I somehow just now discovered the existence of Ryan Morrison (VideoGameAttorney on Twitter). His firm is the one h3h3productions ditched mid-lawsuit. In recent months, he's also gained another claim to fame - he's been claiming something about companies and fangames that would be terrifying if he weren't one of only two people claiming it, the other only popping up to back him up after his own claim.
According to him, while we all know about the fangames that get ignored and the one's that get C&D'd, there's a third category we have literally never heard about before. He claims that some/many/who-the-fuck-knows-how-many fangames have actually been the subject of lawsuits (to quote, 'o one owes you a C&D') that got settled for life-damaging or outright life-ruining sums of money, followed by NDAs that prevent anyone from talking about the lawsuits ever.
'Big if true' does not begin to describe this. Perhaps without fully realizing it, he's basically claiming to be the Corey Feldman of fangames, uncovering a horrible secret world of suffering. As previously mentioned, only one person has backed him up, the Reddit user LegalInspiration.
So what do we think? Telling the truth? Lying, and if so, why - to advertise himself?
Don't believe it. There's absolutely no reason for publishers to go through all that trouble and then not have it be publicly known. The only reason would be to use such drastic force as a deterrent, set an example for other people, but if it's kept secret then there's no use and a normal C&D would get the job done way quicker.
The industry is full of soulless hyper jews? Wow, nooooo waaaay oh my gosh.
Carter Mitchell
Because it makes stupid people like you talk about him you daft cunt. He's a leech that can't even begin to hold a candle to actual lawyers, the h3h3 situation showed this. Just ignore him till somebody actually credible talks about it.
Grayson Jackson
>ruined life >gonna honor an NDA
Why? What's there to lose at that point?
Carter Gonzalez
Also, he's claimed that Sega's love of fangames has unintentionally ruined a lot of lives (by making it seem okay to make fangames) - so evidently, he considers anyone who says he's full of shit to be part of the problem.
So if he's lying, he's got a good scam going - he's forbidden from presenting proof and anyone who says he's lying is, according to him, seriously hurting people.
Connor Sanders
people settle because they don't have the money to deal with a lawsuit.
the whole thing is stupid anyway because people just have to announce their fangame projects before they're even released. if you're going to make a fangame project, keep it as secret as possible until it's complete. even after that, make sure that no identifying information about the authors gets released. it's just a matter of discretion and anonymity
Andrew Lopez
He wasn't asking about the settlement, they were asking why someone would bother with honoring a non-disclosure agreement after their life gets ruined.
- helped me realize another reason - "If you continue work on your fangame a secret practice nobody ever talks about but it's totally real will DESTROY YOU FOREVER unless you change your game enough. I'll gladly tell you how much is enough... for a fee."
He's taking advantage of fangame C&D drama for money - targeting not only the people who already have C&Ds but everyone else too with his invented secret world Since it would be difficult if not impossible to disprove, people need to call him out on his shit..
Owen Nelson
Does anyone know why h3h3 ditched him during their lawsuit? They seemed so hype so have him when they first started getting sued.
he wasn't getting shit done so they switched to a REAL lawywer and voila! the case was wrapped up in less than a year.
Jaxon Gonzalez
According to this video - youtube.com/watch?v=m40bWgWH8Ro - they can't talk about the specifics. They're probably under an NDA. OH GEE WHO'S THE SHADOWY BAD GUY NOW HUH
Jack King
Your fucking dumb as fuck m8. The fuck is genueinyl wrong with you?
Law departments need to make themselves look useful to their bosses so they wont get downsized and fired. So if that does actually exist and is true. Then that is how they try to and stay employed. They also keep it mum under the gise of pr damage control to avoid the big as corps from seeming to evil and draconian towards their fans.
So law departments artificially inflate their worth as to not lose their job by doing this shit. If it does in fact exist of course.
And knowing how scumy those type of people get it is a plausible thing that can or does happen at least. Since like hell shit would almost genius to pull off since no one knows. Your bosses think you doing a good job protecting their shit. And no one is none the wiser as to just how huge of dicks they are actually being.
Camden Nelson
I am a game developer he's probably telling the truth, but i doubt it's common, I've never personally heard of anyone being sued for life-threatening sums of money, sound slike he's trying to be dramatic to be honest
Daniel Williams
>trying to make money
Fixed. See
Brody Parker
>Law departments need to make themselves look useful to their bosses so they wont get downsized and fired. So if that does actually exist and is true. Then that is how they try to and stay employed. Would a C&D suffice for this, or would it have to be a lawsuit?
Jack Adams
The remaining question: why is he literally the first we've ever heard anything about this ever?
Cooper Bailey
Why, because a person that markets themselves based upon the fact that they're a 'video game lawyer' but couldn't fight an actual case never came forward and asserted with literally no evidence before. Silly.
Oliver Carter
The other layer Reddit user mentioned in the OP has backed him up, claiming to have seen it happen. Piggybacking on the scam? In cahoots?
Austin Harris
Stop trying to make this into a 'thing'. There's no cahoots. There's no scam. It's just a bunch of irrelevants trying to become relevants. If there is any stock in what he's saying (which I doubt) he will create whistleblowers. Until then: Quit giving him what he wants. Ignore him and his buttbuddy.
