Defamation & Litigation

[still lookin 4 the face i had b4 the world was made]

On Thu, 1 May 1997 doktor at primenet.com wrote:
> 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?

Good grief.

Well, I read Siegel's much-hyped 1977 _Playboy_ article on his website, and
was underwhelmed.  This guy, a wannabe writer[1], is just trying to cash in
on long ago knowing a famous and reclusive (and REAL) writer.  Said writerD
does not want publicity, probably fearing exactly the sort of crass idiocy
that Siegel personifies.  And excuse me, why the F__K all the descriptions
of the types of pot you smoked?  Oh, yeah, it was the 70s, that sort of
thing probably seemed really liberated and profound, at least in the pages
of _Playboy_.  Now it just looks like a bad parody of itself. 

Anyway, he can harrumph and threaten about defamation and libel, but one
thing that is undoubtedly protected speech is satire.  So if you are annoyed
with Jules, mock away!  Ain't nothing he can do about it.  :)

Max

[1]Oh, sorry, Siegel is a writer too.  His book of e-mail posts is being
photocopied and spiral-bound as we speak!  *stifles laughter*

M a x i m u s  D a v i d  C l a r k e | Washington, D.C. is a city 
         http://www.afn.org/~traveler | of Southern efficiency and 
                "Surrealist-At-Large" | Northern charm.
                     traveler at afn.org | --John F. Kennedy