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Kotaku - Microsoft Punishes Gears Leakers By Making Their Xbox Ones Unusable

Madness

Member
It's incredible that so many people don't realise how lightly these guys got off.

They broke a fucking NDA to release commercially sensitive material and some of you are saying MS should have just let it go quietly?

My god the naivety.

I like to imagine a lot of these people are kids or are unemployed and haven't seen the real corporate or job world. These guys essentially broke a contract, violated their agreement with VMC and Microsoft. Would you leak secrets about your job if it wasn't allowed? No. They're lucky they weren't sued in the thousands of dollars or even millions of dollars.

Losing a $350 console is pennies compared to what could happen if MS really wanted to be vindictive.
 

Apathy

Member
They broke an nda , they are in the wrong. The only issue I have is that they should just be fired and have the game removed from their machine not have their machine remotely disabled. I'm sure they have the tech to just remove their access to the game rather than the whole machine.
 

mrhej

Member
They deserved it, don't break your NDA ever. I know a few things about unannounced games due to being a QA tester but I'm not going to risk my job for a few minutes of internet fame.
 
Now is that in regards to accessing Live? I got the sense that MS completely bricked the system and allowed no games to be played.

Both console manufacturers can brick your console. If you don't agree with these practices, then don't click agree when you sign up and see how far it gets you.

When you sign up and click agree you agree to the following:

Sony:
http://www.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/terms-of-service/

Unless otherwise required by law, SNEI is not responsible for monitoring or recording any activity on PSN, including communications, although SNEI reserves the right to do so and you hereby give SNEI your express consent to monitor and record your and your Sub Account's activities and communications. SNEI reserves the right to remove any content and communication from PSN First Party Services at SNEI's sole discretion without notice and to terminate any account through which violations of the Community Code of Conduct occur. SNEI may also take steps on behalf of its device platform partners to disable permanently or temporarily any device on which you receive PSN First Party Services and through use of which you violate the Community Code of Conduct. SNEI may use any data it collects, including the content of your communications, the time and location of your activities, your Online ID and IP address and any other collectable data, to enforce this Agreement or protect the interests of SNEI, its affiliates, PSN First Party Service users or SNEI's or its affiliates' licensors. Such information may be disclosed to appropriate authorities or agencies. Any other use is subject to the terms of SNEI's Privacy Policy. SNEI has no liability for any violation of this Agreement by you or by any other PSN First Party Service user.

MS:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/Legal/livetou

3.1. What happens if I do not abide by this Agreement? If you violate this Agreement, we may take action against you including (without limitation) removing your content from the Services, suspending or cancelling your access to the Services, asking you to refrain from certain activities, blocking your console or device from accessing the Services, and/or referring such activity to appropriate authorities. In the event we take action against you for a violation of this Agreement, we may permanently delete, and you may permanently lose, some or all of the information or content associated with your Microsoft account and/or we may cancel your Services in their entirety. Content that is deleted may be irretrievable.

Also, cell phone kill switch incoming:

http://www.ctia.org/resource-library/press-releases/archive/ctia-announce-smartphone-anti-theft-voluntary-commitment

On another note, VMC is suing them for breach of contract. MS just did what they could under their EULA.
 

jesu

Member
I know both of these two guys, and they fail to mention it that the original person who leaked it has turned it round and proved it was not his fault, and later recieved a sorry letter and $1000

How did he prove it wasn't his fault when sending the picture was breaking his NDA?
 
Isn't breaking an NDA usually also accompanied with a fine? For the people angry about this, this is humane compared to what really a really pissed off contractor and his/her lawyers are capable of. Besides, I don't think leaking a video game remaster is worth defending a leaker for.
 

jem0208

Member
Seems like they got off pretty easily for knowingly breaking an NDA. Getting your Xbox locked isn't that big of a deal.
 
If you can do that, how about just denying access to the game so people can't make videos?

They already require you to do that yourself, but I guess MS can go out of there way and have the game automatically disable it.

However, people could still get our their phone and record it. As a result of that they include your console id and GT as a watermark on teh screen for additional protection.
 

Mael

Member
On 1 hand breaking a contract means that you suffer the consequences for it.
On the other hand remotely bricking your xbone is something I just won't suffer,
thanks for another reminder why I don't want your stuffs MSFT.
 

gai_shain

Member
If you can do that, how about just denying access to the game so people can't make videos?

how do you prevent people from videotaping their TV?

I think the punishement is too hard for first timers, banishing them from the program would have been enough.

