Chronology of Events

2011
November	John Szczepaniak ("JS" hereafter) contacts Agness Kaku through Flickr, identifying himself as a freelance journalist and asking to interview her for a "GamesTM" article.
November 8	Interview conducted over Skype.
December	GamesTM issue featuring the interview is released.
2012
January	The nearly unabridged interview, mixed with older content from Agness' personal blog, is released on hardcoregaming101.net.
2013
March	JS emails Agness to discuss a possible project in Japan. JS: "English language interviews with Japanese developers...I could budget for time in Japan, arrange as many interviews as possible, and produce a self-published book containing a rich variety of first hand recollections." JS specifically asks about the rates for Japanese-English interpreting services in Japan. Agness passes the question along to her sister, Hanako Abe, and relays the answer to JS.
April	JS begins looking for interpreters.
May	JS asks for Hanako's contact info for a pro bono consultation.
May	Agness helps JS with the Kickstarter pitch. Agness provides feedback on art, text, and video content, as well as free translation services. JS: "I'm not sure I can thank you enough for all the help you've provided. It's been tremendous, and your encouraging words have helped push me onwards. Plus, you...enabled me to contact a whole group of skilled interpreters."
May 29	"The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers" Kickstarter project officially begins.
June 30	Kickstarter ends, having raised £70,092 (original goal: £50,000).
July	JS asks Hanako to act as an interpreter-coordinator (responsible for finding and arranging interpreters for dates and locations of his choosing), and to do some text translations of emails to/from prospective interviewees.
July 29	Hanako sends JS a fees and expenses schedule (including booking fees). JS acknowledges receipt.
August 1	Hanako proposes that she interact with interviewees directly to arrange interviews, instead of translating multiple emails between them and JS. Three days later, JS agrees.
August	JS sends a large number of lengthy and disorganized emails to Hanako (68 for August alone). JS's interview appointments change frequently. JS's requests to Hanako routinely exceed the scope of agreed-upon services. (For example, he asks her to cold-call interviewees, look up trains, advise him on interview lengths, etc.)
August 20	Hanako reminds JS that interpreters will need access to a glossary of terms and interview questions at least one day prior to the interview session.
August 22	Hanako reminds JS that he needs to do his own logistics, including booking venues, arranging transit, etc. She also reminds him to update his appointment book so she can coordinate interpreters.
September 11	JS arrives in Tokyo.
September 13	Hanako reminds JS that most interviewees will expect to see the questions ahead of time, as is customary for interviews in Japan.
September 18-26	JS begins regularly expressing inappropriate anger towards JR (the £5,000 backer living in Tokyo) and Hanako, while continuing to move more of his workload to Hanako.
September 26	Hanako agrees to take on more logistics work for a fee, since JS declares he is reaching "meltdown stage...losing the ability to make logical decisions".
September 27-30	JS sends Hanako a vitriolic complaint about the performance of one of the interpreters, Haruko Ota, in an interview with the President of Shade Co. (formerly of Quintet). Hanako relays JS's dissatisfaction to Haruko Ota. Haruko expresses shock, since JS gave no indication he was unhappy during the interview or afterwards. Haruko is forthcoming about her struggle with the technical aspect of the interview and insists on refunding JS for the session, as well as for another session earlier in the day. JS refuses the refund, and apologizes in email for his inappropriate anger. JS asks Hanako to listen to the recording and states that if she judges Haruko's performance acceptable, he will abide by her decision. Hanako determines that Haruko performed satisfactorily, especially given JS's failure to provide her with interview questions ahead of time, as he was obligated to do. Later, it comes to light that the interviewee had had to leave early, and since JS did not want to trim his question list, Haruko had agreed to do simultaneous, rather than consecutive, interpretation. JS accepts the refund at Haruko Ota's insistence. A second interview with the Shade Co. president is booked for October 10.
October	JS continues to change his interview schedules and cancels on multiple interviewees, including JM, an interviewee chosen by a high-level backer (£500 "Guest Editor"). He explains that he will falsely claim to the backer that JM was unreachable. JS's mood continues to worsen; he frequently tells Hanako how much he hates the project and complains about the interviewees, accommodations, JR, and even his photographer, ND.
October 5	JS sends Hanako another aggressive email about an interpreter, NH, calling her "a liar."
October 6	Hanako reminds JS that he must provide at least some interview questions ahead of time to interviewees and interpreters. He claims "I'm not capable...I've lost my mental faculties...the project is a mess - it's my mess, and I hate it. But there's nothing I can do...". He then tells her to cancel on 4 more interviewees. Hanako contacts Agness, JS's "emergency contact" in Tokyo, and explains the situation. Agness texts JS the following day to gauge whether his health is in danger. She arranges to come see him on his next rest day, October 9.
