Forklaring på Bruno's opførsel kan findes på BGG News:
Og Monseur Phals forklaring på hændelsen er oversat til engelsk her:So there's a video on Facebook of game designer Bruno Cathala shredding the cards from Witty Pong – a game he co-designed with Antoine Bauza that was published in 2011 by French publisher MyWittyGames – a video he described solely with the words: "Feel free to share...and like...but without comment of any kind."
Well, I'm a commenting kind of guy, so I thought I'd provide context for this bit of drama, something to explain why Cathala would destroy a copy of his own game. The reason becomes clear once you read this post (now not viewable without an account) by Monsieur Phal, editor of the French game site Tric Trac. In brief, the post explains that on Jan. 23, 2013, Tric Trac was visited by a bailiff and three national police officers with a demand for the IP addresses of six forum users who had participated in an act of denigration or public insult against the publisher.
Tric Trac was also notified that the sustainability of the publisher was being threatened due to a post by Monsieur Phal in which he noted that the publisher – which funds games along a Kickstarter model, but only for titles to be published under its banner – had raised €200,000 and he was curious about the publisher's future operations, given how different its business model is from other publishers. For now, Tric Trac has deleted the post as Phal notes that he didn't want to have to monitor all posts from users and worry about future visits from the bailiff. (For the same reason, he asks readers not to pile on to the publisher, but rather to let the facts lie where they will and get on with other things.) All of which lead to Cathala's apparent desire to disassociate himself from the publisher.
Grunden til at jeg lægger det her, er blot for det tilfælde at filerne skulle blive fjernet fra BGG.Dear Madam and Dear Sir,
On Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013, at about 10 am, we had the visit from a bailiff accompanied with 3 national policemen informing us that, according to the law, they had an act established at the request of Witty Editions INC., having for trade name "My Witty Games". The nature of this act was a "signification d'ordonnance sur requête".
In possession of a copy of the act, containing 167 pages, the bailiff asked us the access to the I.P. of 6 Internet users having posted in the forum of Tric Trac so that the lawyers of "My Witty Games" could "use them as proof within the framework of belittlement action (article 1382 of the Civil code), or even of a libel or public insult action r for public insult on the basis of the provisions of the article 29 of the law of July 29th, 1881 against the litigious messages. ".
We had no other solution than to supply these 6 I.P. and the e-mails of the accounts asked.
The next day, on Thursday, January 24th, 2013, we received a registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt of the law firm to which "My Witty Games" entrusted their interests. On three pages, they explain to us that I personally encouraged the Internet users " to come and comment on the various operations organized by Witty Éditions ", specifying that " their customer is presented from the beginning in a negative way".
After some examples of interventions on the aforementioned subject, the lawyer emits the hypothesis that all this establishes a belittlement and that the approach would aim at compromising, at slandering or at decreasing someone. The lawyer thus draws my attention on the fact that " the content of the accessible comments from the incriminated forum may engage the responsibility of the company Flat Prod ", as well as my personal liability as director of publication.
My attention is also attracted to the extremely harmful character of the denigrating comments held against My Witty Games, because " following the systematic attacks Witty Éditions is the object of, most of the authors and independent distributors refuse from now on to work with them. ", specifying that the sustainability of their customer is so " from now on threatened ".
All this to arrive to the demand which consists in deleting the subject " My Witty Games has just raised 200000€ " under 8 days, the law firm having received instruction to take against us any procedure necessary for the respect of the rights of his customer and for the protection of its interests.
All this to arrive at the demand(request) which consists in deleting(eliminating) the subject " My Witty Games has just raised 200000€ " in 8 days, the law firm having received instruction to commit(hire) against us any procedure necessary for the respect for the rights of his(her) customer and for the protection(saving) of its interests.
You will note that no legal action is committed yet. The purpose of all this is "to prepare" a file. It seems to us that the main will, the main motivation is the disappearance of the thread " My Witty Games has just raised 200000€ ". A subject which had no other purpose than to ask questions on the the way this publisher worked as it was quite different from the standards we were used to. A thread based on figures and comments publicly accepted and supplied by the aforementioned company. I believe that behind it there is a confession of failure with the intention to find a person to blame. And we would be this person to blame.
