Pokemon No! Good news: You can now ban the virtual pests, er, pets to stop nerds wandering around your property Pokemon Go will soon let people ban its virtual pets from around their houses following a legal settlement with homeowners fed up with zombie kids. It's been two years since the game became an international fad, with millions of smart phone users wandering around real streets trying to catch Japanese animated animals by …
Typical: the corporate gets to still plague people with their pokemon stuff and yet it takes innocent people at least 15 days of potential hell to get rid of gormless nerks. Oh and if you are in an apartment block you are utterly stuffed: no recourse at all. This is why, as a dev, I think fatwas against devs is far too lenient. Yes yes others will bleat it was the business. But if the selfish, ignorant, naive devs didn't code it then it would not happen.
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Frankly pokemon go should be banned (consider criminal action, etc) from placing their tripe anywhere near residential areas. I'd legislate that the only suitable locations be near cliffs, toxic waste sites, football pitches (whilst a match is occurring), dangerous wildlife pens, high security jails, top secret bunkers and similar. Basically only places where these nerks would get a sharp wake-up call PDQ.
why such a visceral reaction to an otherwise fairly harmless
It does amuse me when, out with t'dog in t'local park, to see PokeZombies wandering around. Still, at least it gets them out into the fresh air and into natural surrounding and light (and benefits the on-site cafe) so I'm not that bothered.
You can usually tell a PZ - they are the ones that have external power bricks plugged into their phones to offset the rapid suckage of power..
In Texas (and about 20 other states!), you get to SHOOT the trespassers with a nice round of 12 gauge buckshot! Works every time! Some recent stories in the local papers have highlighted Pokemon players getting .357 rounds, some 9mm and of course the old shotgun rounds blasted at them! AND IT'S A PERFECTLY LEGAL THING TO DO in many counties if you have trespassers entering your property!
So here's a warning to Pokemon players...don't go entering private property down here UNLESS you want a cap popped in yer A$$$$ !!! Property owners here are downright "hornery" (pronounced Orneree!) and they don't hesitate to make sure you get the point!
It's called "Castle Doctrine" and "Stand Your Ground" laws...where there is NO DUTY TO RETREAT and NO DUTY REQUIRED TO IDENTIFY TRESPASSERS OR THEIR INTENT if the property owner has the belief that they are under immediate threat or danger!
Remember down here, the jury only has to hear the owner say they BELIEVED they were under threat or danger! And that crowd of now dead idiot Pokemon players will HAVE THE JURY throw out the case and say NOT GUILTY for said homeowner shooting the players who trespassed on their property willy nilly! The USA is a VERY VERY different country than Europe! Tick off a homeowner here, and many times YOU WILL GET POPPED and it will be your relatives that'll be getting the 4:00 am call from the local sheriff or county coroner because of your silly Pokemon Go addiction!
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Trespass on our property willy nilly! Ya get shot! We have NO IDEA if you're crazy or not! People get home invaded, robbed and killed all the time here! Soooo, if you enter our property WE ABSOLUTELY WILL take it that you are INTENDING to harm family and property so WE WILL STOP YOU PERIOD with whatever force is deemed necessary to STOP the immediate threat! And in America that force means a 12 gauge, a 9mm, or a .44 ! We ain't taking NO CHANCES with our safety ... WE WILL ASSUME immediate threat and MANY down here feel and WILL DO EXACTLY THE SAME !!! AND --- the LOCAL LAW is on THEIR SIDE !!!
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So don't go trespassing on private property in America! Property Owners have NO IDEA you're playing pokemon...All they see is a bunch of weirdos acting strange which makes them a threat to be treated SERIOUSLY! Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground are VERY REAL AND FORCEFUL LAWS DOWN HERE !!! The legal right to have NO duty of Retreat and an assumption of imminent danger or threat to is very very real here! Don't mess with it by doing stupid things on people's PRIVATE property!
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"stargatesg7" is, I think, doing a false flag pretending to be a gun nutter. SG7 is the post code for Baldock, Herts.