October 9	Agness talks to JS in person for around an hour. He states "I do hate [this project], I hate it. It's the worst project I've worked on" and says that he wants to cancel on all but 3 interviews for the second half of his stay. JS shows no danger of self-harm; he acts mean-spirited and immature through much of the meeting. Agness brings up JS's responsibility to backers. She tells him that as project lead, he needs to control himself and not speak so negatively about the project, as it is affecting the morale of others. He is offended and responds "I can't believe YOU'RE talking to me like this." JS repeats that he is unable to produce the interview questions—not even the general topic of the interview—beforehand. When asked what tasks are preventing him from this (since Hanako is doing most everything else), he says packing his briefcase is too hard. He complains that interviewees are unreasonable to demand questions. Agness reminds JS that he sent her the full list of questions before her interview in 2011, and that these were what allowed her to refresh her memory about a project from more than 10 years ago. At the end, JS thanks her for "the pep talk," seems happy with a gift she brought him, and asks her where he can buy a jacket. JS and Agness exchange a friendly text immediately after the meeting.
October 9	JS sends Hanako a vitriolic email claiming "today I was lectured by Agness" and telling Hanako "I am paying you well - so you should put up with my attitude." Agness urges Hanako to quit, as does Hanako's husband, Nobuhiro Abe. Agness tells Hanako to offer JS a mutual NDA as protection for the interpreters and as a kindness to JS. Hanako calls JS, but he becomes angry and hangs up on her. She sends an email of resignation later that day, and confirms a face-to-face meeting on October 10.
October 9	JS emails interpreter MM: "Greetings [MM], It's a long story, but I'm not working with Hanako anymore. Are you available for freelance interpretation on a series of dates through October and November?"
October 10	Hanako meets with JS, and both parties record the meeting on their iPhones. Hanako's final day will be on October 15th. She offers to continue coordinating for the interview scheduled in Osaka that week. JS wants to retain MM for 4 upcoming interviews. Hanako tells him that he is free to contract with interpreters directly, and that she has not told any of them about her resignation yet. (MM had contacted Hanako after receiving JS's 10/9 email, but Hanako had not yet responded.) JS claims never to have heard of NDAs being signed between interpreters and clients. (He later repeats this in writing on his Facebook page.)
October 10	JS emails MM again. JS: "I met with Hanako today, and she said it's up to you if you still want to interpret for me on the days we had booked. Please let me know if you're still interested, and also if you're available for other days during my trip. If not, no problem, but please let me know so I can book someone else." MM's response: "Hello John, Sorry for the late reply. I really feel bad about this, but I think the situation makes it too difficult for me to go ahead with the interpreting assignments we had planned. If you're interested, you might want to look into contacting interpreting agencies such as Simul International or ISS. Again, I'm really sorry and I wish you good luck with your project. I'm looking forward to the end product."
October 13-15	Hanako sends emails to outstanding interviewees informing them of her resignation (no reason stated) and asking them to contact JS directly from now on. She then sends email to a conference room rental company to request that their receipt be issued to JS instead of her.
October 14	JS demands Hanako return her booking fees for MM's canceled appointments and makes several troubling statements: He accuses Hanako of threatening to persuade her colleagues not to work with him if he did not sign an NDA. He accuses Hanako of persuading MM to leave the project out of "pettiness." He claims "it's YOU I have the biggest complaint with." He claims "if you do not refund the MM bookings, I will seek advice on the actions I can take regarding this matter." In response, Hanako sends email to JR (the major local backer), assuring him that she is NOT in breach of agreements, and that the accepted fee schedule clearly states "a daily fee of 5,000 yen for every interpreter booking, regardless of any cancellations."
October 21	Agness posts a comment to the Kickstarter comments section and on her own Facebook page, informing others that Hanako would be using half of the money she was paid by JS to support another Kickstarter project.
October 31 (?)	Kickstarter deletes the comment. Agness contacts Customer Support, who explain there is a rule against putting URLs in project comments.
November 1	Agness reposts the comment on Kickstarter, without a URL.
November 3	The comment is again deleted and JS refunds Agness' pledge in order to revoke her posting privileges.
November 22	JS makes his first defamatory post. The reaction is overwhelmingly supportive, with an unusual number of "likes." The two backers who question his behavior are promptly removed from the project. Both Hanako and Agness start seeing the same set of people visit their LinkedIn profiles. Agness receives a harassing message from Adam Rahman, one of JS's backers.
Nov ~ December	Supportive comments continue to gather on JS's post, with nearly everyone crediting JS's story, and many joining in the defamation of Hanako and Agness. The defamatory update rapidly climbs the Google rankings for both "Hanako Abe" and "Agness Kaku". Threads discussing the update appear on forum sites, including SomethingAwful.com.
December	Agness is asked by an acquaintance at [Company X], one of her clients, about JS's allegations. He discloses that the matter was brought to his attention by a writer (someone Agness has no connection with) at [Company X]'s Tokyo headquarters, and that JS's allegations had become a subject of gossip in the department.
2014
January 17	JS posts a second defamatory update, this time about Haruko Ota. The response from backers overwhelmingly lacks skepticism. Everyone believes the central assertion, which is that Haruko is incompetent. As a result, they also agree with JS's false contention that she defrauded him. Within a month, the update becomes the top Google hit for "Haruko Ota interpreter", the top 3 hits for "太田晴子 interpreter", and in the top 20 for "Haruko Ota." Agness sends a questionnaire and statement requests to interpreters and begins gathering email evidence from Hanako. Agness' husband, Peter Duimstra, contacts two old friends who are lawyers in the U.S. The initial plan is to focus on having Kickstarter remove the offending pages from search engine exposure.