In front of this order, we reacted, of course, by contacting ourselves a lawyer and by informing the Internet users aimed by the search for I.P. According to his advice, we placed the thread in question in an unaccessible place to prepare an answer, because it is inconceivable, unbearable to think that a publisher, a company can press a media to remove analyses, reflections which disturb them, which do not go in their direction. If I can conceive that certain comments of Internet users were insulting, it seems to me that I moderated, as far as possible, of my own initiative, when I read them, or at the request of the aimed persons when they informed me, most of the rare uttered insults. It should be noted moreover that on some 3900 messages in the thread in question, only six messages were pointed as "offensive" or "slanderous", messages which were not indicated to me before receiving this request of the court or the letter of the law firm.
In these conditions, and as long as the law firms or the justice haven't reached a conclusion, we are going to remove from Tric Trac all the subjects - that we are capable of identifying as such and excepting this one - about "My Witty Games" because we cannot spend our time watching what will be said on this company, and we cannot take the risk of receiving bailiff, police and other letters of a lawyer every time something is said which doesn't go in their direction. That is why we ask you not to react hastily, to measure well your comments, or even to express yourself somewhere else that on this forum about this "business".
Things being what they are, I am need to specify that it is the first time in 12 years of existence that we have this type of attitude from one of the "actors" of the sector. We are for freedom of expression, even when it is at our expense, in our forum. Moreover, it is suggested in these documents of lawyers that Tric Trac belongs to 49 % to the CEO of Asmodee, rival company of "Witty Editions" and that my messages are " calls to criticisms " " under the guise of analyses ". Beyond the truthfulness of this information, I draw your attention on the fact that we speak on this site about all the publishers, the distributors, including competitors of Asmodee much more important than My Witty Games and that none of them complained about the treatment which is made for them or about any preferential treatment. Tric Trac is a interactive site open to all, and if it was the case, it seems to me that the remarks on this difference of treatment would be very numerous and more visible. Yet, it is not the case.
It seems to me it is unfair to let believe that we are at the origin of a systematic belittlement, with a will to damage them, even when, historically, we find in here articles welcoming "My Witty Games" when they arrived in the sector, articles calling the Internet users to go and visit their platform to support games, articles praising the virtues of some of their products. It seems to me rather incredible to assert that if nobody wants to work with them, it is altogether our fault, disregarding their behavior, their writings, their marketing methods and the quality of the products they offer. It would be giving us an importance which we do not have, that to believe that an "actor" of the sector cannot live without us, that to believe that our comments are more important than what a company provides to the public, that to believe that the readers who come here don't have any independant thinking. Paradoxically, according to My Witty Games's publications, their games sell very well and are successes. There is there, it seems to me, a contradiction. Especially when we are told that " the sustainability of their client is threatenend from now on ".
Be that as it may, during these 12 years, we worked as good as we could to advance a sector which we like, we tried to participate in the friendly image which it still has, we fought for the freedom of expression, for the right to say what we like or not to help the consumer to know what to choose in a market getting bigger and bigger. We won't let ourselves be demoralized by this type of procedure, we continue to believe that the information sites have and will have the right to inform and that the consumers have and will have the right to express theirselves. We refuse to believe that one day the Web will only a medium of dictated information from the publishers or distributors.
I suspect that after this article, a good many of you are going to want to react. I ask you to measure well your comments before posting wherever it is, to take care of not giving arguments to the lawyers of "Witty Editions INC". If you want to support us, to react, you always have the possibility of making it by e-mail.
This text does not seem to me defamatory, not offensive, it does not denigrate, it reports facts and feelings. A publisher sends us a bailiff, the police and lawyers, we announce it to our readers. We call for calm and restraint. I hope that we shall not be asked to remove it. If it was the case, I fear the worst for the future of Web.
Well to you of cordially
Monsieur Phal