In case he should sue me for this, I hereby disclaim this post and avow that it is entirely my incredibly biased, subjective and stupid opinion – not fact. If I should mysteriously stop posting, assume I was murdered – or went out for a cheeseburger.
This all started a few weeks ago when someone copied a full blog post – hotlinked images and all – from a website I contribute to. I contacted him and firmly but politely asked him to remove the copied content, warning him that his actions were against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines (though I didn’t even mention they were also illegal). Apparently, though framed as well as I could considering the circumstances, he took this as a personal threat. Here is my account of the interchange, though feel free to skip ahead to where I point out that he is breaking the law and I can sue his [noun removed].
His response was caustic, and the situation escalated though I attempted to keep my cool throughout. The conversation became too funny and I eventually posted about it here on Allsux, which he claimed (though I made no false statements and did not name him) was defamatory. He eventually started writing defamatory posts about me on his blog and has attempted (albeit futily) to sabatoge my (hilariously dubious) online reputation.
I have been polite throughout this exchange, almost to a fault and certainly beyond my natural inclinations. Each request and response has been level-headed and more kind, in my opinion, than a content thief deserves. I have, however, reached the limit. He just emailed me again out of the blue to threaten me with legal action, etc…. The following is the final email I have written him, somewhat stripped of nicities:
Look. You’re clearly [adjective removed] if not entirely [adjective removed], and I realize that if you come after me with a AK-47 I only have myself to blame, but I feel I would be disregarding my duties as a citizen of Earth if I didn’t set you straight on a few thing, so here it goes.
(1) What you did was illegal. I linked you to a source showing it was illegal. I politely warned you to remove illegally copied content and warned you of consequence of your actions rather than reporting you for them. Call it a threat, call it whatever you want, but you did something illegal and I did the best I felt I could do by telling you what steps would be taken if you didn’t fix the problem.
(2) What I did wasn’t illegal. I wrote about you anonymously and factually. By any and all legal definitions under US and Canadian law that is not illegal. First of all, everything I wrote was my opinion – I made no false statements of fact. Second of all, by not naming you I did nothing to ‘defame’ you – as defamation implies that I publicly harmed your character.
(3) What you are currently doing is, again, ironically illegal. By falsely and publicly accusing me of a crime I did not in fact commit, you are defaming me. I did not defame you – your accusation fails on two criteria, both of which are required to make something defamation. I have at least two criminal acts I could currently have you prosecuted for, and you have nothing on me.
Frankly this has been fairly entertaining but it’s getting old. Acknowledge what you did wrong, apologize for it and cease sending letters to third parties not involved in this dispute. Otherwise, I will be forced (take it as a threat if you’d like) to pursue legal action on my own behalf.
Now, how great is it that I write a blog named ‘Allsux’ so I can post entirely random crap like this and get away with it? I love you all, my loyal readers.