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Former Bungie, Pokémon lawyer explains how they caught leakers

bloomberg.com

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Re: Former Bungie, Pokémon lawyer explains how they caught leakers

#61

Post by roastedpeacock »

chx wrote: post #53
saberience wrote: post #40

What's bizarre is that this guy says that tracking down this kid (who btw didn't try to hide at all) made him a "legend" at Pokemon. Quote from the article: "Which was fantastic. Absolutely baked my legend in at Pokémon for like five years." Don McGowan is a legend though, a legendary asshole for being proud of bullying a curious kid that was poking around in legally obtained game-files.

What's even worse that this asshole was legally correct, of course he was, one of the bad laws is the passage of DMCA which bans circumventing digital protections. That's how you get bullshit like DVD Jon who was accused of trespassing on his own computer.

a) DMCA does not apply the same to all countries

b) With the way politics is going in USA I am not optimistic about DMCA reform until the heat-death of the universe.

Re: Former Bungie, Pokémon lawyer explains how they caught leakers

#63

Post by yupyupyups »

n4r9 wrote: post #59
gorgoiler wrote: post #52

The anecdote about setting the lawyers on the kid who extracted the art assets from Pokémon.exe feels like a real ethical low point. If you’re a lawyer going after children who take the screws out of the backs of alarm clocks then I’m afraid you’re the bad guy. People like that ought to be held accountable by their regional bar association.

It's tempting to feel bad for the kid, but he knew exactly how to not get any threatening phone calls: never unscrew anything. The parents are liable for leaving screwdrivers in accessible places. The inside of alarm clocks are our currency , for God's sake. If you ask me, every screw should have a uniquely shaped slot in the head and come with a single matching drill bit. This reckless screw compatibility situation…

It is of paramount importance that IP is protected.

With an electricution mechanism perhaps?

Re: Former Bungie, Pokémon lawyer explains how they caught leakers

#64

Post by xeonmc »

constantcrying wrote: post #5

> "A veteran investigator of video-game leaks reveals the tricks of the trade" Complete lie by the way. The highest revelation is that the found out that some streamer leaked something, because they noticed the leaked photos had the same icons as he did. Besides bullying a kid, this is just irrelevant.

This reminds me of how the head of Riot Vanguard basically just amounts to snitching in Discord servers/forums of paid cheats for info rather than actual technical mitigation.

[1] info about Vanguard: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40242692

Re: Former Bungie, Pokémon lawyer explains how they caught leakers

#65

Post by Nexxxeh »

saberience wrote: post #40

What's bizarre is that this guy says that tracking down this kid (who btw didn't try to hide at all) made him a "legend" at Pokemon. Quote from the article: "Which was fantastic. Absolutely baked my legend in at Pokémon for like five years." Don McGowan is a legend though, a legendary asshole for being proud of bullying a curious kid that was poking around in legally obtained game-files.

I dunno. I usually read HN comments before the article, so I know what to look out for when reading it. But that's not the tone I'm getting here.

>So I called his mom and said, ‘Listen, I wanted to tell you some things that Andrew is doing on the computer.’ She says, ‘So you’re saying he hacked your game.’ And I hear in the background: ‘I didn’t hack anything!’ I start describing it more technically. She says, ‘Is this a problem?’ I say, ‘Hacking software, that’s a federal crime, but I don’t want that to be the conversation. Why don’t we make it a conversation about the good and bad things he can do with a computer?’

>The kid was live-tweeting it. The tweets were this:

>1.Pokémon just called my house. >2.What the hell is a general counsel? >3.I now know what I did was wrong, and I’ll never do it again.

>Which was fantastic. Absolutely baked my legend in at Pokémon for like five years.

Yeah, the DMCA is bullshittery, but it's a legal weapon that the GC is expect to wield for his company.

He did his job, in a way that had no legal consequences for the kid, and still got the result his company needed.

That seems like the correct way of handling it. Is it ideal from a societal perspective? No, the DMCA should be gutted. But from a practical perspective, this was a win all around.

And the kid was hopefully pushed away from trouble, at least until they were old enough to cover their tracks better.

Re: Former Bungie, Pokémon lawyer explains how they caught leakers

#66

Post by burnished »

iwontberude wrote: post #31
burnished wrote: post #18

Don McGowan, what a shitbird. Calls up this kid's mom to insinuate the kid has done wrong and raise the threat of a serious criminal accusation. Kinda seems like you shouldn't be allowed to practice law after that. I thought lawyers were supposed to have standards?

Lol and then he brags about it to a reporter. Fucking douche canoe.

It just occurred to me that he doesn't think what he did was wrong, it sounds even like he received professional praise for it.. and thats probably because they all viewed it as a light touch. This was probably seen as easier (maybe even kinder) than the legal threats they would have otherwise started with or moved to.

Re: Former Bungie, Pokémon lawyer explains how they caught leakers

#67

Post by [deleted] »

Nexxxeh wrote: post #65
saberience wrote: post #40

What's bizarre is that this guy says that tracking down this kid (who btw didn't try to hide at all) made him a "legend" at Pokemon. Quote from the article: "Which was fantastic. Absolutely baked my legend in at Pokémon for like five years." Don McGowan is a legend though, a legendary asshole for being proud of bullying a curious kid that was poking around in legally obtained game-files.

I dunno. I usually read HN comments before the article, so I know what to look out for when reading it. But that's not the tone I'm getting here. >So I called his mom and said, ‘Listen, I wanted to tell you some things that Andrew is doing on the computer.’ She says, ‘So you’re saying he hacked your game.’ And I hear in the background: ‘I didn’t hack anything!’ I start describing it more technically. She says, ‘Is th…

[deleted]

Re: Former Bungie, Pokémon lawyer explains how they caught leakers

#69

Post by thrance »

Nexxxeh wrote: post #65
saberience wrote: post #40

What's bizarre is that this guy says that tracking down this kid (who btw didn't try to hide at all) made him a "legend" at Pokemon. Quote from the article: "Which was fantastic. Absolutely baked my legend in at Pokémon for like five years." Don McGowan is a legend though, a legendary asshole for being proud of bullying a curious kid that was poking around in legally obtained game-files.

I dunno. I usually read HN comments before the article, so I know what to look out for when reading it. But that's not the tone I'm getting here. >So I called his mom and said, ‘Listen, I wanted to tell you some things that Andrew is doing on the computer.’ She says, ‘So you’re saying he hacked your game.’ And I hear in the background: ‘I didn’t hack anything!’ I start describing it more technically. She says, ‘Is th…

I mean, you are right but it still feels wrong to see a lawyer bragging on the internet about shutting down a kid that basically just peeked in a toy his parents brought him.

Re: Former Bungie, Pokémon lawyer explains how they caught leakers

#70

Post by neilv »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #17
greyface- wrote: post #2

The "wildest story of a leaker you dealt with", where they describe bullying a child for perfectly legal behavior, certainly was interesting.

The whole "oh I have totally pure motives for wanting to identify someone saying they're being sexually harassed" angle was a little more concerning. It's wild so many comments thusfar are about that and not about the blatant bullshit around why he hunts down sexual harassment victims.

Yeah, the lawyer's description of the approach there sounded a little off, and that part of the discussion overall sounded... incomplete.

I believe that his job was to protect the company.

Knowing the truth of the situation might be one of the first things they want, but that's not the only thing on their mind and influencing their actions.

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