Techdirt's First Amendment Fight For Its Life

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: February 19, 2017 at 9:13:06 AM EST
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Techdirt's First Amendment Fight For Its Life
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> [Note:  This item comes from friend Bob Frankston.  Bob’s comment:'I donated. Can one counter-sue for harassment on 
> such a bogus claim?’.  DLH]
>
> Techdirt's First Amendment Fight For Its Life
> from the the-first-amendment-has-to-mean-something dept
> By Mike Masnick
> Jan 11 2017
> <https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170111/11440836465/techdirts-first-amendment-fight-life.shtml>
>
> As you may have heard, last week we were sued for $15 million by Shiva Ayyadurai, who claims to have invented email. 
> We have written, at great length, about his claimsand our opinion — backed up by detailed and thorough evidence — 
> that email existed long before Ayyadurai created any software. We believe the legal claims in the lawsuit are 
> meritless, and we intend to fight them and to win.
>
> There is a larger point here. Defamation claims like this can force independent media companies to capitulate and 
> shut down due to mounting legal costs. Ayyadurai's attorney, Charles Harder, has already shown that this model can 
> lead to exactly that result. His efforts helped put a much larger and much more well-resourced company than Techdirt 
> completely out of business.
>
> So, in our view, this is not a fight about who invented email. This is a fight about whether or not our legal system 
> will silence independent publications for publishing opinions that public figures do not like.
>
> And here's the thing: this fight could very well be the end of Techdirt, even if we are completely on the right side 
> of the law.
>
> Whether or not you agree with us on our opinions about various things, I hope that you can recognize the importance 
> of what's at stake here. Our First Amendment is designed to enable a free and open press — a press that can 
> investigate and dig, a press that can challenge and expose. And if prominent individuals can make use of a crippling 
> legal process to silence that effort, or even to create chilling effects among others, we become a weaker nation and 
> a weaker people because of it.
>
> We are a truly small and independent media company. We do not have many resources. We intend to fight this baseless 
> lawsuit because of the principles at stake, but we have no illusions about the costs. It will take a toll on us, even 
> if we win. It will be a distraction, no matter what happens. It already has been — which may well have been part of 
> Ayyadurai's intent.
>
> [snip]
>
> Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: <http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/>



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