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Anyone who has spent any time playing games online has come across someone like this. You know, the guy who seems to think that being as outrageously offensive as possible somehow translates as “I’m really cool and smart and funny”. Despite the fact that “cool”, “smart”, and “funny” are entirely obfuscated by the relentless torrent of immature invective and abuse flooding the voice comms anyway. So meet Erik Estavillo of San Jose, California. He’s a UCLA graduate, a PS3 and Resistance: Fall of Man fan, and apparently considers himself quite the cool, smart, and funny guy. Because he’s such a cool, smart, and funny guy, he’s also gotten himself permanently banned from the PlayStation Network.<\/p>\n
Predictably, Erik’s gone ahead and sued Sony for violating his First Amendment rights – that’s American for “I CAN SAY WHATEVER I WANT BECAUSE IT’S WRITTEN HERE IN THIS THING CALLED THE FIFTH AMENDMENT”. And like most Americans who pull the Fifth Amendment card in this sort of situation, of course, Erik’s got it all wrong because the Fifth Amendment binds only the US government, and not Sony Corp. Simply, the Fifth protects against self-incrimination by providing contexts in which people may refuse to speak to authorities. Historically, it’s related to the practice of torturing witnesses to extort information. So the Fifth is all about NOT talking, and has nothing whatsoever to do with saying whatever you like with no fear of repercussion. Erik might be a UCLA graduate, but he doesn’t seem to think very well at all. I’d make an egregious observation about the standards of American education here, but I won’t instead. <\/p>\n
On the other hand, Erik is in obvious violation of Sony’s EULA, which prohibits clearly stipulated disallowed modes of behaviour in multiplayer games, and states unequivocally that, “If you violate this Agreement in any manner, SCEA may at its discretion and without notice to you temporarily or permanently block your account and\/or reset your stats and\/or rankings in this game and any related games.” <\/p>\n
Undaunted by such vague considerations as demonstrable reality and personal dignity, Erik pursued his cause, serving Sony with a claim for US$55000, and asking the court to preclude Sony from banning players ever again. The case was promptly tossed out, citing the irrelevance of the Fifth Amendment on Sony’s network. That should’ve been the end of that, but there’s no cause like a lost cause, and there’s no innocent victim like a deluded, sanctimonious, bigoted ******* who got what was coming to him. Erik’s gone and appealed the decision, and slapped a US$180000 civil suit onto Sony for good measure. <\/p>\n
This frivolous (and doubtless doomed) litigation notwithstanding, here’s to Sony for chucking people who have no business gaming with other people anyway. Back in meatspace, we don’t tolerate this sort of behaviour without strict censure, and why should online gaming communities be any different? It’s like anonymity is an instant free pass to sociopathy these days, and it’s about time a few consequences were doled out. Meanwhile, someone over at Xbox Live HQ should take notes.<\/p>\n
Update <\/strong><\/p>\n In the meantime, to make sense of this then – Erik Estavillo claims Sony has impinged on his FIRST Amendment rights (which I managed to get right the first time around), which guarantee freedom of speech, but (crucially!) extend only to the public forum. Since Sony’s network constitutes a private forum, his claims for First Amendment rights are void.<\/p><\/div>\n