When reporting this story, the sentence, "Never give your e-mail to anyone you don't trust," seems to come to mind. A Japanese man was bombarded with account re-registration e-mails from Final Fantasy XI's PlayOnline launcher, eventually bringing him to the point where he called Square-Enix and asked them to stop sending him the e-mails. The odd part about all of this is that he never played, or even touched Final Fantasy XI.
It seems that one of the gil/item sellers in Japan got hold of his e-mail address, and was using it to create all of their accounts that they use to spam FFXI. Of course the accounts were banned shortly after their creation, but the gilseller continued using the e-mail, creating a tidal wave of spam for this man's e-mail client.
After calling Square-Enix and being told that they could not stop the messages from being sent to his inbox, the man took Square-Enix to court in early 2007. His case was originally denied, but he appealed and won. Now Japan's High Court has blocked Square-Enix's appeal, and the man has been awarded a whopping 56,000 yen. Yes, that's right, two years of legal wranglings for only 556 US dollars and a clean e-mail inbox.
Reader Comments (5)
Posted: Jan 27th 2009 8:36PM Holgranth said
Ah Asians, HATE the games, LOVE the people.
Posted: Jan 27th 2009 9:45PM ultimateq said
I think its awesome that he won. I think its hilarious that he won so little.
Posted: Jan 27th 2009 11:13PM (Unverified) said
He should have lived in Canada, if this court thing happened in Canada, and square enix was a canadian company, that man would have been awarded ALOT of money....our courts are right fucked up like that...
Posted: Jan 28th 2009 12:12AM hami83 said
No he wouldn't. Our legal system is right fucked up alright, but the courts would probably side with the company, especially if it was a Canadian company. lol I'd like to see someone win any lawsuits against Rogers...Man our telecommunications system sucks ass.
Either way, how does this stop his email from being spammed? Unless, since the guy doesn't play FFXI they completely ban that email account, which is something they probably should've done as soon as they heard what is happening.
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Either way, how does this stop his email from being spammed? Unless, since the guy doesn't play FFXI they completely ban that email account, which is something they probably should've done as soon as they heard what is happening.
Posted: Jan 28th 2009 5:02PM (Unverified) said
Kotaku got the story wrong. The man wasn't receiving e-mails but actual mailings.
http://petfoodalpha.com/2729/man-files-suit-against-se-wins
http://petfoodalpha.com/2729/man-files-suit-against-se-wins







