Today I have lost a lot of respect for Tom's Hardware Guide (THG) and gained much more respect for Kyle from HardOCP (H). I had always heard stories of THG using strong arm tactics against smaller sites and whatever else, but nothing where they had personally attacked us, and as such I was never sure if it was true or not - just like I never had any grounds of proof to accuse them, either. What I am about to tell you makes me really disguised with the THG team and I will never think of them in the same light again if what I am seeing online is the total truth. Nevertheless I wanted to tell you all here what I think on the topic since it is "close to home" for us here at TweakTown.

A couple days ago we reported on an editorial by Ryan over at AMDMB which talked about how he was denied media access to a very large LAN which is operated in conjunction with THG last weekend where AMD showed their upcoming Athlon 64-bit product to the public - and understandably, how upset he was about being not let into the event to cover the big unveiling by AMD - I would feel the exact same way if what was said happened to the extent it was told, and probably let everyone know, just like Ryan did. Kyle from H managed to see e-mails where a representative from THG threatened to take legal action against AMDMB (quite a popular American based AMD enthusiast tech site) for running this editorial which is operated and funded by a college student, not very unlike how things work here at TweakTown age wise - and as you can imagine, taking legal action against someone like this would destroy the website, their financial stream and possibly the future of the site owner in the IT sector which I am thinking the team at THG have not yet considered. While we have seen coverage of the event from other sites (Sudhian Media, for one), it is no excuse for THG to be bullying a much smaller website for what seems the sake of making themselves feel a little better and stronger by muscling out a smaller site which has no chance against the Goliath of tech sites, THG. You would have thought something like this could have been worked out without bringing lawyers to the show.

As for Kyle Bennett over at H, I've never held much respect for the man (which will be well known to the regulars here at TweakTown), for several reasons, which we won't bother going into now since it is irrelevant right now. Although after recently reading on the front page of H that Kyle would personally assist with the legal expenses against THG by providing AMDMB with H's OWN legal representation - it made me think that there was hope after all and that Kyle's offer was a kind and generous gesture which often then reflects back on what you think of the person, as it did for me in this case. Realizing though that H and THG have been arch rivals for as long as I can remember, it begs the question if H wants to have it out with THG or if he genuinely is in it to help Ryan out? I think the latter is truer than anything else as there is no real gain for Kyle and H apart from letting the public know what good chaps they can be.

As always, there are two sides to any story and this story has many gaps in it which I am hoping will be sorted out and told to us soon, outside of the court room, as the only winners in this situation are the lawyers.

UPDATE - THG has backed down and decided not to take legal action against AMDMB.