Nothing raises more bad PR in an industry than launching lawsuits against people that are clearly in the right.
In a lapse of judgement, Starforce threatened BoingBoing’s Cory Doctorow because of comments he made on his blog. The comments, very benign in their nature, outlined the serious programming issues that were being placed on user’s machines when StarForce was used.
StarForce, for those who are not aware, is one of the popular anti-copying technologies used in PC video game products. What’s important to note here is that Cory’s comments are supported with undeniable evidence on his site. Just as the Sony BMG “rootkit” was an idea-gone-bad, so was the implementation behind StarForce.
But to threaten a lawsuit for someone to raise these issues is clearly not a good idea. So there’s a few bugs – you iron them out and move on. You come out with a better version. What you don’t do is sue the person that spoke of these issues to begin with. It’s not just a case of bad PR: it’s simply plain stupidity.
From: “Dennis Zhidkov”
Date: January 31, 2006 9:55:40 AM BST
To: “doctorow@craphound.com”
Subject: StarForce Response to Cory DoctorowStarForce Inc. response to Mr. Cory Doctorow
Dear Sir, calling StarForce “Anti-copying malware” is a good enough cause to press charges and that is what our corporate lawyer is busy doing right now. I urge you to remove your post from http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/30/anticopying_malware_.html because it is full of insults, lies, false accusations and rumors. Your article violates approximately 11 international laws. Our USlawyer will contact you shortly. I have also contacted the FBI , because what you are doing is harassment.
Sincerely,
Dennis Zhidkov
PR-manager
StarForce Inc.
My honest opinion is that this is more of a scare tactic than anything. I can’t fathom of a single law that was violated here. It is not libel, because the information is both true and this is a declared personal opinion. It is not a violation of the DMCA. StarForce is based in Moscow, which complicates matters. Finally, this was not written by a lawyer, but by a PR Exec.
A PR Exec that should have known better than this.