@jackx

"if hussie didn't have a possible winning suit on his hand he wouldn't have pursued it"

UM. I don't know that that's true at all. I'm not a lawyer but I don't think it's impossible at all that Hussie would completely bomb a lawsuit like this. I have no idea why you think they couldn't, it'd be one more irresponsible fiduciary decision on top of the pile. Even if you think Gio's full of shit, we've seen the trouble Hussie has managing a franchise firsthand. The collection's frontpage almost-assuredly falls under fair use, and we already know the collection itself isn't violating anything. Gio and Andrew are both Americans, and suits like this are extremely hard to win in the US (though it depends on the state). I'm not a lawyer, but in my experience they'd basically need to prove that Gio's information is false, that Gio knew it was false, that Gio disseminated that information intentionally to cause damage to Hussie or WP, and that said damage verifiably happened and had a visual effect, with evidence to match. Not only do I not know that a lot of what's in the Hiveswap articles is even false to begin with, it doesn't even need to be true as long as Gio fully believed it. The article fully states as well that this is all ultimately his opinion, and that's almost-assuredly there to protect from a lawsuit.

I'm not a particular fan of Gio, but this would definitely qualify as a SLAPP suit if they don't have overwhelmingly larger amounts of dirt on him than anyone knows, and I don't think they do. It's got nothing to do with my opinion on either party, this is just how the reality of the situation looks to me. The most other guess I could offer is that they're hunting for a settlement or to just bury him in legal fees, neither of which makes them look very good.

I just want all of this stupid bullshit to be over.