Digital Homicide: "Gabe, we're suing you for usernames"
Gabe:
But they have the usernames... they're suing for the real names and, presumably, addresses.
What a poorly constructed complaint. The causes of action are just inexplicable. I realize he's a pro se litigant, but, damn. He really shouldn't have even bothered.
Count I - Conspiracy to Commit Violation of Civil Rights --
Nope.
Count II - Disorderly Conduct --
What the fuck? Nope.
Counts III - Stalking --
Sues under a criminal statute. I can find no civil cause of action in Arizona for "stalking."
Count IV - Harassment --
Sues under a criminal statute. I can find no civil cause of action in Arizona for "harassment".
Count V - Criminal Impersonation --
Sues under a criminal statute. I can find no civil cause of action in Arizona for "criminal impersonation," though identity theft and/or, possibly, invasion of privacy are potential analogues for the facts he's alleging.
Count VI - Tortious Intentional Interference with Contractual Relations with Valve --
Finally, an actual, potentially appropriate, cause of action. However, Arizona requires a plaintiff to allege that they "suffered damages due to the breach or termination of the contractual relationship," and Romine fails to allege that Digital Homicides' contract with Valve was breached or terminated in any way. So...
Count VII - Tortious Intentional Interference with Contractual Relations with Digital Homicide Studios LLC --
What the fuck?
Count VIII - Libel Per Se -
I think Romine misunderstands the type of statements which constitute libel per se versus libel per quod. There may be a cognizable claim here for libel per quod, but not per se.
Count IX - Unjust Enrichment -
What the fuck? He doesn't make a claim for unjust enrichment, and asks for damages equal to anything the purported defendants have ever made or ever will make from anything video game related, from creating games, to streaming/publishing videos on Twitch and YouTube. Just, wow.
Count X - Restitution --
Again, what the fuck? There is no cause of action for restitution.
Count XI - Negligence --
Other than the fact that Romine has alleged nothing but intentional acts, there's nothing wrong with this claim. He uses the language "reckless disregard" with indicates to me that maybe he meant to file a claim for wantonness? Who knows.
Other than the issues above, the biggest thing that sticks out to me, is that Romine doesn't even seem to have standing to assert these claims. All of these claims, to the extent that they exist, would seem to belong to Digital Homicide Studios LLC. Hell, Romine even realizes this with respect to his Criminal Impersonation claim, where he writes:
143. This cause of action may not be representable by The Plaintiff except by The Plaintiff's ownership of 35% of Digital Homicide Studios LLC. This representation is left up to the The Court. Cause of action dropped if The Court decides against.
I'm not sure why he thought there might be an issue with respect to
this claim, but not to the others.
Of course, we know
why he filed suit as an individual and not as Digital Homicide Studios LLC: corporations are not allowed to represent themselves pro se in federal court. They must be represented by an attorney. Even if Digital Homicide could find an attorney willing to take the case, I doubt they'd find one willing to do this on contingency. "Sure, let's sue 100 random Steam users. I'm sure our potential $18m judgement will absolutely be collectable." Nope.