Elon Musk's space company SpaceX has settled a lawsuit brought by adult party game developers Cards Against Humanity.
In 2017, Cards Against Humanity (CAH) launched a “holiday campaign” to protest President Donald Trump’s construction of a border wall with Mexico. In total, 150,000 people paid $15 each for the campaign, and CAH purchased property on the U.S.-Mexico border with the goal of making building the wall as time-consuming and expensive as possible for the government.
“This was, in its own creative way, CAH's attempt to draw attention to yet another example of injustice and hubris on the part of a high-profile billionaire who was more interested in his own aggrandizement than the welfare of the people,” CAH states in the complaint filed against SpaceX.
“This property (the “Property”) was not condemned for border wall purposes during Trump’s term, but has become the object of another giant corporation (SpaceX) and its founder (Elon Musk).”
CAH claims SpaceX began purchasing properties near “pristine” land and also began ignoring property lines.
“The site was cleared of vegetation and the soil was compacted with gravel or other substances so that SpaceX and its contractors could drive and park their vehicles throughout the property,” the lawsuit says. Generators have also been deployed to enable work to continue throughout the night, large quantities of gravel have been dumped onto the property and construction vehicles are being used and stored on the property on a “continuous basis”.
“In short, SpaceX treated the property as its property for at least six (6) months without regard to CAH’s property rights or the safety of persons entering a construction site presumed to be subject to OSHA safety requirements.”
According to the card game makers, SpaceX tried to buy it when it was caught using the property.
“Elon Musk’s SpaceX was building a space device nearby and he thought he could just dump his shit on our beautiful property without asking,” they write on their lawsuit website. “After we caught him, SpaceX gave us a 12-hour ultimatum to accept a lowball offer for less than half our property value. We said, 'Fuck yourself, Elon Musk. See you in court'.”
In the end, however, the lawsuit was settled before the court date scheduled for November. According to their website, the company had asked for $15 million: “Elon owes you $100.” In the end, they reached an agreement on undisclosed terms. The team had promised backers “about two dollars or most likely nothing” for their share of the proceeds and ended up somewhere in between.
“Elon Musk's team admitted on the record that they invaded your land illegally, and then they packed up the space junk and screwed themselves. But when it comes to paying you all, he did the legal equivalent of throwing dust in our eyes and kicking us in the balls,” CAH said in an email to people who financed the purchase of the first piece of land.
“Although we can't give you what you really wanted – Elon Musk cash – we'll make it up to you, our best, most attractive customers… with comedy! We'll send you each a brand new mini-pack of exclusive Elon Musk-themed cards.”
Anyone who donated to the campaign is invited to claim their free pack of Elon Musk cards, part of a very strange deal between the world's largest private space company and a maker of novel adult games.
This article was first published on IFLScience: 'Elon owes you $100': Musk's SpaceX settles lawsuit with Cards Against Humanity. For more interesting science content, check out our latest stories. Don't miss a story by subscribing to our science newsletter here.