But what will happen when people protect themselves with guns is escalation. Genuine crazies that want to invade your home know you have a weapon so they come armed and shoot first lest they be shot themselves. So your small arms protection has put you in more danger.
There's a few StargateSG7's out there on "The 'Net" --- Trust Me on the fact that I'm ALL for the 2nd Amendment (A STAUNCH SUPPORTER since my young days!). I'm no Russkie-Pinko-Commie but I AM definitely a Reaganite, so that should tell ya something! I have no idea who Baldock or Herts are but I sure as heck ain't them!
And I can see that you don't live around here!
We say that "An Armed Society is a Polite Society!"
Home invaders of that ilk are armed with 38 Specials and the odd coke-dealer-bought Government 911 cuz real guns are expensive! The average home-boy ain't spending $2000 US on a 9mm or .44 with a laser sight! -- We Do! My multi-clip will have them down on the ground in less than a second cuz well-trained muscle memory takes over.
And of course we escalate! Don't bring a knife to a gun fight and don't bring a Saturday Night Special to a house with people who happens to like and LEGALLY BUY AND KEEP 12 Gauges, .44's, .308's, AR-15's and .50 CAL Brownings! Bad idea! Not to mention we ain't stupid! Folks around here got cameras on their houses and most have reinforced doors and windows. Some of my PREPPER FRIENDS got 4 inch thick ballistic polycarbonate "glass" as their windows and doors DESIGNED to take multiple hits from even .308 rifle rounds! LOTS of people around here take their ARMS and HOME SECURITY REAL SERIOUS!
Any home boys invading this neighborhood is gonna get not just small-fry 9mm rounds but .308's and the odd .50 CAL in their rumps! It's a VERY VERY BAD IDEA to play in a Pokemon Flash Mob or try to rob someone in an area of multiple blocks filled with ex-Marine Corps, Army, former and current Operators, hardcore preppers and plain old STAUNCH 2nd Amendment exercisers, none of whom particularly like or tolerate outsiders! DO remember the Local Sheriff and DA (District Attorney) is ON THE COMMUNITY'S SIDE -- And BETTER BE if they want to STAY elected or appointed to their office! Sooooo, some dumbA$$$ flash mob of Pokemon players bouncing around in private backyards will get caps popped in their A$$$'es with NOT A WORRY TO the local's conscience OR to their local legal status!
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From: jane@niantic.com
To: fred@niantic.com
Subject: New location exclusions
Hi Fred,
We've gone through last month's incident reports and have a new list of location exclusions for you to add to the placement checks:
bombing ranges
artillery ranges
hydro-electric turbine inlets
hospital operating theatres
nuclear reactors
transformer stations
frozen lakes
waterfalls
nuclear missile silos
train yards
automotive assembly plants
demolition sites
CDC research laboratories
airport runways
Baltimore
Please get those entered in time for the batch run on Friday.
Thanks,
Jane
With respect to Pokémon GO in the United States:
So what about the rest of the world that also has to put up with these "players" cluttering up the streets and hanging around our homes?
And will this also be relevant to their other games like Ingress that uses the same locations, and the new Harry Potter "game" due out soon?
It's not relevant to Ingress because it doesn't have critters spawning randomly around the area, and being on private residential property is already a no-no for new portals and grounds for swift removal of any remaining legacy portals. As far as I'm aware, no-one outside Niantic has any idea of how the Potter games mechanics will work.
My kids play so I have a vague idea how the game works in the UK and when we have travelled. While playing the game has occasionally caused me to become irritated, I can't recall my kids begging me to take them or drive them onto private proprty to hunt pokemon as generally they appear near roads or in parks/other public spaces.
Is this a case from when the game first appeared and alcohol and time have dimmed my memories or does it work differently in the US?
Note: I'm not asking about lawyers/the judgement working differently, I already know that's different in the US. If this case had any merit (and it did judging by the payout) surely the plaintiff's are entitled to more than US$1000 each. Or the sum awarded should be significantly reduced to cover reasonable costs rather than paying to put the law firms partners through university, buying new cars and houses and probably paying kids to play Pokemon Go on someones front lawn...
