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The Carmack-ZeniMax Odyssey Carries On - Carmack Files $22.5 Million Lawsuit

Raevenlord

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Tough breakups aren't easy by definition, and the breakup between legendary programmer John Carmack and former employer ZeniMax has probably been one of the most worded of all. Now, Oculus Chief Technology Officer John Carmack has filed a lawsuit against ZeniMax for $22.5 million, money he claims ZeniMax still owes him from id Softwares' $150 million sale to ZeniMax back in 2009. Carmack says the amount he is filling for is part of the $45 million owed to him for the sale, of which he has already been able to convert 22.5 million (the non-missing half) in ZeniMax shares. However, Carmack says ZeniMax is unlawfully withholding the remaining $22.5 million because of "sour grapes".

Carmack claims ZeniMax is holding back the payment as payback for "a series of allegations regarding claimed violations of Mr. Carmack's Employment Agreement", referencing the Zenimax/Facebook lawsuit over the supposed theft of trade secrets. However, Oculus was recently found not guilty of stealing trade secrets, though the court ordered the company to pay $500 million for copyright infringement, false designation and the violation of Palmer Luckey's NDA. Oculus is appealing the case, calling the prior ruling "legally flawed and factually unwarranted."





ZeniMax has issued a statement, which you can read below:

"We have reviewed John Carmack's latest legal complaint which is completely without merit.

We note that this is Mr. Carmack's second complaint against ZeniMax. In the recently completed trial of ZeniMax Media Inc. et al v Oculus VR et al, in which Mr. Carmack was a named Defendant, and in which ZeniMax was awarded $500 million in damages for misappropriation of its intellectual property, Carmack had counterclaimed, seeking damages for ZeniMax's alleged violations of his employment agreement. The jury flatly rejected Mr. Carmack's complaint, and found for ZeniMax. Mr. Carmack was personally found guilty by the jury of the theft of ZeniMax's property, including thousands of confidential ZeniMax documents he secretly took when he quit his employment, and his theft of the entire source code to id's latest game, RAGE, including the id tech 5 engine. In addition to those crimes, it was revealed by an independent court-appointed computer forensics expert, that upon receiving notice of the Oculus lawsuit, the files on Mr. Carmack's Oculus computer were intentionally wiped-destroying the evidence, and that a sworn affidavit Carmack filed with the Court denying the wiping was false. The wiping occurred right after Mr. Carmack researched on Google how to wipe a hard drive. And there was much more.

Apparently lacking in remorse, and disregarding the evidence of his many faithless acts and violations of law, Mr. Carmack has decided to try again. We look forward to presenting our response to Mr. Carmack's latest allegations in Court."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 
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I like how in their statement they twist the words of the court case, implying Carmack was found guilty of everything, when in reality he was not - The Oculus CEOs were.

The reality is they owe him money, and are all salty they never got a conviction on him and have to pay him what he's owed from the sale.

Honestly Zenimax can go die in a hole for all I care. I don't particularly care for Palmer Luckey and his company either.
 
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I like how in their statement they twist the words of the court case, implying Carmack was found guilty of everything, when in reality he was not - The Oculus CEOs were.

The reality is they owe him money, and are all salty they never got a conviction on him and have to pay him what he's owed from the sale.

Honestly Zenimax can go die in a hole for all I care. I don't particularly care for Palmer Luckey and his company either.
I hear that. Zenimax's response is practically oozing out smugness. Hopefully Carmack will win and Zenimax will bugger off.
 
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Carmack is quite a smart man, dont think he would pursue this if the did not have a solid solid case.
 
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I like how in their statement they twist the words of the court case, implying Carmack was found guilty of everything, when in reality he was not - The Oculus CEOs were.

The reality is they owe him money, and are all salty they never got a conviction on him and have to pay him what he's owed from the sale.

Honestly Zenimax can go die in a hole for all I care. I don't particularly care for Palmer Luckey and his company either.

Except Carmack does have fault here and anyone that says otherwise is just being ignorant. Pretty much everyone involved screwed up. They weren't exclusively suing Carmack.
 

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I really like this part:
In addition to those crimes, it was revealed by an independent court-appointed computer forensics expert, that upon receiving notice of the Oculus lawsuit, the files on Mr. Carmack's Oculus computer were intentionally wiped–destroying the evidence, and that a sworn affidavit Carmack filed with the Court denying the wiping was false. The wiping occurred right after Mr. Carmack researched on Google how to wipe a hard drive.
Definitely sounds like something a most prominent innovator in game development and computer graphics would do after receiving a court notice... panic and search Google...:banghead:
 
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"The wiping occurred right after Mr. Carmack researched on Google how to wipe a hard drive. "

This is so laughable! :laugh::roll:

Seems like someone wants to incriminate him but doesn't even know who is dealing with.
 
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I really like this part:

Definitely sounds like something a most prominent innovator in game development and computer graphics would do after receiving a court notice... panic and search Google...:banghead:

All that tech knowledge and he doesn't know how to wipe a hard drive. Allegedly.......
 
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Sounds like they are trying to set him up, cause I bet if pushed they would have to reveal they had remote access to the wiped computer and could log in under his user account to make it seem like he did lots of stuff.
 

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Anyone that is an enemy of this man is an enemy of me. John Carmack have created 3D PC gaming and have kept innovating it. Besides that he is one of the most brilliant people in the industy. F*** Zeni! No more playing your games!
 

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Anyone that is an enemy of this man is an enemy of me. John Carmack have created 3D PC gaming and have kept innovating it. Besides that he is one of the most brilliant people in the industy. F*** Zeni! No more playing your games!
Really? :kookoo:
And exactly what loyalty do you think Carmack will show you for taking his side?

People getting their shorts in a twist about a matter that doesn't concern them or make one difference in their lives is absolutely funny. :roll:
 
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Really? :kookoo:
And exactly what loyalty do you think Carmack will show you for taking his side?

People getting their shorts in a twist about a matter that doesn't concern them or make one difference in their lives is absolutely funny. :roll:

:)
 
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I like how in their statement they twist the words of the court case, implying Carmack was found guilty of everything, when in reality he was not - The Oculus CEOs were.

The reality is they owe him money, and are all salty they never got a conviction on him and have to pay him what he's owed from the sale.

Honestly Zenimax can go die in a hole for all I care. I don't particularly care for Palmer Luckey and his company either.
he should have seen this coming in the first place, why did he sell ID to them in the first place?
 
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I'm sure his lawyers would have gone through the contracts with a fine tooth comb. Perhaps not.
Sells to zenimax and goes over to work for oculus ,the next big thing as far as virtual reality goes.
 
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It's greed pure and simple. I've been in business myself and you can see the sharks start circling if they think they can make a fortune.
Even at your expense....
:D
 
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It's a nasty old world out there where money is concerned.
I maybe biased coz ID made one of the two games I first played on PC that got me hooked so I can't really say who's really at fault
 
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I maybe biased coz ID made one of the two games I first played on PC that got me hooked so I can't really say who's really at fault

The big companies have the cash to bully the little guy and spend years sending lawyers letters back and too. The only real winners are the lawyers.
I've seen it happen so many times.
 

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I really like this part:

Definitely sounds like something a most prominent innovator in game development and computer graphics would do after receiving a court notice... panic and search Google...:banghead:
I don't think that is even illegal. You can't delete stuff after a warrant has been issued but that was no warrant, it was just a notice that you're getting sued. So if it allegedly happened or not is irrelevant. It was his right to wipe his own data.

That said, how do they even know it was him that searched? Could have been an Oculus IT guy that was wiping systems.
 
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