Jason West and Vince Zampella's lawyer claims Activision tried to involve Microsoft in "Project Icebreaker."
"Project Icebreaker" (you may add a "DUHN DUHN DUHN!" if you feel the need to) was, according to the testimony of Thomas Fenady, the name given to an attempt to access Call of Duty creators Jason West and Vince Zampella's email accounts and voice mail. Fenady, apparently acting on the orders of Activision's in-house lawyer, George Rose, ran into trouble after bypassing Infinity Ward's firewall, so he decided to call tech support.
"He sees there is a firewall there, but he breaks through the firewall", said West and Zampella's lawyer, Robert Schwartz. "He's now seeing their email server, but he can't make any sense out of it. So he calls Microsoft and says, 'Hey we have this Microsoft Exchange server out at Infinity Ward. Can you help us figure out how to break the password and read the emails?'"
"Microsoft said, 'Do you have a court order? This makes us feel very uncomfortable.'"
Fenady ran into the same problem when he approached IT firm, InGuardians. The Washington, DC-based firm turned the job down due to the "legal hurdles" it represented. Fenady then began planning something a little more extravagant: He apparently approached Activision's Facilities Department and asked them to stage a "fake fumigation" and a "mock fire drill" in order to allow him to access the files the old fashioned way. That plan never came to fruition.
What's strange about this is not that Activision wanted to see the contents of West and Zampella's inbox - that kind of employee surveillance is nothing special in companies the size of Activision - but that Fenady, who was Activision's Director of IT at the time, and thus likely to be a network administrator, needed to approach outside sources to acquire the information Rose wanted.
Schwartz made the claim in a recent interview with Game Informer. In the same interview, West and Zampella offered a fairly droll summary of their take on the ongoing court case.
"They say that Modern Warfare 3 would have been a much better game and would have made 700 million more dollars for them and they want us to pay that," said Zampella.
"We deprived them of our services by being fired and therefore we owe them money," added West.
So... he called tech support. To help him break into a system that he either wasn't supposed to be entering due to legal issues or just privacy. ...I wanna try that. Call up Microsoft and ask them if they can help me get the hash for someone's Windows OS. Should be fun.
Also, West and Zampella? Don't act like victims because you two tried to fuck over Activision and it bit you in the ass. You know who the real victims were? Your employees that got taken out with you because you tried to fuck your boss over.
Kapol: So... he called tech support. To help him break into a system that he either wasn't supposed to be entering due to legal issues or just privacy. ...I wanna try that. Call up Microsoft and ask them if they can help me get the hash for someone's Windows OS. Should be fun.
Microsoft: Do you have a court order?
Kapol: ...yes?
MS: OKAY, LET'S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD!!
OT - Seeing the court case summed up by Zampella and West just makes it sound even more absurd. The evidence just keeps piling up as well; I can't really see how Activision are going to lawyer-talk their way out of this one.
Personally... I would have taken those 2 accounts, added a half dozen random accounts - maybe from the same user group, and reset all the passwords over-night - then accessed the emails and documents, and made up some story about user accounts being corrupted, and have them set new passwords :D. I've had to do something similar, when a confidential email got sent to the wrong user - I changed the password, got rid of the errant email, and got the user to set a new password the next day. Maybe I'm a good liar though, when it's not someones job in the balance at least.
For the guys to do that, they'd need to:
Be at work after the 2 developers. Know how to open up Active Directory and right click a user name.
There is always a way - asking Microsoft to hack, or even admit that it's possible to hack an exchange server is fully retarded, imagine if they admitted that it's possible for them to access any Exchange server email, how much trust would people have in Exchange servers after that!.
Activision's claiming damages due to having to fire them? Really? REALLY? We're going to go down that path now? I mean the big publishers have come up with some dumb excuses lately as to why their games didn't meet forecasts... but this...
Also, West and Zampella? Don't act like victims because you two tried to fuck over Activision and it bit you in the ass. You know who the real victims were? Your employees that got taken out with you because you tried to fuck your boss over.
To be fair, if they're trying to get money out of them (money they now have a bit more of due to Activision giving the bonuses back a couple days before a court date) because they weren't around to work on a game they had no legal obligation to make, seeing as they were fired then I kinda see their point.
Also, West and Zampella? Don't act like victims because you two tried to fuck over Activision and it bit you in the ass. You know who the real victims were? Your employees that got taken out with you because you tried to fuck your boss over.
You seem to have a lot more information on this than I do.
