Editing Frivolous litigation (section)

===''Romine v. Stanton''===
In March 2016, James Romine, one-half of the independent video games developer [[Digital Homicide Studios]], sued video game critic [[James Stephanie Sterling]] for criticizing the games published under his studios' name, seeking $10 million in damages for "assault, libel, and slander" to Romine's business. He claimed that Sterling's coverage of his studio's game ''The Slaughtering Grounds'' as "Worst Game of 2014 Contender" was not protected under [[fair use]] law because he did not believe it was "fair" criticism. An additional lawsuit for $18 million was filed against 100 users on the Steam gaming platform for criticizing their games and business practices, which he had interpreted as "harassment". The judge issued a [[subpoena]] against [[Valve Corporation|Valve]] to disclose the identities of those 100 users. This resulted in Valve removing all published games from Digital Homicide Studios.<ref name="azcentral">{{cite web |author=White, Kaila |date=September 21, 2016 |title=Free speech or criminal harassment? |url=http://www.azcentral.com/story/money/business/2016/09/21/yuma-digital-homicide-video-games-sue-users/90742572/.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161130182316/http://www.azcentral.com/story/money/business/2016/09/21/yuma-digital-homicide-video-games-sue-users/90742572/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin= |archive-date=2016-11-30 |access-date=2024-06-04}}</ref> In addition, Romine filed the lawsuit as an individual and not as a corporation, so such criticism was protected under the right to freedom of speech. The case was dismissed [[with prejudice]] in February 2017.<ref name="Kotaku">
{{cite web | url = https://kotaku.com/court-throws-out-digital-homicides-case-against-critic-1792599942 | title = Court Throws Out Digital Homicide's Case Against Critic Jim Sterling | date = February 21, 2017 | author = D'Anastalso, Cecilia |work=[[Kotaku]]}}</ref> This case is also an example of abuse of [[DMCA]] takedown requests on [[YouTube]].<ref name="aaronkellylaw">
{{cite web |author=Kelly, Aaron |date=October 28, 2011 |title=Filing A False DMCA Consequences |url=http://www.aaronkellylaw.com/consequences-of-filing-a-false-dmca-takedown-request/.html}}{{Dead link|date=March 2019|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}
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