Category Archives: Uncategorized

He wishes for the cloths of heaven

He wishes for the cloths of heaven

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.

— William Butler Yeats

Discussion boards and libel

I run a website whereon there is a discussion board. I’ve mentioned this numerous times. Having been away from Kenya for 19 years now, the majority of the discussion that goes on there is meaningless to me – about current events that I have no context for understanding. Thus, as time goes on, I spend less time reading anything there, and when it intrudes on my life, I have yet less context for grasping what it’s about.

Yesterday morning, around 9am, I received angry email from an individual claiming to be a “Barrister & Solicitor” from Toronto, Ontario. I’ve received email from him before. He is always rude and threatening. He seems to think that it is his right and responsibility, as a lawyer, to be rude and threatening. He appears not to have heard the honey/vinegar maxim.

But that’s neither here nor there.

The point is that he felt that he had been defamed on my site, and I was instructed to remove all articles defaming him, immediately, or he would “take action against you and your company.” He further demanded that I modify the software such that no article can ever again be posted containing his name.

I replied that I would look at the articles referenced, and make a judgment about them on an individual basis, to see if his claim had any merit, but that this was not my full-time job, and so it would take me some time to get to this. I further stated that I wouldn’t forbid the mention if his name. If he is, as he claims, a “Barrister & Solicitor”, then he is a public figure, and so discussion of his antics and character are fair game. I simply won’t get into the game of blocking this name or that name, and all mutations of it. It’s an endless task. Not going to go there.

Over the following 9 hours, I received 4 further messages from him, in greater degrees of threatening tones, demanding that I take immediate action.

So far, I have read roughly half of the articles he pointed to. One of them calls him a sheep. Not complimentary, but not libelous. Several of them say that he’s an idiot. Likewise, not complimentary, but not libel, as it expresses an opinion, and can’t be construed as a medical diagnosis of idiocy.

One of them states that he had charges brought against him of committing a certain act against a client. This one is a little more dicey. The poster (anonymous, and impossible for me to identify, for whatever that’s worth) didn’t claim that the charges were accurate, and did not make the charge themselves. They merely stated that such charges had been brought. If this is true, then it can’t be libelous. If it’s not true, then I think it might be, but I’m not at all certain. And since I have no way to verify its truth, I’m not quite sure what my actual legal obligation is, if any.

Several of the posts contain the full text of legal documents filed by this character in the court of Canada. These are, as far as I can tell, documents of public record. They certainly would be in the USA, which is, coincidentally, where I happen to reside and run my website. But Mr. Barrister claims that posting them constitutes violating lawyer/client confidentiality. Which, of course, makes me wonder how they got hold of these documents in the first place, if not from either the lawyer or the client.

The courts of the USA appear to have stated that, as a service provider, I am not responsible for the words of folks posting on my site. This is what I firmly believe. And, since I value free speech far more than I value the reputation of an exceedingly impolite “Barrister & Solicitor” from Toronto, it is my inclination to do nothing at all.

If he had asked politely for me to remove a posting which makes unfortunate and unsubstantiated allegations, I would likely have been more cooperative. I find his threatening stance to undermine his credibility.

So the question is, loyal reader, what, if any, legal responsibility I have to police my content, and whether I have any reason whatever to think that this quack’s claims have any merit whatever. I’m reasonably sure he’s full of beans, and thinks that by threatening me he can cover up for his complete lack of any grounds for his claims. This, in turn, makes me less cooperative. There is a nagging suspicion that I’m actually opening myself up for legal action, but he’s pulled these tactics in the past, and nothing has ever come of them, so it’s a pretty small and quiet suspicion.

Updated again

Updated to the latest revision of Habari, yet again, and a few things broke. Notably, I lost some recent comments. This was expected, but still annoying. Still tinkering. And perhaps I’ll get to hack on Habari a little tonight. If only I wasn’t so tired …

Collegian

It looks like the Collegian now has someone on staff who believes in updating the website. This is goodness and light. I only wish they’d post all the articles, rather than just 2 or 3 of them. I’d especially like to see the letters to the editor online, with the possibility to have online discussion about them. It’s also good to see discussion from the intranet site make it back into the newspaper conversation. It’ll be interesting to see if, and how much, the two conversations feed one another.

Edward Tulane

Last night we finished reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Dicamillo, once again, is simply amazing. Although the style is simple enough for kids, the character is believable, and the book is heartbreaking all the way to the last page. It’s a story of a toy rabbit who gets lost, and learns what it means to love. To tell you more would be unfair. You’ve got to read it for yourself.

Dicamillo is also the author of The Tale of Despereaux and Because of Winn-Dixie. I think that, of the three, I’ve enjoyed this one the most.

How did that get there?

I have been listening a lot lately to Jonathan Coulton, and have been delighted with most of his stuff. It’s fascinating how, when one dispenses with such things as tact, one can have fascinating insights. The songs Shop Vac, and Someone is Crazy, in particular, are descriptions of folks that I’m sure all of us know – perhaps some of us are that person.

Some of you probably encountered Coulton when his song Code Monkey did the rounds of the geek community a little while back. That is indeed one of his better songs, but there’s a lot of good stuff where that one came from.

Marley was dead

The time has come again. Tomorrow night I’ll be doing my third annual performance of “A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas”, by Charles Dickens. It takes about 3 hours, including brief breaks between the staves, and I’m expecting about 8 people to show up. At least, that’s how many people have told me that they are coming. Others have indicated that they might, so hopefully they won’t show up 15 minutes into the reading.

I’m rather less prepared that I was last year – there’s a lot more going on in my life now than there was this time last year, and I still haven’t unpacked from my trip last weekend. But I think it will be enormously enjoyable. At least, for me. And, after all, this event is for me. I just let people show up so that I can have an audience. 🙂

Somewhere, there is a DVD iso image of last year’s performance. I don’t know where it is, or if I even have a copy, but I know Skippy has a copy somewhere. And there are mp3s of last year’s performance too. I’m pretty sure that the story will turn out the same way it did last year, so if you want to attend virtually, you can listen along, starting at 6:30pm Eastern time.

Yes, I know it’s not Christmas. Christmas was even more hectic than this month, and so I postponed a few weeks.

— Edit:

Found them:

Preface
Stave One
Stave Two
Stave Three
Stave Four
Stave Five