I know as much as you do about the game, but I think I guessed the problem. It would be expensive to download and analyse detailed maps of all the urban areas around the world. Instead of telling public from private spaces they probably just track gamers movements even when they are not playing and rely on the with big data tool, probably privacy is not one of their main concern.
If I guessed right the difference between the US and the UK would be the fences. It's not so easy to get into the private area of a housing complex.
Niantic were initially using Google maps for there map source and moved to OpenStreetMap (https://www.polygon.com/2017/12/4/16725748/pokemon-go-map-changes-openstreetmap) so I would have assumed roads would have been reasonably well documented in urban areas at least.
... so I would have assumed roads would have been reasonably well documented ...
On the roads people drive. I guess they need to put them also where people walk. I'm sure part of them are put upon request of shop and restaurand owners (look for old stories about Kijkduin in the Netherlands and the troubles they caused in the nearby nature reserve), but some will probably be put randomly on people paths. My guess was that if a private area is not fenced and it is sometimes used by pedestrians as a shortcut it might be chosen by a random algorhitm supported by big data and poor details of pedestrian areas. That's why I think that fences make a difference.
It's generally not kids playing it. It's adults, all kinds, all ages and often moving around in cars for raid battles that they have arranged on social media in a similar way to how football hooligans meet up to fight (though the Pokemon ones are often bot managed). Raids can spawn up to 9PM, which is well after dark at this time of year at northerly latitudes. Raid meets after dark with several cars and people milling around are sometimes mistaken for dogging events and visited by confused police patrols.
As I understand it, school premises don't get anything on their grounds, but Universities campus are full of stuff. Churches, monuments, blue plaques are also pretty popular.
Find out when there is a community day and visit a park between 10AM and 1PM and you will see that it is mostly an adult pastime.
Many lawyers in the USA work on Contingency Fees (i.e. no pay unless you win!) which USUALLY START around 30% of judgements awarded PLUS hourly rates and expenses. So in a One Million Dollar that would be around $300,000 US and about the usual $250 to $750 hourly rate and office expenses which would add another $400,000 on top so total legal fees is around $700,000.
Of course, the lawyers have to AGREE to even take your case which means if the INITIAL EVIDENCE is weak and they need to do LOTS of discoveries and witness depositions to find the evidence to support your case, the contingency fee can easily get over 50%! One local case I know about was for a $15 Million award where the lawyers got around $11 million in total but the traffic accident victim was happy enough because she still got around $3.5 million in a structured settlement which is enough to pay for her pretty severe long-term medical expenses AND get her a modified house. She won't be running no marathons but she'll get by reasonably enough, even with her pretty tough medical conditions. Being so expensive if you get hurt in the USA, It's a big industry around here for lawyer contingency fee based car accident and 3rd party liability cases!
Hip surgeries cost between $35,000 to $75,000 to $150,000 of out-of-pocket costs and most times your HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) plan is gonna try and get out of paying your policy amounts, so you have to take THEM to court too in order to get your surgery paid for! Most times they will drag it out for YEARS but eventually settle for 50% of the amount which is still a lot of money for you to personally have to pay when your broken hip costs you a $15,000 to $75,000 co-payment paid to the hospital while you fight it out with the insurance company for the rest of the hospital money you're on the hook for!
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AND hospital collection agencies are VERY VERY forceful and intimidating here. If you sluff off your payments, sometimes you get a court case date and if you miss it, and the judgement goes against you and THOSE ordered payments get missed by you, then you could EASILY end up with a Bench Warrant for some time in the county pokie for a year or two! And they don't kid around here in the USA, even County Jail time for missed payments is NO JOKE! This ain't Europe! You is doing NASTY TIME! It ain't like what you see on TV! You IS gonna be spreadin' yo cheeks and they ain't the ones on your face! So don't drop the soap!