February	Agness begins contacting solicitors in the UK. They inform her that action should take place in France. Agness begins talking to bilingual French solicitors with experience in libel suits.
March 11	Hanako and Agness contact the interviewees that Hanako coordinated. Each interviewee receives: Japanese translations (done by a third party) of JS's November 22, 2013 and January 17, 2014 defamatory updates. Refutation of the major allegations. Request to use their promised draft approval rights to ensure that the libel is not incorporated into their interview or the foreword of the book. Apology to the interviewees for having to resort to legal means to protect Hanako's and Agness' reputations.
March 12	JS sends a message to Agness' Husband, Peter Duimstra, furious about the letter to interviewees and threatening to destroy the careers of Hanako and Agness.
March 13	Agness contacts Flecher, Poujade, Panon & Fairbairn
March 13	JS posts a third defamatory update, and identifies one of Agness' current clients and the title she is working on for that client. He also lists the names of Peter Duimstra and his business partner. Within days, Agness discovers that the above client's PR department is concerned about her relationship with the company. Later, it emerges that JS emailed the PR department sometime before March 17, falsely claiming that she was harassing him.
March 16	Agness writes JS for the first time since their October 9, 2013 text exchange. She calls him on his behavior, then offers him an opportunity to retract his lies and avoid a libel suit.
March 18	In response to Agness' email, JS sends an email to Hanako stating "All of our reputations - the reputations of all five of us - will be worthless by the time this reaches its conclusion. I do not need to work. You lot of four, presumably, do need to work." (Note: JS has not contacted Agness directly since last texting her on October 9, 2013.)
March 19	Agness instructs legal counsel to begin court proceedings against JS.
March 31	The originally-projected delivery month for the book "Untold History of Japanese Game Developers," passes without the book having shipped.
April	At JS's request, HardcoreGaming101 takes down his 2011 interview with Agness Kaku.
April 15	Agness and Hanako make their first-ever public statement about JS's allegations, in the form of this Blogger page.
May 2	Agness begins tweeting under her real name in order to drive traffic to the Blogger page and to counter, in some small way, Jon's overwhelming search engine advantage and 5-month lead.
May 30	Devin Monnens, JS's longtime acquaintance, repeats John's libel on the mailing list of IGDA Localization Special Interest Group, decrying "a nasty piece of work on the part of the Kakus."
May 31	JS posts a fourth defamatory update, urging backers to disregard Agness and Hanako's Blogger page and Twitter feed.
June 5	A person at a client company informs Agness of Devin Monnen's libelous post. He states, "I'd say a hefty portion of the industry knows about it by now. It's a pretty pervasive mailing list. All the loc people who go to GDC, etc." Agness posts a rebuttal to the mailing list.
June 12	The first hearing takes place at the Criminal Court of Niort. The trial, over the plaintiffs' objection, is set for September 11.
August	The book "Untold History of Japanese Developers" ships.
September 10	JS's lawyer files for continuance, claiming he did not receive the evidence from the plaintiffs' counsel. The evidence consists of French translations of Hanako's letter to interviewees she worked with, and JS's updates published online on November 22, 2013; January 17, 2014; March 13, 2014. The new trial date is November 13.
September 12	JS posts a fifth defamatory update, falsely claiming that the delay was caused by Agness and Hanako failing to locate a French translator. He urges, "I think everyone who backed this book, if they have a twitter account themselves, should also report her. Get some kind of movement going."
September 27	Agness contacts Kate Edwards, the director of IGDA and chair of LocSIG, to request a retraction of and apology for JS's acquaintance Devin Monnens's defamatory posting on the mailing list in breach of LocSIG rules. After initially being receptive, Kate Edwards abruptly changes her demeanor and informs Agness, "Just so you know, John reached out to us to make similar complaints against you and about the use of the LocSIG mailing list." JS is a due-paying IGDA member; Agness is not.
November 8	Kate Edwards posts an apology to Agness—and to JS.
November 10	JS's lawyer files for a second continuance, claiming he needs more time to study the documents shared by the plaintiffs' counsel (French translations of JS's Kickstarter updates). Over the plaintiff's objection, the new trial date is February 12, 2015.
December 14	JS sends a defamatory letter on The Ralph Report, a blog that identifies with the #GamerGate hashtag. JS attempts to persuade #GamerGate followers that "Agness Kaku…is one of the most dangerous people in the games industry…Anyone who crosses her path is labelled 'mentally ill' and a 'misogynist'…I would be happy for some kind of coverage, if you feel it would be of interest to the GamerGate community."
December 16	The Ralph Report publishes a negative follow-up piece on Agness, based largely on factually false statements made by JS. Agness has an amicable exchange with TRR and his followers on Twitter, and offers to do a live interview with TRR.
December 14 onward	Agness receives multiple media requests to an old email address that she previously shared with JS, all from sites and people publicly allied with #GamerGate, including William Usher.
2015
January 14	Agness has a public Twitter interview with William Usher.