Specialty Technical Publishers

Thu Aug 19 23:57:46 UTC 2004

--On Thursday, August 19, 2004 12:01 PM -0700 Matt Ghali <mghali at gmail.com> 
wrote:

>
> On Wed, 18 Aug 2004 18:54:43 -0600, Mike Lewinski <mike at rockynet.com>
> wrote:
>
>> In any event, after doing some googling and finding other victims of
>> this company, I've decided to register
>> SpecialtyTechnicalPublishersSucks.com in order to publicly document
>> their abuses. Sooner or later someone will have the time and resources
>> to fight them all the way- perhaps I can lend some ammo.
>
> Be very careful. After getting the serious shaft from a volkswagen
> dealership, I went down that path and registered goldengatevw.com and
> haywardvw.com, among others. I then posted a warning on them about the
> owners shady history and business practices
> ( https://matt.ethereal.net/ggvw/ ),
>
Ah... But, the problem here is you registered "godengatevw.com" and
"haywardvw.com".  They'd have a much harder time fending off an en
pro per motion for summary dismissal if you had registered domains
like "godengatevwsucks.com" and "haywardvwsucks.com".  Because you
registered domains that directly use their trademarks without clear
indication that they are used without permission for commentary,
you are in a legal gray-area (gray is the expensive color in the
legal world).  If you used those domains to sell cars, you'd be in a
legal black area and you could simply settle the suit and understand
that you were wrong.  If you had registered names that clearly weren't
their names, but, commentary on them, you'd be pretty much in the
white zone from what attorneys have told me.  You still might get sued,
and, it still might cost you some to defend it, but, you might get
away with a simple en pro per motion for summary dismissal on the grounds
that you were making fair comment.  Of course, they could charge libel,
in which case, you'd have to defend yourself and prove that everything
said was factual.

> Because of my actions, regardless of their legality or constitutional
> protections, I am now spending tens of thousands of dollars on legal
> fees defending myself  from a 1.5 million dollar lawsuit.
> ( https://matt.ethereal.net/ggvw/mystory/ )
>
Did they ask you to hand over the domains (demand letter) and you refused,
or did they go straight to litigation?

> What I've learned about the process is that its not about who's
> telling the truth. It's about who's got more money to spend on
> lawyers.
>
Partially.  Although, you might still be able to characterize this as a
"SLAPP" suit.  It's a stretch, but, might be worth a try.  I believe that
entitles you to a certain amount of relief and some special handling of
your side of the case to make it easier for the little guy to fend off
injustice inflicted by the big guy.

> matto

Anyway, this is way off NANOG topic, so, if you want to continue the
discussion, let's take it off the list before Susan tries to string
me up.

Owen

P.S.  IANAL, but, I've talked to a lot of them, and, I have some experience
navigating the legal system on my own behalf (en pro per).  YMMV.

-- 
If it wasn't crypto-signed, it probably didn't come from me.
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