Its not nearly hard enough and they are still going to be sued by VMC

On 1 hand breaking a contract means that you suffer the consequences for it.
On the other hand remotely bricking your xbone is something I just won't suffer,
thanks for another reminder why I don't want your stuffs MSFT.

I hope you dont own any other console or smartphone then

edit: I guess you own atleast one of the nextgen consoles?
 

zephry

Member
Both console manufacturers can brick your console. If you don't agree with these practices, then don't click agree when you sign up and see how far it gets you.

When you sign up and click agree you agree to the following:

Sony:
http://www.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/terms-of-service/



MS:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/Legal/livetou



Also, cell phone kill switch incoming:

http://www.ctia.org/resource-library/press-releases/archive/ctia-announce-smartphone-anti-theft-voluntary-commitment

On another note, VMC is suing them for breach of contract. MS just did what they could under their EULA.

Thanks for the heads up! Ugh....I don't know if I really like the digital age anymore. Time to go hug my PS1 and PS2.
 

TalonJH

Member
Isn't breaking an NDA usually also accompanied with a fine? For the people angry about this, this is humane compared to what really a really pissed off contractor and his/her lawyers are capable of. Besides, I don't think leaking a video game remaster is worth defending a leaker for.

They could be sued for for a dollar amount.
 

The Llama

Member
Kick them out of the program, absolutely. But essentially bricking their consoles too? That seems too harsh, but just IMO.

Edit: I've seen some other people suggest fines. I'd actually be more OK with Microsoft fining them than bricking their consoles, as odd as that might seem.
 
Were these account and Xboxes furnished by MS?

If not, wouldn't it be unethical to target these people's personal property as a response to a work related NDA?

The NDA likely covers the personal property used for testing. Especially in this case where it intersects with the EULA of your console.
 
It's incredible that so many people don't realise how lightly these guys got off.

They broke a fucking NDA to release commercially sensitive material and some of you are saying MS should have just let it go quietly?

My god the naivety.
They didn't necessarily get off lightly. The contractor they worked for forwarded the matter to their legal department, and they didn't say so but I'm sure the guys were fired. To keep getting jobs for companies like Microsoft the testing company may need to make an example of the leakers. And whomever leaked the email to Kotaku.
 

THRILLH0

Banned
On 1 hand breaking a contract means that you suffer the consequences for it.
On the other hand remotely bricking your xbone is something I just won't suffer,
thanks for another reminder why I don't want your stuffs MSFT.

Hope you don't own any Sony stuffs
 

hipbabboom

Huh? What did I say? Did I screw up again? :(
It's incredible that so many people don't realise how lightly these guys got off.

They broke a fucking NDA to release commercially sensitive material and some of you are saying MS should have just let it go quietly?

My god the naivety.

People who have no appreciation for how much hard work goes into bringing a product to market and the volatility of a marketing campaign and the impact of that on the success of a product certainly won't respect the importance of the idea of an agreement. It says a lot that the vocal dissenters also want you to fail. We wonder why our politics are such shit and yet look here as people can't even understand the most basic example of taking responsibility for ones own action. Its a damned shame.
 
If they signed an NDA, I guess they should be happy they are not getting sued.

Still, it's a bit disconcerting that Microsoft even have the possibility of doing this.
 
So this was the game that they were testing a few week ago...well fuck I should have done this.

Good, as part of VMCgaf I am glad they did this... Last time I tested a game through them someone leaked a game during my session and I had to go a couple months without a project because they blacklisted everyone participating in the tests until the perpetrator was caught...

I'm glad that more nda violators are being weeded out

I think you two will be great friends.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
One of my old business partners apparently is being sued for breaching his NDA. I had no idea. We were speaking to an investor about funding for a new project within the last 6 months, and he brought it up. And my partner (at the time) was like "Oh... you know about that." I had no idea, he hadn't disclosed that to me.

We had to remove him from the company in order to proceed forward. This shit gets you blackballed.
 

Chaos17

Member
lmao, you think there is the possibly of someone being a "second timer?"

Dude just leaked a multi-million dollar project. He's never getting work in this industry again.

Imagine that one day you get arrest for being drunk while driving would you've be happy that the police confiscate your car (for undertermined time period) for a first offense?

I bet no.
 
Should've had legal action taken against them IMO. Who's ever going to take their NDA seriously otherwise?

They got their consoles bricked and VMC is taking legal action.

MS did what it could under the terms the user agreed to and VMC will take legal action against them as they stated in their NDA.
 
