Suing A Gaming Website For Having The Same Name As A Game Character

Too Much Free Time

from the new-levels-of-brilliance dept

This one gets more amusing the further you read, but Boing Boing points to the story of a guy, Robert MacNichol, who is threatening to sue a gaming news website because they have a page describing a game that just happens to have a character named (yup) Robert MacNichol. Mr. MacNichol is apparently upset that, when Googled, this page comes out at the top of the list, leading some people to believe he’s a crazy video game character from a bad video game set before the Civil War, rather than someone living today, who apparently thinks you can sue random websites over Google results. The conversation with the gaming site gets more amusing as it goes on, leading to the gaming site pointing to a number of other Robert MacNichols online, and Mr. MacNichol eventually claiming that he would be “breaking new ground” once he successfully sues the gaming site. As proof that he’s likely to win, he points to the way-too-often-cited-and-usually-for-the-wrong-reasons case of the McDonald’s spilled coffee lawsuit (please, please, we’ve heard the arguments before — do NOT post comments about this lawsuit and how it was valid and blah blah blah… that’s not the point here). Of course, perhaps Mr. MacNichol is smarter than some are giving him credit for. In getting this story out there, and getting it on various blogs, it’s quite likely that future Google searches on his name will push down the gaming results… and increase the results that suggest he’s a bit trigger happy on questionable lawsuits.