Little help (A Letter From Our Attorney)

As you all know, we went to court last week and we were unfairly and erroneously held responsible for comments in contradiction of actual law. It was proven in court that neither TSO nor I were personally guilty of harassment, but some of the comments caused someone to feel harassed. So, here is a letter from our lawyer, John Mason explaining the situation;

To the readers of This Aint Hell:

I am John D. Mason, of Copyright Counselors, LLC (www.copyrightcounselors.com), and along with co-counsel Mark Zaid, I am representing Jonn Lilyea and Mark Seavey in connection with Paul Wickre and his wife’s matters before Maryland courts. On Friday there was a hearing the District Court of Maryland for Montgomery County in front of Judge Patricia Mitchell, on four peace orders filed against Jonn Lilyea and Mark Seavey by Paul Wickre and his wife (Mr. Wickre and his wife each filed a peace order complaint against Jonn Lilyea and Mark Seavey). The Court heard the four peace order complaints together, and ultimately denied Paul Wickre’s peace order complaints against Jonn Lilyea and Mark Seavey, finding that there were no grounds for them (all of Mr. Wickre’s numerous emailed death threats against Jonn Lilyea and Mark Seavey probably didn’t help his case).

However, the Court did issue two six month peace orders for Mr. Wickre’s wife, one each against Jonn Lilyea and Mark Seavey, respectively. The Court found that there was no direct communication of any kind, or direct threats or harassment or stalking, from Jonn Lilyea or Mark Seavey directed at or to Mr, Wickre’s wife. (in fact, she testified that she never reads this website and was only aware that her name was referenced on it because she had set up a Google Alert on her own name). But the Court found that anonymous comments posted in response to articles written on this website which referenced Mr. Wickre’s wife constituted third party annoyance and harassment, and that while Jonn Lilyea and Mark Seavey did not review, edit, control or moderate those comments, which are posted to the site automatically, the Court did find that they control the ability to take those comments down. Which is true. Jonn Lilyea and Mark Seavey can take down comments after the fact, and they very rarely do where someone posts another person’s personal contact information, for example. Some of the comments on the website now reference Mr. Wickre’s wife in a crude and vulgar manner.

At the beginning of the hearing, Judge Mitchell told the courtroom and parties that she would be addressing the relief normally granted in such peace orders, which includes no direct contact or communications of any kind to the Plaintiff/Petitioner, in this case Mr. Wickre’s wife, where there is a final peace order granted. Mr. Wickre and and wife were asking the Court in their peace order complaints to take down all references to them on this website, including articles and comments. The Court did not order that any existing articles, references or comments about Mr. Wickre’s wife be removed. She has a new job on Capitol Hill, and we are evaluating whether this website and Jonn Lilyea and Mark Seavey can continue to write and publish journalism about her such as the following, in light of the Court’s order:

http://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=55339

In its ruling, the Court found that there was a preponderance of evidence that in the last 30 days Jonn and Mark had “Placed [Mr. Wickre’s wife] in fear of imminent serious bodily harm: THREATS OF PHYSICAL HARM AND SEXUAL ASSAULT. Harassment” because third party anonymous commenters had made crude comments on this website about her having sex. Even the comments introduced into evidence at the hearing did not contain actual threats against her, although the Judge said that she understood why Mr. Wickre’s wife was frightened by having anonymous third parties reference her sex life on this website. The annoyance and harassment that the Court is referencing in its order are the anonymous comments that readers leave on articles on this website, not anything written or said by Jonn Lilyea or Mark Seavey themselves (although they are prohibited by the order from directly contacting Mr. Wickre’s wife, too, which is fine, because they do not contact her and have no intention of doing so).

The Court’s order further finds that there was a preponderance of evidence that Jonn and Mark were “likely to commit a prohibited act in the future” against Mr. Wickre’s wife. Again, the primary prohibited act complained of in the peace order complaint of Mr. Wickre’s wife is Jonn Lilyea and Mark Seavey allowing third party anonymous comments to articles, which comments reference Mr. Wickre’s wife, to be published and remain on this website. The Judge then ordered that for 6 months, Jonn and Mark can not have direct contact with Mr. Wickre’s wife or go near her home (they never do and didn’t), and shall not commit or THREATEN assault, rape, harassment, etc. (which they never do and didn’t). To be clear, the Court looked at the 30 day period before the hearing date for evidence of harassment of Mr. Wickre’s wife by Jonn Lilyea and Mark Seavey, and the contact or harassment Jonn and Mark are prohibited from having with Mr. Wickre’s wife is in person (never happened), by phone (never happened), in writing (never happened), “OR BY OTHER MEANS”. The Judge ruled that “or by other means” includes allowing anonymous third party comments from readers of this website, which reference Mr. Wickre’s wife, to be published and remain on the website. When I asked if there was a time period for Jonn Lilyea and Mark Seavey to remove any such references to Mr. Wickre’s wife by third party anonymous commenters on this website, the response was that the time period must be “reasonable.”

So essentially, because the comments on this website are not moderated or reviewed and are published automatically, Paul Wickre or his wife themselves, or one of their friends, or one of you readers, could leave a comment about her on the website and Jonn Lilyea and Mark Seavey will have violated the peace order if they do not remove the comment within a reasonable period of time. You should know that there have been more than 480,000 comments left on this website in its existence, the vast majority of which have never been read by Jonn Lilyea or Mark Seavey.

Obviously, these two orders cause great concern for Jonn Lilyea and Mark Seavey, and a great amount of work trying to review all anonymous third party comments left on their websites. These two peace orders can be appealed and we are evaluating all options. The immunity provided to publishers under the Communications Decency Act is at issue, and the issue should concern all journalists:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230_of_the_Communications_Decency_Act

http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/online-activities-covered-section-230

http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/online-activities-not-covered-section-230

But I am here appealing to you, the readers of This Aint Hell, to assist Jonn Lilyea and Mark Seavey in complying with these two peace orders. Please do not reference Paul Wickre’s wife by name or in any manner whatsoever in the comments you leave to any article published on this website, or anywhere on this website. The website will be adding a reporting button so that if you see such a comment you can report it for removal. We are working through the issues and evaluating whether to appeal, but in the meantime, please help us comply with the peace orders.

Thank you.

John D. Mason
Copyright Counselors, LLC

I’ve been reading every single comment since the order was issued, and, frankly, you guys are exhausting. So, I’m asking for a little help here. My code monkey hippie chick has added a “report comment” button. 5 reports will send a comment to moderation. But, it’s for comments that you think could be construed as harassment or threatening – not because you don’t like what was said.

For example, I don’t anticipate any of Lars Taylor’s comments in moderation, because generally, he’s not abusive, even though he might piss us all off. No one will know who reported the comments. But, mostly, we need to to rein ourselves in from even the most innocuous comments.

You may have found some of your comments from this morning edited, don’t sweat it. Yes, this sucks, but, we hope it will be overturned. In the meantime, we need to behave ourselves and I’m depending on you guys to help keep this blog alive in the interim.

I also have the ability to whack comments in Facebook, so if you see some, let me know somehow. One of my main concerns is someone who can’t comment in the regular comments who tries to frame us in the Facebook comments.

Category: Administrative