from it.
If Disney sues you, there’s basically no upside.
The downsides are, that even if you win or come to a settlement that you’re on the hook for lawyer’s fees. How many thousands of dollars do you have sitting around to burn on lawyers?
A settlement agreement would of course end with Disney getting the payout, not you. So, decide how much that is.
And that’s all assuming you end up either winning or not going to trial.
If you go to trial for IP infringement, it’s a civil case. That means that Disney doesn’t have to show proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but only that it is more likely than not you infringed. So if a jury needs to be 99% sure in a criminal trial, they only need to be 51% in a civil trial.
And for a trial you will be deposed, which is sat in a room an interrogated by Disney’s lawyers. And you have to answer their questions and you have to tell the truth. Want to pled the 5th? Guess what, it’s not a criminal trial so pleading the 5th in a civil deposition can be used against you to draw the worst inferences. They will ask if you worked on it, and if you distributed it, and they’ll ask in every way possible so you can “technically tell the truth” while trying to weasel out of it. And if you do lie, and your lie gets caught, you’re toasted.
Sounds fun right?
Depends where they sue him but regardless, when Disney’s lawyers serve you for x- million you have to lawyer up, that costs big money… can you afford a lawyer that would go up against Disney’s legal team…? I couldn’t…
Realistic likely hood: out of court settlement for 10s of millions.
Court settlement: who the fuck knows but realistically if your defense rests on ‘it wasnt me that leaked it i was hacked’ I suspect you best have the receipts to back that up in court and have experts willing to testify under oath…! Regardless of legal precedent and standing copyright law a part of the Mouse’s legal team would also be leaning on the politicians, judges and press to make 'an example, bare that in mind…
This is a firm that can hire Info-Sec specialists to prove that he wasn’t hacked and the exact path of the data and hold them in contract, well, permanently… it’d be like going toe-to-toe with the US government only laser focused and far more efficient… would you want to get into a he-said-she-said with the NSA…? No? Imagine if the NSA just wanted to fuck you up…! That’s what’d happen… The Mouse would financially cripple him or drive him to suicide…!
Disney is a monopoly with power akin to a nation state when it comes to their industry…!
If people get their hands on this game, via him, his life is pretty much over…
So then, are you just like poor forever if you lose? 10s of millions seems unrealistic to actually have to pay