Sunday, June 10, 2007

I Knew You Guys Had a Smart Cookie Somewhere...

Canada Cal checking in again for Haley, who is still under threat of death or death threats or something. (Down sick, actually.) She has one shit-tee cel phone, lemme tell ya.

She mentioned that there's a new outfit down there called iMEGA, which a quick search says stands for the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association, which means it should really be 'IMEGA,' except the folks behind it want to be seen as 'Net-hip and cool. Or their caps-lock was on, either way.

Well, this "fledgling" or "unheralded" or "little known" trade organization decided to do what a whole lotta bigger boys have been too scared to do, and that's file for an injunction against the U.S. to stop the UIGEA from going into effect. Except maybe it's not fledgling or a fringe operation after all...?

There's a nice story over on Red Herring about the suit, which names U.S. Chief Dickhead Alberto Gonzalez as part of the action. It seems that the iMEGA suit, filed in New Jersey, by the way, is on behalf of several intentionally anonymous parties who, well... oh, hell, here's Red Herring's take:

iMEGA refused to divulge the names of its members in part because of the perceived possibility of legal retribution as a result of the lawsuit. Providing the government with a list of firms involved in some form of Internet gaming, it thought, could open the individuals up to indictments and arrest.

“It’s the nature of the issue at hand, and the nature of an entity which can take punitive action against the members,” said Eric Bernstein, iMEGA’s attorney. “There have been many other instances where groups bringing lawsuits against the government have not disclosed the identities of their members.”


It could be anybody, really, from major U.S. based affiliates to some of the big-time U.S. players associated with online rooms. And yes, it's perfectly legit to not disclose the identity of individual plaintiffs in an action of this type.

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