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As a UK based Pokemon Go Player and also formerly an Ingress Player, I was always annoyed at Niantic's attitude to badly placed stops/portals/gyms, never mind Pokemon themselves in bad places. In the pre-Pokemon days an Ingress portal was placed a children's ward at a nearby hospital (Harefield). I contacted Niantic as it did mean 'strangers' were wandering in to an area they really should have been blocked from. Result - nothing. In the end I repositioned the gym outside (which at the time you could do - you could move gyms to correct their positions within reasonable distance).
To be honest, some of it is also the owners of the property. I don't know about now but in the early days of Ingress, before the increase in levels a player could obtain and the new portal approval process was put in place, there was a rash of house owners finding 'sites of interest' in their gardens and houses so they could have a portal they could always tap. Any left by the time PoGo started would have become stops and gyms, along with spawn spots for pokemon ....
I already got the right signs up, checked by the cops, that gives me the legal right to shoot trespassers dead. Bang, dead. Don't matter why they trespass. They jump my fence, I can legally shoot them. As long as I call the cops after and don't try to hide it there's no police problems. And, I ain't alone in this.
Anyone here who plays that game, remember this before jumping that fence. It may be the last thing you do. Don't put your family through it, it's just not worth it.
Anon, since this is upsetting to snowflakes.
Don't worry about the pussyfoot SNOWFLAKES !!! I got ya covered by me being NOT Anonymous! YUP! Don't mess with property owners in the USA! In MANY states, it's PERFECTLY LEGAL TO SHOOT TRESPASSERS if you believe you are under imminent threat or danger.
In many states and counties, "Castle Doctrine" and "Stand Your Ground" laws allow you to STOP that threat with lethal force! And groups of people entering your property scrounging around at 10:00 am or 11:00pm in your front and/or back yards is a PERFECTLY VALID REASON to believe they might want to rob or kill you! So go ahead and shoot away to STOP THAT THREAT !!!
Remember! If YOU SPECIFICALLY BELIEVE that you are under threat and you personally believe that danger to life and limb is imminent, then it is YOUR LEGAL RIGHT to defend yourself and others with the means enshrouded by the 2nd Amendment to DEFEND your family and property with whatever force is necessary to STOP that threat!
Just remember to tell the sheriff that it was your personal belief that danger was imminent because you personally saw no evidence otherwise to suggest that they were NOT threats and that you thought and felt there there simply WAS NOT ENOUGH TIME to react other than with lethal force!
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You WILL have to explain to the District Attorney WHY you thought they were threats and WHY you believed YOU were in imminent danger but that's OK! Just tell them what YOU saw and felt! ...BUT BEFORE YOU DO THAT......ALWAYS invoke your 5th Amendment rights (i.e. Keep Silent) until you get a lawyer to advise you BEFORE and DURING the Sheriff's and/or DA's questioning. You HAVE THE RIGHT to have an attorney present during questioning, SO STAY SILENT UNTIL THEY ARE PRESENT! After questioning and IF the DA decides to prosecute and get you charged, ALWAYS ask for a Jury Trial so you can TELL THEM PERSONALLY what you saw and thought! The jury will see YOUR SIDE of the story and more than likely NOT convict you!.
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He's perhaps also some kind of right-wing pseudo-Christian as well? Or calls himself a Christian at any rate.
Probably expects the Pearly Gates to be draped with placards :
PROPERTY RIGHTS TRUMP HUMAN RIGHTS!!!
ONLY SNOWFLAKES READ THE NEW TESTAMENT!!!
SHOOT FOR JESUS!!!
etc...
".....A perfect example of what's wrong with US gun laws - insane people, like the poster above, have access to them, and can indulge their fantasies of murdering people....."
NOPE That's NOT the way it works....We DO NOT INDULGE in fantasies of murdering people! We are merely HIGHLY SAFETY CONSCIOUS towards family, friends and property! And being duly conscious of those aspects, we take PERSONAL SECURITY VERY VERY SERIOUSLY --- Again, we CANNOT KNOW what some random flash mob is doing or thinking on private property! We WILL NOT assume "the Best" !!! We Will ASSUME THE WORST and take their APPARENT ACTIVITY as likely threats to life and limb and we WILL act upon that perception and PERSONAL BELIEF -- If that means someone gets peppered with buckshot, then so be it! We will let the local Sheriff, the local District Attorney and any Jury to make the FINAL determination as to our future life prospects! But BEFORE that ever happens, if a threat is perceived, it WILL be acted upon using any available means up to an including lethal force of arms and MANY DOWN HERE will do EXACTLY THE SAME !!!!!!!!
