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Lawyer Puts $10k Bounty on Blogger's Identity
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Raymond Niro of Niro Scavone Haller & Niro is fighting back against criticism from the Patent Troll Tracker blog by offering a $10,000 bounty for the identity of the person behind it. He thinks the blogger might work for Microsoft, Intel, or has connections to a 'serial infringer' and that could 'color' what they say."
Thanks! I hadn't heard of this blog before, but now that the $10k bounty has been offered, I know about it. Great publicity!
"Is he an employee with Intel or Microsoft? Does he have a connection with serial infringers? I think that would color what he has to say."
This is douchebag lawyer speak for "companies that spend money researching, developing and selling products." Unlike his clients who think up obvious ideas and rush to file a patent, without ever doing a bit of work. It's scumbags like this that exacerbate the terrible state of our patent system. I for one can't wait until there's real reform and this guy's out of business.
I would hope an attorney of Mr. Niro's stature and experience would realize he has no right nor legal recourse against this anonymous blogger. I suspect that had the blogger written anything libelous, Mr. Niro would have already brought suit.
Since Mr. Niro has not brought legal proceedings against this blogger, I can only quote the next best legal authority on this matter:
Ha, Ha!
Truth is a defense for libel.
True... but you still have pay for *your* defense - even if you 100% in the right. That sucks.
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
... lawyer who apparently is unable to engage any of the numerous detective firms out there who could find his information for much lessMy work here is dung.
Look at the list(and pockets) of the companies that he thinks the blogger may work for. More than likely what he is hoping for is that the blogger works for big company X, and then he can sue big company X for a lot, and in order to avoid (potential) embarrassment and/or the potential for a huge loss, he assumes that big company X will settle out of court for a handsome sum.
Monstar L
I thought America was the "land of the free"
That's a common mondegreen... it's actually "Land of the FEE". Don't sweat it, I used to believe it was "free" myself.
Patriot - A fan of expanding government power and spending while not wanting to pay higher taxes.
You mean that Americans (who happened to be black) invented them. I don't mean anything derogatory by that, but making such distinctions only serves to demean those individuals and their works. The implication is that there's something so noteworthy about a black person achieving anything of substance that their race must be mentioned. Of course black people have made significant contributions to our society, our culture and our technology. So have French, Greeks, Germans, Italians, Russians, Czechs and millions of others of all nationalities. Why does their ethnic background matter so much to some people? They were all citizens of this great nation, all helped to make it what it is today. That should be enough.
... she came to the U.S. about twenty-five years ago from that continent, earned her citizenship, and has the right to call herself an African-American. But she doesn't. She calls herself an American and she's proud of that. This is her country now. As for me, I was born here, but I don't go around brandishing my ethnic roots. That would be complicated, since I'd be something like a "Greek-Irish-German-with-some-other-stuff-mixed-in-American". Not so easy on the ears.
My girlfriend is a true African-American
She told me flatly that she could cure all of them of their desire to be called "African Americans" by the simple expedient of sending them to her home country for a few months. Most of them would come back here and would count themselves lucky to be Americans. Bad as things can be for many people in the United States, there are places that are worse. Much worse.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I can say anything without "giving" you the ability to respond. You have to locate and do that on your own. But more importantly, free speech cannot happen if there is fear of repercussion. I'm sure that plenty of people have seen things that they though were wrong in their life but failed to speak out against it because they though it would cause bodily harm, financial harm, or some other harm. I could easily get into the holocaust and other hot topics but lets just say that there are people who see things happen at their job that is illegal or unethical but fail to say anything because they would lose their job and probably be blackballed out of the business. Anonymous reporting of things like this is key to speech about it.
Anonymous tips to the police and news stations about drive by shootings that manage to miss everything but the three year old kid inside a neighbors house playing with the family cat is key to getting heinous crimes solved without fear of retaliation from the thugs who did the shootings.
Free speech without freedom of response is not only meaningful, without it is detrimental to a safe and working society.