An open request for help

[RedFoxBot]

Hi

I havn't posted on the forum in months, but I have been following the articles as always. I particularly liked the raw food 30day trial.

However I am now asking for help, but not for me....steve you have a large reader base and I value your opinion (and that of the forum regulars) so I wanted to post this here.

A little know website is in trouble....and the outcome of this may have consequences for every forum and blog post on the internet.....

I will let laura do the talking

....there are times when it is simply necessary to mount a defense.

Miyamoto Musashi, also known as Shinmen Takezō, Miyamoto Bennosuke, or by his Buddhist name Niten Dōraku, was a Japanese swordsman famed for his duels and distinctive style. Musashi, as he is often simply known, became the legendary founder of the Hyōhō Niten Ichi-ryū or Niten-ryū style of swordsmanship and the author of The Book of Five Rings, a book on strategy, tactics, and philosophy that is still studied today. My son recently wrote about the present situation:

He is right. This is not just about sott.net. This lawsuit could set a precedent for everything that everyone says and does on the internet. Do not underestimate the power of a precedent that may be set in Federal Court. The freedoms of every single forum on the net are threatened by this suit. The freedoms of many alternative websites - if not most of them - are threatened by this law suit. If they don't realize that, then they aren't paying attention. If they do realize it and still do not come to our aid, I think we can safely assume that they are not on the side of Freedom and Truth. It's not even necessary for any of them to agree with anything we say to support this battle against Suppression.

I don't agree with my attackers, but they have the right to say what they want about my work. Unfortunately, most of my attackers don't really talk about my work, they attack me personally, vindictively, and even illegally, in the sense that they DO defame and libel me in a way that is not just an exercise of their right of Free Speech.

I don't want to go too far in that direction at the moment. Suffice it to say that, as long as we have an attorney who can take care of such things for us, giving us a modicum of peace of mind, and the financial support to pay that attorney and survive, I will be able to concentrate, to do the research and present it in clear, understandable articles for everyone. We are thankful for all the support thus far, but we have by no means reached the "comfort zone." We hope that all of you will spread the word on the net in every way you can and let people know what we are trying to do here, that we are totally reader supported, and everything we research and write is made available for free to everyone. We don't carry advertising, we don't have "pay per view" material, and we cater to no one and nothing but the Truth, or as close to it as we can get.

I'm confident that our readers will do all that is necessary to keep the lighthouse burning and the next installment of the Comet Series is underway, good lord willing and the creek don't rise!

And so I'm doing my bit...trying to spread the word...
The full article
Signs of the Times News for Tue, 18 Mar 2008

how it all started

I will let you and your readers decide for themselves what to do with this. I hope you can help.

Kind regards

[Jennihul]

That's a whole lotta drama soup there. Anyone can bring suit against anyone else for pretty much anything. Our justice system is far from perfect. In fact, it actually encourages baseless lawsuits. The entity with the most money usually wins. So these defendants need to go large or go home.


Good luck with that.

Jennifer

[RedFoxBot]

Any suggestions on how they can go large? Given there based in france and not america, and yet there being sued from america...and run on a shoe string.
If they loose (given they are lacking the funds, your suggesting they would) I wonder how many more forums and blogs will have law suits made against them....
I wonder then what that would do to online comunities such as this one...when somes one asks 'did you read about this in the paper??'....'have you tried this product??'..'have you seen this film??'....and someone says something the person or company involved doesn't like?
Drama....perhaps.....effects on everyone else on the internet.....? lawyers do like to make money after all....what better than easy (unfunded) targets...if this suceeds

of course, this may not matter....it may be a case of suing the poster indevidually

Big Head DC » Lawmaker: Criminalize Anonymous Internet Posts

Monday March 10th, 2008 12:13 PM by BHDC Staff
Filed under: Internet, Tim Couch
Kentucky Rep. Tim Couch has filed a bill aimed at
making anonymous commenting on Web sites illegal.

“The bill would require anyone who contributes to a
website to register their real name, address and
e-mail address with that site,” according to press
reports. “Their full name would be used anytime a
comment is posted.”

A Web site owner would have to pay a fine if someone
posted anonymously on their site, if the bill were to
become law. A first-offense fine would be five-hundred
dollars. The Web site owner would have to pay
one-thousand dollars for each offense after that.

Couch said he hopes to cut down online bullying.

[Dan.Linehan]

I'm going to move this over to "world affairs" as this thread is not a discussion of Steve or his articles.

[RedFoxBot]

Thanks Dan, I wasn't sure where best to post this.

