I don't see a legal basis to require Twin Galaxies to add Billy back into their listings. Billy's letter says that if they don't add him back in, he'll sue them for defamation. No idea if he's got a legal claim against Twin Galaxies. So far as I can tell, their statement was just that they caught him cheating at DK once. Unless he can prove that they knew or should have known he wasn't cheating but said it anyway, he's probably hosed. From a quick skim through his amateur evidence package (note to self, always start legal brief with booth girl pics), I don't see that happening.

Billy might have a claim against Guinness for implying that his unchallenged records "NEVER WERE," though their wording is careful and vague enough that they're probably OK. But even if he won that lawsuit, he's not going to get a court order requiring Guinness to identify him as the record holder going forward.

I understand Billy's overall beef -- by all accounts he legitimately set a bunch of records, and it seems a little weird to say that some other guy was the first person to "beat" Pacman when there's no reason to think that particular score was a cheat. But Twin Galaxies gets to set their own policies, and if it's "one strike and we erase you from history entirely" then so be it. And Guinness can rely on whatever sources they want to prove up the "world records" they chose to publish, even if that means they ignore a bunch of seemingly legit records in the process.

Well Twin Galaxies would say Billy wasn't just accused of cheating, he was found to have cheated following whatever their protocols are. At which point they not only DQ'd him for life, they scrubbed his old stats from the record books. Which seems extreme to me if some of those older scores are known to be valid, but hey, it's their record book so they can do whatever they want with it.

Critical question: is it "whoopy do" or "whoop-dee-do"?

Well, Apple knows best.

Banned for afterlife.

Is there a Gambling HOF? Seems like he'd be a shoe-in for that at least.

Andre would be a nice guy in real afterlife at this point. RIP.

Pretty safe bet, 97% of civil cases are dismissed or settled before trial!

And then that dramatic moment when, turning to the jury, the defense lawyer grabs Billy’s hair and gives it a solid tug, followed by “why won’t this wig come off?!?”

He's banned for life from having scores on the leaderboard that the videogame guys care about. Their policy is apparently that if you're caught cheating once, all of your scores are wiped and you cannot enter any new ones.

I get not liking the DK reinstatement, but you also have beef with Guinness printing his Pac-Man score? I don't think anyone's shown evidence that wasn't a legit score, it's just that Twin Galaxy nuked all of his scores when they determined that he cheated at DK. Which is their right, of course, but no reason Guinness has to follow that decision.

Not defending the guy’s behavior, but I’m sure he’s better than “average.” And if you put pretty much any champ from the 80s up against a modern competitor they’re not likely to shine. Time marches on, there are more and more humans in the world, and we keep getting incrementally better at most stuff.

Why would you do that? He’s old. He was one of the best in his day. But expecting him to beat the best in 2023 is unrealistic. What’s the sport/event where old men dominate?

57 seems kind of old to hope to dominate a fast-twitch reflex based competition. But I can't tell who is arguing what anymore in this discussion so I'll leave it there.

Just what he needs, another lawsuit!

It is puzzling why either side is willing to pay to keep this one in court. But sadly you can bet it's not even close to the dumbest litigation going on in our country right now.

Thumbs-up for posting a video less than 4 hours on the subject! Sounds like Billy can classify it as a "win" since his name and records now technically appear on the TG website. And TG doesn't have to put him back on the actual leaderboards and can move ahead pretending he doesn't exist.

This guy's also hilarious thinking he pressured Billy's lawyers into settling with TG. Trust me, plaintiffs lawyers don't give a shit what video game nerds on YouTube say about them, so long as the checks are clearing.

Sure, but how much money does TG want to spend on this crap? If Billy is banned from future records and they don't have to include him on any current leaderboards this seems like a good time for them to just walk away. For better or worse, it's a very high bar to force the other side to pay for your costs and fees in America, even when you win and the other guy's case was objectively stupid.

Hard to draw an opinion on what might happen since the settlement agreement is confidential, so we cannot tell if Twin Galaxies bent the deal to the point of breaking with their clever "historic records" page. If it's really obvious that they broke the deal it's a little funny that Billy would have waited months to go back to court to complain. Regardless, if the judge rules that Twin Galaxies' actions were in line with the letter of the agreement, I'm not sure Billy gains much by appealing other than running up yet more legal fees.

Maybe Billy could convince BK to start serving his hot sauce.

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