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Donkey Kong champion wins defamation case against Australian YouTuber Karl Jobst

From what I understand, the judge ruled that it wasn't defamation for Jobst to call Mitchell a cheater but saying he drove Apollo Legend to suicide was too far considering he didn't have a lot of reason to believe this: it was mostly based on online rumors about an apparent out of court financial settlement between Apollo and Mitchell which never existed. What probably drove the nail in the coffin is that Jobst did edit the video later to remove the claim, but after Mitchell sent legal action, he republished the original video. This might have felt vindictive to the judge. Now, Jobst did eventually ask Apollo's family for the facts, remove the claim and publish a retraction about a month later, but perhaps the judge thought this was too little too late.

I don't agree that Mitchell's reputation was harmed as he brought attention to the video multiple times, but it's hard to argue against the facts: Jobst said something he wasn't sure was true, and when he learned it was false he kept it up anyway.

Edit: fixed timeline, which is documented here: https://perfectpacman.com/2024/09/20/karl-day-4/

10 months agoby frenchtoast8

"Barlow found Mitchell did have an existing reputation as a cheat and for suing people who alleged he was a cheat, and found that Mitchell had expressed joy when he believed – incorrectly – on an earlier occasion that Apollo Legend may have died. But Barlow found Jobst had severely damaged Mitchell’s reputation and caused distress."

Honestly, this judgment makes no sense to me. Mitchell was an absolute joke before Jobst's video and is still an absolute joke today. There is no way Jobst "further damaged" Mitchell's reputation.

10 months agoby InsideOutSanta

Unfortunately it is not an April Fool's joke, but it should be.

> Donkey Kong champion wins defamation case against Australian YouTuber Karl Jobst

The title sounds as if he is still recognised as a Donkey Kong Champion, where clearly in the first sentence:

> A professional YouTuber in Queensland has been ordered to pay $350,000 plus interest and costs to the former world record score holder for Donkey Kong, after the Brisbane district court found the YouTuber had defamed him “recklessly” with false claims of a link between a lawsuit and another YouTuber’s suicide.

They describe him as a former world record score holder, but don't go as far as to state that it was revoked based on allegations of him cheating.

I don't think that Karl did $350k+ worth of damages to Billy, to be honest I wasn't really aware of the suicide allegation anyway.

10 months agoby bArray

The movie The King of Kong is a good intro to the sordid side of the world of competitive arcade gaming.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_of_Kong

10 months agoby sowbug

This is surprising to me. Karl's commentary seemed like it would be protected speech, at least in the United States. I'm unfamiliar with Australian law though.

10 months agoby CSMastermind

Billy Mitchell wins more in court than video games. Maybe he should have picked a different career growing up.

10 months agoby ShrimpHawk

A point of clarification: the defamation case wasn't about Karl Jobst accusing Billy Mitchell of cheating. It was about Jobst claiming that Mitchell was responsible for Apollo Legend's suicide.

10 months agoby mattas

A professional video game player, a professional YouTube person and a $400K lawsuit? It hurts my brain realizing that these people have so much money at stake. Why the hell did I get two degrees and grind actual employment making actual things for 25 years?

10 months agoby ryandrake

Odd that this shows up on HN now, when I just started watching Karl's videos this past winter. It's a small internet.

Anyhow, I wonder how much the degraded components would affect Donkey Kong and whether similar degradation could account for Todd Roger's record for Dragster.

I also hope that other people Karl has called out aren't gonna go after him now, because with the financial loss and emotional grievance he's gonna be dealing with it would be hard to fend off additional lawsuits.

10 months agoby tmtvl

> He accused Mitchell of cheating, and “pursuing unmeritorious litigation” against others who had also accused him of cheating, the court judgment stated.

Case in point!

10 months agoby eviks

His records have all been reinstated both by Twin Galaxies and Guinness Worls Records for whatever that's worth.

10 months agoby gagabity

How does he finance all these lawsuits?

10 months agoby anotherhue

It’s disgusting how much the justice system rewards terrible people. Another conman gets his pay day, and I’m sure the judge got one too.

10 months agoby kgwxd

wow everyone in this story sounds like a piece of shit

10 months agoby red-iron-pine