I was on the understanding that West and Zampella where the only ones fired from Activision. I believe the rest of the employes left on there own accord, and the ones that decided to stay are still employed by Activision.
I also was assuming that the lawsuit was a way for both parties to show how they were wronged, and was hoping the outcome of the suit will hopefully shed more light on what really happened.
Why is it that every time I read a new story about this little Hatfield and McCoy feud we've got going on here, all I can think of is Wille Coyote trying to hack the Road Runner's interwebz? :P
"They say that Modern Warfare 3 would have been a much better game and would have made 700 million more dollars for them and they want us to pay that," said Zampella.
"We deprived them of our services by being fired and therefore we owe them money," added West.
Exactly HOW is it West and Zampella fault in that matter if they are FIRED? :/ If they ditched the company then yes it might be valid but if they are fired they should not owe them money for things they can't give.
Had it been one thing to hack an outside company or personal accounts I see major problems, I don't see it as being as big a deal hacking a subsidiary of the company. A company email and voice-mail accounts are part of the company and should only be used for company business. Any private communications used by company property are not treated as personal(private) matters.
"They say that Modern Warfare 3 would have been a much better game and would have made 700 million more dollars for them and they want us to pay that," said Zampella.
"We deprived them of our services by being fired and therefore we owe them money," added West.
Exactly HOW is it West and Zampella fault in that matter if they are FIRED? :/ If they ditched the company then yes it might be valid but if they are fired they should not owe them money for things they can't give.
They ditched the company while UNDER CONTRACT with a no-competitive clause. They broke the contract by making contact with EA, then Activision fired them for breach of contract.
Activision had evidence, but it was not solid, so they started "Project Icebreaker" to get more evidence both men were in contact and negotiations with EA.
"They say that Modern Warfare 3 would have been a much better game and would have made 700 million more dollars for them and they want us to pay that," said Zampella.
"We deprived them of our services by being fired and therefore we owe them money," added West.
Exactly HOW is it West and Zampella fault in that matter if they are FIRED? :/ If they ditched the company then yes it might be valid but if they are fired they should not owe them money for things they can't give.
They ditched the company while UNDER CONTRACT with a no-competitive clause. They broke the contract by making contact with EA, then Activision fired them for breach of contract.
Activision had evidence, but it was not solid, so they started "Project Icebreaker" to get more evidence both men were in contact and negotiations with EA.
That is just Activision's side of the story, you have ZERO idea if that is true or not.
Exactly HOW is it West and Zampella fault in that matter if they are FIRED? :/ If they ditched the company then yes it might be valid but if they are fired they should not owe them money for things they can't give.
They ditched the company while UNDER CONTRACT with a no-competitive clause. They broke the contract by making contact with EA, then Activision fired them for breach of contract.
Activision had evidence, but it was not solid, so they started "Project Icebreaker" to get more evidence both men were in contact and negotiations with EA.
That is just Activision's side of the story, you have ZERO idea if that is true or not.
You'd have to be an idiot to think that two days after they got fired, they magically got their own studio at EA with no prior contact.
nyttyn: I am fairly sure that talking to other people isn't a violation of contract.
Excuse my above statements, non-competes are void in California, so I'm guessing there is something else in that Contract that bars them from doing business with EA that upset Activision.
They ditched the company while UNDER CONTRACT with a no-competitive clause. They broke the contract by making contact with EA, then Activision fired them for breach of contract.
Activision had evidence, but it was not solid, so they started "Project Icebreaker" to get more evidence both men were in contact and negotiations with EA.
That is just Activision's side of the story, you have ZERO idea if that is true or not.
You'd have to be an idiot to think that two days after they got fired, they magically got their own studio at EA with no prior contact.
Thanks for indirectly calling me an idiot. Anyway, they knew what has happening before the day they actually got fired, if you knew the company you were working for was looking to fire you wouldn't you put feelers out? Who exactly acted in bad faith here? And only an idiot would believe that any major publisher wouldn't want to scoop up the people responsible for the biggest franchise in gaming history.
unacomn: If someone in Hollywood is listening, I want to see "Opration Icebreaker"-The Movie!
Please don't give them the encouragement, isn't Battleship enough?
OT: Activision's management (Kotick) is really getting retarded every year. First they fire West and Zampella and now this? Wow. This story is either a rejected movie script or a really badly written fan-fiction.
nyttyn: I am fairly sure that talking to other people isn't a violation of contract.