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Well that's the insanity defence covered...
Obviously a number of youngsters wandering around staring at their phones is so scary that shooting them under 'imminent threat of danger' is reasonable. "Thar were a gang o them kids armed wiv them newfangled I-thingies - Ah was afeared for mah life officer"
(Has Bob changed his name or are there two shouty idiots on here?)
"...Would you seriously have us believe your parents christened you Stargatesg7?..."
The Stargate-SG1 TV show didn't exist when I grew up (decades after my time) but I definitely liked the TV show reruns so I used the StargateSG7 moniker as my call sign! My parents also grew up in a VERY REAL WAR with VERY REAL 2000 lbs bombs and VERY REAL .50 CAL rounds peppering and going off nearby them, so they kinda understand my point of view when it comes to family safety AND I am VERY VERY familiar with military doctrine and the concept of an active operational theater which let's me DIRECTLY ENGAGE threats with MAXIMUM efficiency and MINIMUM TIME EXPENDITURE!
If a bunch of weirdos at night come onto private property in many areas in the USA, homeowners WILL NOT HESITATE to invoke their legal rights to DEFEND their home and castle. Again, they have NO IDEA that you are NOT a threat, ergo the perpetrators are AUTOMATICALLY ASSUMED to pose an immediate danger and imminent threat to life or limb. Better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6!
That's PREVAILING MOTTO down here!
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Again, don't be stupid and willy nilly trespass on private property in some weird group-flash mob which cannot be interpreted easily. The assumption WILL BE TO TAKE YOUR ACTIONS AS AN IMMEDIATE THREAT which will be responded to with UP TO LETHAL FORCE and THAT really IS the way it works in America!
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...FINALLY...NO! I'm not Bombastic Bob! I don't know the guy and have no idea what he does or where he lives.
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P.S. 2nd Amendment - "....From Our Cold Dead Hands....." !!!!!!!!
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2nd Amendment - "....From Our Cold Dead Hands....
(Yes, yes, feeding the trolls and all that..)
So - which 'properly appointed militia' are you part of? Who is your commanding officer?
And why haven't you taken action against the biggest threat to the US Constitution (Trump) yet? After all, he tramples over the 1st Amendment and seems to regard every other amendment other than the 2nd as purely optional..
THERE'S ALWAYS ONE FREAK TO MAKE EVERYONE LOOK BAD. The foaming mad dog known as StargateSg7 is one of the noisy fringe. No matter what cause or issue, there's always a few. Thankfully, they substitute raving for actual action. You'll note he's not in prison for murder yet.
He's also dead wrong. Castle Doctrine and such have to do with defense against a serious threat to one's person. It most emphatically does NOT allow paranoid jerks to shoot people who wander into the yard. Signs posted or not, you first ask someone to leave. If they do not, call the cops and have them charged for trespassing.
But of course the noisy fringe freaks are seized on as representing of millions of people Not Like That who are shocked and horrified at his rantings. Propaganda always does.
What part of Surveillance Capitalism's basic premise, that "What's yours is our's to exploit for our benefit.", do you not understand?
You should not have to request that they don't incite people to trespass on your private property, it should be opt-in, not opt-out.
What if there were millions of these games - do you really expect property owners to know all the sites they have to go to in order to opt out?
Opt-out might still work, but you should not allow a private corporation to decide the opt-out rules, obviously they choose the rules that suit their business. After all they make money by using public spaces and private spaces that do not belong to them.
I dont play, my partner and my son play... It gives them time together, a shared hobby and it gives them a community of very diverse (Age 5 - 85) community to enjoy.... It gives me peace and quiet! I go to the shed, I play ZX Spectrum games...... To the U.S. of effin A posters, I hear ya... wouldnt like to be ya!
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