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Comment by FuzzyDunlop | Hacker News Reader

In a different report, the following was mentioned[1]:

> A search through Florida's public Department of State Division of Corporations database reveals that Kotkin [inventor of controller] and Christoforo are listed as officers in a company called Afternoon Artists. Afternoon Artists was registered this July.

Of course, I wouldn't call it the most reliable of sources, and the reportage from the likes of this site are a bit too impassioned, but it's interesting to note how there might be more to it all than meets the eye.

[1] http://kotaku.com/5871479/pr-trolling-ocean-stratagy-out-of-...

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"According to @TheSchwartz173, twitter account of Eli Schwartz and N-Control rep, "[Afternoon Artists Inc.] was going to be a charity LLC as I understand it, it never was officially created. Just the LLC name was bought."" [0]

Paul Christoforo was also pegged a user of anabolic steroids [1] and has been accused of domestic violence [2].

Regular updates at Examiner.com [3].

[0] https://twitter.com/#!/TheSchwartz173/status/151883626227838...

[1] http://kotaku.com/5871400/cut-paul-oceanmarketting-christofo...

[2] http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/4224/article/ocean-market...

[3] http://www.examiner.com/video-game-industry-in-national/ocea...

Was he ever charged/convicted? Seems kind of specious to even bring up a police report with nothing else. What happened to "innocent until proven guilty"?

I think there's the typical case here of other 'communities' on the internet going all out vigilante and trying to dig up as much dirt as they possibly can.

The PR guy has been or will be held accountable for his actions, in the form of losing his job or his business, so to go even further than that feels somewhat like mob justice. I don't think that's a particularly good thing, and no one directly involved (ie. PR guy, Penny Arcade guy, and irate customer) comes out of it very well.

Note that I wrote "has been accused of domestic violence". Whether he was charged or convicted, I have no clue, IANAL and using my Google-fu I couldn't find anything more recent on the matter.

The document is from "Superior Court of California, County of San Diego" and speaks of a case concerning domestic violence. Whether it's just a police report or an announcement of a criminal case, I cannot discern.

What's the saying about never attributing something to conspiracy that you can also attribute to incompetence?

Sure, it could all be a very well thought-out P/R routine. All P/R is good, right? Except now you've got hundreds of one-star reviews on Amazon, a league of pissed-off kids, and your company name connected to this guy for all eternity on the Googles. Is that worth it?

  > "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

Hanlon's Razor - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlons_razor

The flip side is that now a lot of prospective customers know about the product and will consider purchasing it. The reality is that if you need something and all the negative press you find isn't about the product itself, but is instead about someone at the company (or it's reps) being rude, most people won't be discouraged from buying it. So yeah, in the end it's probably worth it.

That said, I think you're right. This wasn't a carefully orchestrated campaign to get press; it was just one guy caught being a douche.

Apparently it was an idea they had for a charity that never went anywhere:

"David (Kotkin) said it was a LLC for a charity that was never actually created," he said. "He bought the name thinking Paul would be involved, but nothing came of it. The company never actually existed."

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