alex2
Not Yet
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scare tactics are so preschool
Let's see... so the lawyer of a big bad movie company who wants everyone to pay money to keep them (movie company) employed dislikes their threatening letters published on a website and won't send you a letter to your home address, yet wants you to send him (read: slimy lawyer, oh careful that might be "slander") a letter admitting to wrong doing? Good thing it's not a classic scare tactic or anything ... ugh.
The reason he won't send you a letter to your home address is very simple actually... he hasn't got it. They never do. They set the trap with a letter stating all the wrong doing that you've supposedly done, then threaten you to sign and agree to it or else they'll take your website down. If they could take your website down, they would have done it by now. If they were truly interested in prosecuting you, they would have sent you a certified letter by standard U.S. mail rather than by anonymous and unverifiable (and in this case unresponsive) email. The pure and simple truth is that it costs more money to track you down and get your legal home address than it does to simply send you a form letter (read: email) and have you do all the hard work for them (i.e. supplying your home address). For all this "lawyer" knows, you may reside outside of the United States and in fact live in a country in which copyright laws do not exist. It doesn't take a task force to find the email address of the administrator of a website which is dedicated to the sharing of knowledge and information, it takes an IQ of 50 which apparently this lawyer just barely has.
I strongly suggest the following:
1.) Ignore the threats made by the anonymous individual who refuses to acknowledge your emails.
2.) Inform the anonymous emailer that if the spam (non requested emails) continue, their email address will be blocked due to ignoring your request to cease and desist all threatening emails.
3.) If the harassing spam continues, you will have no choice but to report them to their ISP for failure to comply with their ISPs Terms of Service which include a "No Spam" policy as is standard practice for all ISPs.
4.) Retrieve the IP address from the offender's email and block it on your firewall so as to avoid any possible attempts at hacking as inferred by the harassing emails.
5.) As stated in #4 beware of any hacking attempts, you may have no choice but to report the offender to the FBI as a possible hacker or a person affiliated with hackers/malicious computer users.
6.) Immediately implement a new safety procedure to protect fellow site visitors which includes but is not limited to:
a.) Required login prior to entrance to site which includes a "no fault", "privacy" and "harassment" clause which must be agreed upon in order to view materials within site
b.) Block/redirect any known offensive/possibly hostile IP addresses in order to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for your users
c.) Non-Disclosure Agreement on file for all visitors to your website and all affiliated websites -- may be incorporated as part of (a).
It is further advisable to get in contact with the head of PR and/or Legal at the inferred "client" company to advise them of threatening letters being sent supposedly on their behalf to their customers. I do not believe that the "client" would appreciate letters such as the one the offending individual has emailed to be published in a public forum or newspaper. It is apparent that the offending individual did not want the emails published on your website due to their threatening nature. These emails could significantly hurt tickets sales if submitted to a widely read publication by one of your users or perhaps even by the offending individual himself. It is common courtesy to let the "client" company know the type of potential PR damage and potential revenue loss which is being done supposedly in their name, they may then take appropriate legal action against the offender.
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08-18-2003 12:31 AM
