Donkey Kong Champion Wins Defamation Case Against Australian YouTuber Karl Jobst (theguardian.com) 58
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A professional YouTuber in Queensland has been ordered to pay $350,000 plus interest and costs to the former world record score holder for Donkey Kong, after the Brisbane district court found the YouTuber had defamed him "recklessly" with false claims of a link between a lawsuit and another YouTuber's suicide. William "Billy" Mitchell, an American gamer who had held world records in Donkey Kong and Pac-Man going back to 1982, as recognized by the Guinness World Records and the video game database Twin Galaxies, brought the case against Karl Jobst, seeking $400,000 in general damages and $50,000 in aggravated damages.
Jobst, who makes videos about "speed running" (finishing games as fast as possible), as well as gaming records and cheating in games, made a number of allegations against Mitchell in a 2021 YouTube video. He accused Mitchell of cheating, and "pursuing unmeritorious litigation" against others who had also accused him of cheating, the court judgment stated. The court heard Mitchell was accused in 2017 of cheating in his Donkey Kong world records by using emulation software instead of original arcade hardware. Twin Galaxies investigated the allegation, and subsequently removed Mitchell's scores and banned him from participating in its competitions. The Guinness World Records disqualified Mitchell as a holder of all his records -- in both Donkey Kong and Pac-Man -- after the Twin Galaxies decision. The judgment stated that Jobst's 2021 video also linked the December 2020 suicide of another YouTuber, Apollo Legend, to "stress arising from [his] settlement" with Mitchell, and wrongly asserted that Apollo Legend had to pay Mitchell "a large sum of money."
Jobst, who makes videos about "speed running" (finishing games as fast as possible), as well as gaming records and cheating in games, made a number of allegations against Mitchell in a 2021 YouTube video. He accused Mitchell of cheating, and "pursuing unmeritorious litigation" against others who had also accused him of cheating, the court judgment stated. The court heard Mitchell was accused in 2017 of cheating in his Donkey Kong world records by using emulation software instead of original arcade hardware. Twin Galaxies investigated the allegation, and subsequently removed Mitchell's scores and banned him from participating in its competitions. The Guinness World Records disqualified Mitchell as a holder of all his records -- in both Donkey Kong and Pac-Man -- after the Twin Galaxies decision. The judgment stated that Jobst's 2021 video also linked the December 2020 suicide of another YouTuber, Apollo Legend, to "stress arising from [his] settlement" with Mitchell, and wrongly asserted that Apollo Legend had to pay Mitchell "a large sum of money."
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Re:Proof, please. (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, but not because he actually dispelled any of the evidence that he cheated, but simply as part of a settlement to agree to end a years long series of lawsuits that was bankrupting them.
The guy really is by all accounts still a cheater, a douchebag, and a very motivated vexatious litigator.
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True. The title should have been 'donkey kong cheater'.
So I've been following this (Score:4, Interesting)
Oh and one more thing (Score:5, Informative)
There's also another score he submitted where you can very clearly see artifacts of software emulation that wouldn't be present on real hardware. That's how he originally got caught. Somebody looked at the video of his high score run and pointed out the artifacting. It's the kind of stuff you wouldn't know about unless you are really really deep into the programming emulation scene. Small differences in how the arcade cabinet boots up.
Make no mistake he absolutely cheated to get his scores. You'll notice that he didn't sue anyone in America and win. He needed countries where the libel laws favor the person suing.
And like I mentioned to the other guy everyone in the arcade scene knows this. Twin galaxies did not restore his scores. What they did is to satisfy a court order they took note of his scores in a background database that is meaningless to anyone who follows arcade scores.
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If you'd bother to read the article (yeah, that's gonna happen), he didn't sue over accusations of cheating, he sued over being accused of causing someone to commit suicide, based on . . . untrue information.
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The dude is a non-functional autistic
And you're so obsessed with him you're incapable of not talking about him.
So perhaps you're just as much a freak of nature.
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You'll notice that he didn't sue anyone in America and win. He needed countries where the libel laws favor the person suing.
You'll notice he didn't sue in America because the person didn't live in America. Karl Jobst is Australian, the *ONLY PLACE* you can sue him for libel is Australia, a land infamously known for *not* being as sue happy and tolerant of frivolous lawsuits in America.
This story also isn't about cheating. He didn't sue anyone about a cheating allegation, he sued someone for an allegation linking him to a suicide. Him being a cheater is irrelevant. Only one person made that allegation and got sued over it. Now do
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He played the game, he didn't alter code, he used a better stick to AID in winning..
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The whole premise of how Twin Galaxies operate their high score ranking is that the score must be done on original hardware, as it left the factory. Those are the rules you play by. Using a better stick is not using factory hardware, therefore the run was invalidated. You're in their house, you play by their rules.
as it left the factory = no repairs? and that = ol (Score:2)
as it left the factory = no repairs? and that = old games can't be used any more.
the rules allow repairs.
As for coin slots being changed to differnt coins / tokens?
card system?
DBA?
CC reader?
free play button?
What about official from the factory rom updates? That in some cases are installed in later runs of an game?
factory official conversion kits?
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> as it left the factory = no repairs?
