Defamation & Litigation

[doktor at primenet.com]

Well, guess I got what I deserved.  I wrote to Jules, thanking him for the
info on SHOCK and SHROUD, telling him I'd buy his book, but also telling
him that I still felt the same way about his actions in publishing his
book.

He responded by threatening to sue me for defamation, based upon my
characterization of his work as plagiarism.

Our brief correspondence follows.

This guy is incorrigible.  Beware, P-listers: criticize Sr. Siegel's ethics
and approach to his book project and you, too, might wind up beneath the
versus on a complaint.  Is this what you signed up for?

--Jimmy




My Post To Jules:

>Jules--
>
>Thanks for the fill on SHOCK & SHROUD.
>
>I saw a bumper sticker today: God Loves You, And I'm Trying.  Do I still
>feel the same way about your book?  Yes.  Will I buy it?  Yes.
>
>Re my "insulting . . . torrents of illogical abuse": what we have here is a
>suspicious pot/kettle/black interface.
>
>Peace anyway?




His reply:

>Not really in the light of your pot/kettle statement.
>
>I occasionally do get a little annoyed and blow off some steam, but I think
>most will agree that I do try to make my observations and responses fair and
>good-humored and, if possible, genuinely funny.
>
>Where are my torrents of insulting and illogical abuse? If you look over
>your offending message, you'll see that it was dead wrong in every respect,
>especially because you amde judgements about something you had heard about
>but not seen, offered motives based on absolute ignorance of who I am or
>what I do, and used grotesquely hostile and abusive language to libel me.
>
>Accusing someone of plagiarism is actionable. In case you don't understand,
>that means I can sue you and unless you can demonstrate that I actually did
>plagiarize, I will win. I would have prove damages, of course, which would
>be a bit difficult because of the absence of any actual economic influence
>in pynchon-l, but I would collect something and I would force you to defend
>yourself in court at great expense. The publication of the lawsuit would
>also damage your reputation, if any.
>
>In order to do this, I would have to track you down.
>
>I don't hide behind anonymous pseudonyms. I publish my full name and address
>with every message. You'll probably dismiss that as self-serving promotion.
>I call it honesty. A neutral observer might consider your anonymous messages
>sneaky. A court of law would probably consider the absence of identification
>evidence of malicious intent and that would increase the award.
>
>Think about these things. As someone else said, it isn't just Internet fun.
>It's the real world. And some people can get very effectively nasty when
>wounded. I am an extremely tolerant person in that respect and I am used to
>be attacked by the ignorant. You sound as if you can be intelligent and
>thoughtful. I think you owe me a public apology.



My response to this:

Gee.  I write proposing peace and you respond with the threat of
litigation.  But having practiced law for ten years and specialized in
civil litigation, I'm not remotely concerned.  If you do decide to commence
an action against me, I'll gladly supply your counsel with my full name and
address and will even stipulate that service of process may be waived,
together with any affirmative defenses I might have for insufficiency of
process.  Maybe these bully-boy tactics of yours work elsewhere; not here.

Cheers,

--Jimmy