Thought I'd give you a different perspective, and post what others are saying about this.

Free Speech On Internet Under Threat - PRNewsChannel.com
(PRNewsChannel) / Toulouse, France - First Amendment rights and free speech on the Internet are under threat as Internet news web site Signs of the Times (SOTT.net) today announced that its founder, Laura Knight-Jadczyk, a resident of France, is being sued in an Oregon court by 'Higher Balance Institute' (HBI), owned by Eric Pepin and based in Oregon.

HBI markets metaphysical products and claims to sell "the world's most advanced sixth sense meditation" program and a dietary supplement, "Magneurol6-S," that is guaranteed to make the consumer an "instant telepath." Pepin claims that users of his "psychic pill" find that "extended wireless phone use can cause discomfort." Consequently, they suggest "limiting the use of cell phones."

SOTT.net is an international, user driven alternative news site with volunteer editorial staffing around the globe. Quantum Future Group, Inc.(QFG), a California non-profit created by mathematician-physicist, Arkadiusz Jadczyk and Laura Knight-Jadczyk to fund independent researchers engaged in collecting social and historical data for mathematical systems analysis, is also named in the suit as defendant despite the fact that QFG does not own SOTT.net, nor does it have any controlling interest in the site.

HBI alleges in the suit filed by Bullivant Houser Bailey, PC, Portland, that the operators of SOTT.net "published false and defamatory statements" regarding HBI and Eric Pepin on the SOTT Web site forum. Pepin is seeking approximately $4.5 million in damages.

The suit stems from information posted on the SOTT.net forums [1] where globally based forum participants uncovered and reposted public-domain information and newspaper records showing that Pepin had recently faced numerous sexual abuse charges in an Oregon court involving a child and former employee of HBI. A grand jury found enough evidence to indict Pepin who admitted in court to having sexual relations with his employees. According to The Oregonian newspaper[2] Judge Steven L. Price, who presided over the case, stated that it was "probable that the conduct alleged in all counts occurred," but that the absence of a date stamp on a video proving that the events occurred while the complainant was still a minor meant that the allegations could not be proven 'beyond a reasonable doubt'. Judge Price was therefore obligated to acquit.

In response to the HBI suit, Laura Knight-Jadczyk, founder of SOTT.net and named as a defendant, said "This is an attack on freedom of speech, plain and simple. The issues SOTT.net are concerned with - the pathology of power and conspiracies among those in power - are specifically targeted in the suit. A victory for Pepin, considering the international nature of this suit, would therefore set a dangerous precedent in US courts and carry serious implications for Internet freedom of speech and ultimately civil liberties everywhere."

SOTT.net is requesting that all those with an interest in safeguarding Internet freedom of speech make an effort to ensure that this information reaches the widest audience possible.

And...

While the earth rumbles
A couple of days ago, someone commented on my previous article, that one of the people mentioned in that article, Eric Pepin, was suing the owners of an alternative news site. So the last couple of days I have been looking at what this suit was about and to my horror I discovered that it was in regards to a public forum and what people had commented on.

It caught my attention as this could have wide ramifications for the freedom of speech and the ability to discuss things on forums on the internet. It also could place severe restrictions on alternative news sites and bloggers such as yours truly, to question and bring to light the behaviours, policies or actions of organisations, corporations and our "elected" officials.

The suit is aimed at the owners of Sott.net for discussing publicly available articles that are available in newspapers and on the internet. Yes, for discussing publicly available articles! The implications are staggering as it could put thousands of bloggers and alternative news sites out of business. Bloggers and sites, some of whom do a great job at investigative journalism, which is pretty much a thing of the past in the bought corporate media.

Without these bloggers, alternative news sites and forums where will you go to find out about what is happening? Where will you go to find like minded people and others to discuss things that matters or are of concern to you?

The thing that Eric Pepin is suing Sott for is for damage to his reputation! Yes, a man who confesses to have sex with most of his staff of 11 young males and whom the judge of the court case called manipulative and controlling, is suing for damage to his reputation. The question naturally arises what reputation is this man talking about? The reputation of being manipulative and controlling, in which case he should sue the judge or is he concerned about the reputation of having sex with most of his male staff? In the latter case he should sue himself. If he feels that damage is done to his own institute, which he calls "Higher Balance Institute", then his own behaviour would be the key source for this damage.

It has made me wonder why he is suing Sott and not the newspapers or the internet search engines, where everything can be found out about this man, if you care to search. And it is not as though he has hired a backyard lawyer keen on trying his or her luck. No, he has hired one of the biggest law firms on the West Coast: Bullivant, Houser, Bailey PC. Now the question that comes to my inquisitive mind is, whether he is acting alone or whether some other force representing the ‘matrix control system’, is supporting this from behind the scenes.