All these people saying MS should fine them all. MS ain't got time for little things like that.

Banning console seems right. They knew the rules.
 
I think the punishement is too hard for first timers, banishing them from the program would have been enough.

Well, then there would be no such thing as a second timer, so the only punishment you would ever hand out is banishment and people would break their NDAs left and right without consequence.
 

TalonJH

Member
They could be sued for thousands of dollars. I'd gladly take a ban over that. Remember that these people were getting paid to test this game. NDAs are a very big deal. Every person that breaks VMC's NDA make them less attractive of a company to their clients. Millions of dollars could be lost if they don't plug leaks.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
People who have no appreciation for how much hard work goes into bringing a product to market and the volatility of a marketing campaign and the impact of that on the success of a product certainly won't respect the importance of the idea of an agreement. It says a lot that the vocal dissenters also want you to fail. We wonder why our politics are such shit and yet look here as people can't even understand the most basic example of taking responsibility for ones own action. Its a damned shame.

The funniest is the people going "oh gosh can you believe all this for nothing but hype??"

Ignoring that these NDAs protect trade secrets, ignoring that this is a highly competitive tech industry, ignoring that NDAs protect content creators... marketing and "hype" are not jokes. There are billions of dollars in this. Tanking a marketing campaign can destroy someone's career. As in, those working in marketing. In advertising, your portfolio's success dictates what type of work you get going forward.
 
Imagine that one day you get arrest for being drunk while driving would you've be happy that the police confiscate your car (for undertermined time period) for a first offense?

I bet no.
...you can't seriously be using drunk driving as a comparable example.
 

Shpeshal Nick

aka Collingwood
Kick them out of the program, absolutely. But essentially bricking their consoles too? That seems too harsh, but just IMO.

Edit: I've seen some other people suggest fines. I'd actually be more OK with Microsoft fining them than bricking their consoles, as odd as that might seem.

Makes no sense. The fine would be higher than the cost of replacing the console.
 
They could be sued for thousands of dollars. I'd gladly take a ban over that. Remember that these people were getting paid to test this game. NDAs are a very big deal. Every person that breaks VMC's NDA make them less attractive of a company to their clients. Millions of dollars could be lost if they don't plug leaks.

Still think they will get sued. From the letter:

While the tester who first took the screenshot didn’t think he was doing anything bad, he was still going against the NDA, and was part of the cause why the information got leaked. Because of this, both members were permanently removed from the community and addressed to our legal department, as per the terms of the NDA.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
Imagine that one day you get arrest for being drunk while driving would you've be happy that the police confiscate your car (for undertermined time period) for a first offense?

I bet no.

I don't drive drunk. And I've lost friends to drunk drivers. Fuck yes I would be fine with that. Drunk drivers are fucking shitheads. They deserve all the punishment they get.
 

Jachaos

Member
Well if they really did sign an NDA that clearly stated it could happen, if it had those terms and they agreed to them, I don't get the issue. They were fired and lost access to a 350$ console. That's not fun but they shouldn't have leaked the thing in the first place.

I've had to sign NDAs over time and have read all of them. They give you time for it (or at least they have in my case. If a company doesn't then that's just shady and you refuse to sign anyway) and all the terms were clear and not too binding. That they even get to play the thing in the situation they do should be enough for them to not break the terms they signed a contract for. It's unprofessional.

Facilities have magnetic-card access, secured networks with varying level of user permissions, a ban on USB-drives, cameras and smartphones within the testing areas (and not only at, say, Apple development locations but also at other video game testing companies).

These leakers don't have to deal with all this bullshit but I guess that's makes it more tempting. It's easy and they don't realize what an NDA actually means. If they were locking the XBL profile or suing these employees (who likely have low salaries) for big sums they couldn't possibly pay, I wouldn't be taking Microsoft's side on that one. But bricking a console isn't too harsh.
 

jmood88

Member
Gross shit all around.

At least corporations will be glad to read threads like this where we can clearly see people know their place in the world.
There's nothing gross about it. These people weren't tricked into signing the contracts; if they felt that the punishment was too punitive, then they never should have applied for the program. This is what happens when you don't read the things you sign and/or don't take them seriously. It's their own fault.
 
They got their consoles bricked and VMC is taking legal action.

MS did what it could under the terms the user agreed to and VMC will take legal action against them as they stated in their NDA.

Where does it say they are taking legal action? It just says it was being addressed by their legal team. That could mean anything. Surely we would've heard of past cases where a leaker was caught and prosecuted.

Who knows, this could be the first.
 
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