Excuse my above statements, non-competes are void in California, so I'm guessing there is something else in that Contract that bars them from doing business with EA that upset Activision.
I'm going with the more likely scenario that activison is fucking retarded and just wanted to deny them bonuses.
And then sue them.
For not making games because they weren't even working there.
Seriously how the fuck was that even allowed into a court of law.
They called tech support for hacking help. Most people are smart enough not to call tech support for tech support unless they HAVE to, but not these guys.
This is like watching guys who think they're Neo and company when anyone can see it's a bunch of monkeys and a football.
But bonus points for making Microsoft uncomfortable. That, at least, takes talent.
That is just Activision's side of the story, you have ZERO idea if that is true or not.
You'd have to be an idiot to think that two days after they got fired, they magically got their own studio at EA with no prior contact.
Thanks for indirectly calling me an idiot. Anyway, they knew what has happening before the day they actually got fired, if you knew the company you were working for was looking to fire you wouldn't you put feelers out? Who exactly acted in bad faith here? And only an idiot would believe that any major publisher wouldn't want to scoop up the people responsible for the biggest franchise in gaming history.
Why did Activision want to fire them? I'm genuinely confused here. From everything I've read (mostly just the articles here on the Escapist), it sounds like the entire lot of them need their heads banging together; no-one seems to come out of this totally clean.
You'd have to be an idiot to think that two days after they got fired, they magically got their own studio at EA with no prior contact.
Thanks for indirectly calling me an idiot. Anyway, they knew what has happening before the day they actually got fired, if you knew the company you were working for was looking to fire you wouldn't you put feelers out? Who exactly acted in bad faith here? And only an idiot would believe that any major publisher wouldn't want to scoop up the people responsible for the biggest franchise in gaming history.
Why did Activision want to fire them? I'm genuinely confused here. From everything I've read (mostly just the articles here on the Escapist), it sounds like the entire lot of them need their heads banging together; no-one seems to come out of this totally clean.
Well the implication is, and there has been a little bit of proof released, is that Activision didn't want to have to pay the royalities that were due to the creators, as they the amount was relatively large. Of course it was only going to be a large amount b/c the game did huge business and made Activision a ton of money, which the franchise still does. That is why most people are viewing Activision as the bad guy. One of the Activision guys involved in this whole mess said in an e-mail that it would be a PR nightmare for Activision, writing "Is everyone ready for the big, negative PR story this is going to turn into if we kick them out? [It's] freaking me out a little."
"Hacker" Asked Microsoft to Help Him Access Infinity Ward's Emails
Jason West and Vince Zampella's lawyer claims Activision tried to involve Microsoft in "Project Icebreaker."
"Project Icebreaker" (you may add a "DUHN DUHN DUHN!" if you feel the need to) was, according to the testimony of Thomas Fenady, the name given to an attempt to access Call of Duty creators Jason West and Vince Zampella's email accounts and voice mail. Fenady, apparently acting on the orders of Activision's in-house lawyer, George Rose, ran into trouble after bypassing Infinity Ward's firewall, so he decided to call tech support.
"He sees there is a firewall there, but he breaks through the firewall", said West and Zampella's lawyer, Robert Schwartz. "He's now seeing their email server, but he can't make any sense out of it. So he calls Microsoft and says, 'Hey we have this Microsoft Exchange server out at Infinity Ward. Can you help us figure out how to break the password and read the emails?'"
"Microsoft said, 'Do you have a court order? This makes us feel very uncomfortable.'"
Fenady ran into the same problem when he approached IT firm, InGuardians. The Washington, DC-based firm turned the job down due to the "legal hurdles" it represented. Fenady then began planning something a little more extravagant: He apparently approached Activision's Facilities Department and asked them to stage a "fake fumigation" and a "mock fire drill" in order to allow him to access the files the old fashioned way. That plan never came to fruition.
What's strange about this is not that Activision wanted to see the contents of West and Zampella's inbox - that kind of employee surveillance is nothing special in companies the size of Activision - but that Fenady, who was Activision's Director of IT at the time, and thus likely to be a network administrator, needed to approach outside sources to acquire the information Rose wanted.
Schwartz made the claim in a recent interview with Game Informer. In the same interview, West and Zampella offered a fairly droll summary of their take on the ongoing court case.
"They say that Modern Warfare 3 would have been a much better game and would have made 700 million more dollars for them and they want us to pay that," said Zampella.
"We deprived them of our services by being fired and therefore we owe them money," added West.
Source: Game Informer
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