Gawker media's gaming site, Kotaku, dodged a lawsuit as the Federal Court of appeals threw out anti-video game lawyer (that's what the press is calling him) Jack Thompson's suit against the blog and Gawker media, which alleged that Kotaku's damning coverage and ruthless commenters responding to Thompson's blame-the-video-game rant after the Virginia Tech massacre were somehow threatening. The Federal Court of Appeals gave Thompson the big Pssshaw, and abruptly dismissed the case. CNET sums it up nicely:
Thompson had claimed that Kotaku and Gawker Media had failed to honor his requests to remove "threatening" comments from several of their blog posts that were critical of his eagerness to blame video games for the tragic Virginia Tech shootings earlier this month.On Wednesday, Thompson had added the blog-publishing company, which also operates other popular blogs like Gizmodo, Wonkette, and Valleywag, to a list of defendants in a suit he was filing against the Florida Bar and state Supreme Court. Judge Huck threw out the case because it appears that Thompson had failed to follow the proper procedure for amending a complaint to add new defendants.
This is not only a great day for Kotaku, but also a great day for Valleywag, which gets to be called "popular" in a national news story.
Kotaku Suit Goes Bye-Bye Over Thompson Screw-Up [GamePolitics]
Jack Thompson Speaks on VA Tech [YouTube]