In looking further at the site in question, Sott I discovered that they are also being heavily censored by Google. What is it about Sott that causes the system to try and close them down? I don't know, but from what I have seen and read there over the last few days, it is a site that sincerely tries to get to the truth of things and does a lot of research on a wide range of topics.

Asking questions is what should be encouraged and any attempt to clamper down on the freedom of speech should be vehemently fought by all who cherish it. We have seen quite a bit of noise from the powers that be, that they wish to control the flow of information. Of course under the excuse of national security. I could easily say about this case that it doesn’t concern me, as I am not the one being sued, but if that is the attitude we as bloggers and internet sleuths have, then there will be no one to stand up for us when they try to close us down.

As pastor Martin Niemoeller said in 1943:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.



So I close this post with the press release of the law suit that came out yesterday, and a rallying cry for every blogger and person who loves free speech to spread this news release and to support the accused in this case. This is one case where we need to stand together, shoulder to shoulder with those who are being targeted, Signs of the Times News for Wed, 19 Mar 2008 and make our voices heard!

[Brutha]

First I'm no lawyer.
The person who is sued should contact the EFF.

In general it is probably to their advantage that the suit is based in America, because the American law system has a very strong First Amendment that gives you the right for free speech where some European law system emphazise more than the American system on protecting people from wrong accusations.

I also don't know what would happen when the trial would succeed, maybe not entering the US anymore would be enough.

[RedFoxBot]

Thanks brutha that looks most useful!
I will pass it on

[Jennihul]

Various entities have been trying to chip away at internet freedoms since it was born. Most times, they lose their bids for restriction mainly based on the fact that most of this crap is simply unenforceable in the real world.

I think the answer is, at this point since they are getting sued anyway, to broadcast their woes far and wide. In the hacker community, grassroots stuff, bumperstickers, rally's, petitions, and include links to all the news articles.

Lose the woe-is-us mentality and get militant. If they have no money, maybe they can just get a public defender for an attorney. I have no idea how that would work with the international aspects.

Don't count too heavily on the first ammendment stuff. I have seen it completely stepped on and squashed like a bug in trials here. Depends on the case and it's relative "appalling" factor. The fact that the dude in question has a shady background could work in favor of your friends.

The bottom line, for me, is that when you play with fire you must expect to be burned sooner or later. A beekeeper has to have enough balls to tolerate stings. A website that plays judge, jury and executioner is going to eventually piss off someone. I'm sure they post what they post out of the goodness of their hearts and to "save" people from horrible mistakes and not just to drag people through public mud for the fun of it. Then again, maybe it's all about the dragging and the mud. In which case, they manifested this bed and now have to sleep in it.

Jennifer

[Brutha]

The problem is that most forums have a few threads in which users say bad things about some company.
In Germany a company got through with suing the owner of a bicycle forum for a sentence posted by a user of his forum like "I have heard that company X was sued for fraud".

[Jennihul]

Originally Posted by Brutha

The problem is that most forums have a few threads in which users say bad things about some company.
In Germany a company got through with suing the owner of a bicycle forum for a sentence posted by a user of his forum like "I have heard that company X was sued for fraud".

That's where the first ammendment in America should be viciously protected by the courts. Judges are too lenient with allowing cases to be heard just to "see what the jury thinks of this."

Slander and defamation are, more likely than not, ongoing diatribes by someone or some entity. Not off-handed comments. If you were in Starbucks and you owned ABC Company and at the table next to you, you heard someone dissing one of your products to a friend, would you be able to sue them for slander? No. If someone picketed your company because they had a terrible experience and drew a crowd, would you be able to sue them for slander? Not realistically. So forums, which are basically a semi-virtual extension of the concept of friends sitting around chatting about stuff should be immune from such legal attacks unless they mount a premeditated, excessive attack with baseless accusations. Then we have crossed the line into slander and defamation.

Unfortunately, anyone can sue anyone else for any reason. It may not make it past the hearing but too often ridiculous cases do progress. Common sense is out of fashion nowadays. The courts complain that they are overburdened and short on resources but they are the cause of their own woes. They should be responsible for cleaning it up.

Jennifer

[Brutha]

No. If someone picketed your company because they had a terrible experience and drew a crowd, would you be able to sue them for slander? Not realistically.

The comparision isn't completly accurate. It would more like suing starbucks for the slander.

In general the US law is stronger on the freedom of speech than european laws.