Assuming the repair used OEM, or functionally identical aftermarket parts, repairs are fine. Replacing an OEM 4 way joystick with an aftermarket 8 way joystick (not functionally equivalent) like old mate Billy did, is not as it allows movements not intended by the game designers, thus making the game play different to the stock commercial cabinet. If they had a category specifically for DK with 8 way joysticks, he would be golden.
> The rules allow repairs.
Of cours
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8 way joysticks can be locked to 4 way mode. But you can't say it's 8 way from just an pic of it out side the cab.
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Those are the rules. If you break them, you're cheating. This isn't complicated.
You might not like the rules, but if you want to compete, you have to play by them.
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Because the rules state you can't use a better stick.
Specifically, the problem is with 8 way vs 4 stick.
This gives a significant advantage.
Other sports have limitations too, for example swimming determined that some of the full body suits count as cheating, and cycling out limitations on gear systems.
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Wikipedia has the gory details, complete with citations. My opinion is that the Donkey Kong and Pac-Man scores from the eighties are likely genuine and that's why he held the world records, not hold them.
Everything from his "comeback" this millennium should be taken with a truckload of salt. Some of it has of course been formally debunked and retracted.
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People don't like cheaters
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Re: Take that Karl Jobst! NERD FIGHT!!! (Score:4, Informative)
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After many years of being "out of stock" at $5 per bottle it is suddenly available now for $15 per 5 oz. bottle. That's an absurdly high price for any hot sauce, let alone one produced by a video game cheater.
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Oh and his hot sauce was terrible.
'Don't know why, but that made me lol, thanks.
Re: Take that Karl Jobst! NERD FIGHT!!! (Score:2)
Re: Take that Karl Jobst! NERD FIGHT!!! (Score:2)
Re: Take that Karl Jobst! NERD FIGHT!!! (Score:2)
Re: Take that Karl Jobst! NERD FIGHT!!! (Score:2)
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Billy? Is that you? We know you don't have defenders.
King of Kong (Score:3)
If you haven't seen the 2007 documentary film King of Kong, I recommend watching it.
Even if you have little interesting in the world of computer games, it's still a good film.
So we know for a fact the guy cheated (Score:3)
We also know that the video of the other high score run done was on mame or similar emulator because it exhibited behavior that you would only get on an emulator..
It's frustrating because these are details that to any nerd are blindingly obvious but to a jury facing a proper lawyer it would be easy to confuse them.
This is a gross miscarriage of justice and a horrific abuse of the legal system.
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It's frustrating because these are details that to any nerd are blindingly obvious but to a jury facing a proper lawyer it would be easy to confuse them. This is a gross miscarriage of justice and a horrific abuse of the legal system.
The suit was about Jobst having defamed Mitchell by falsely connecting a previous lawsuit to another Youtuber's suicide.
True but in America (Score:3)
And let's not kid ourselves this is about silencing a critic using the legal system. Which is way too easy to do.
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Most people think he did cheat, but most didn't dare bring it up in official language lest they catch a lawsuit.
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This is a gross miscarriage of justice and a horrific abuse of the legal system.
I agree. You passing a judgement on the completely wrong case on something irrelevant is very much a gross miscarriage of justice. This suit has zero to do with cheating. Try again. RTFS first.
The whole trial was not about the cheating (Score:5, Informative)
It was all about Jobst's comments about Mitchell re Apollo - who died.
He's still a cheater - the Judge said as much - but the defamation wasn't to do with that.
Lawyers (Score:2)
How much of that $350k are lawyers getting?
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In a just world, they'd get all of it and then some. Litigious scumbags shouldn't be rewarded for being litigious scumbags.
$15 hot sauce (Score:2)
Fair or not, I'm not paying $15 for a tiny 5 oz. bottle of hot sauce from anyone.
Billy Man Bad (Score:2)
Re: Billy Man Bad (Score:2)
Twin Galaxies changed rules and some things where (Score:2)
Twin Galaxies changed rules and some things where judges call like on stuff like leeching
Jobst screwed up with the Elon Quake scandal as we (Score:2)
Jobst ran a video accusing Elon of lying about being a good quake player here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
And in the video it turns out that Jobst did, in fact, find conclusive evidence that Elon did in fact come in second place in the first professional Quake tournament. Which is all Elon ever claimed. But Jobst still claims, somehow, that Elon is lying because it was A) a small tournament, and B) Elon had a fast internet connection from working at a startup. So what? The claim checked out. The fact
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I don't like lots of people, I suppose, but I don't just invent lies about them.
If you want to call yourself some sort of reporter as Jobst does, you can't undercover conclusive evidence someone wasn't lying and then still say they're lying if you have any integrity at all.
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The recent controversy about Musk wasn't about his Quake play, but yes, that video focuses mainly on the Quake angle. That's not all Elon ever claimed, though. Elon is shown in the video repeatedly saying things like:
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The tournament was for a few thousand dollars, if you think that Elon only getting $750 instead of a thousand makes any sort of difference for someone remembering something three decades later, I have a bridge to sell you.
The fact of the matter is that even if it was a small tournament, coming in second place is coming in second place, and it was the first professional Quake tournament, so to call Elon lying about it after finding proof he wasn't lying about it just shows that Jobst has negative integrity.