“Your attempt to connect the Quartet Press participants to a Ponsi scheme seems actionable. I hope you have a good attorney.”
Wednesday, February 10, 2010Posted in: Adventures with Blog people, Quartet Press, there's a fucktard born every minute
You know, I totally love it when people give me blog fodder. It really makes my day.
Kirk Biglione took exception to my previous post, and didn’t mind saying so:
Wow. Seriously?! Bernie Madoff stole money. Lots of money. Billions. Are you seriously comparing what Madoff did to the failure of a digital publishing startup? If so, you really have no sense of decency.
As someone who was involved in the Quartet “debacle” I can say without hesitation that:
1. No laws were broken.
2. None of the participants behaved unethically.
3. No money is owed (all debts were honored).Frankly, your attempt to connect the Quartet Press participants to a Ponsi scheme seems actionable. I hope you have a good attorney.
Be still my beating heart. It’s not yet March and I’ve already been threatened with legal action, YAY!!
Angela James was doing an ok job of persuading me that the Quartet peeps weren’t complete arseholes, just misguided fools who couldn’t plan their way out of a wet paper bag and then who should come along with his massive size twelves and fuck it all up? Kirky Biglione, of course. The bloke who was one of the owners of failed digital publisher, Quartet Press.
Kassia came on and defended herself too, but she didn’t threaten to sue me, so it was all good.
Here’s my response to Kassia and Kirky:
Would it make you feel better if I compared you guys to Tiger Woods instead?
How does this title suit you? “Would You Take Relationship Advice From Tiger Woods?
Is that better for you?
Hey Kirky, Tiger didn’t do anything illegal did he? He just screwed a whole lotta people is all. Although I’m guessing the people he was screwing knew about it at the time.
What? Don’t look at me like that, I rather liked the Tiger Woods screwing people reference. 🙂
You know it’s a special occasion when I use a smiley in a blog post. *G*
Las
February 10
2:41 pm
Shit like this is why I read this blog.
It strikes me as hilarious that someone who works(?) in publishing could have such poor reading comprehension. You were clearly making an analogy, how the hell can anyone think you were making a direct comparison?
Magdalen
February 10
3:51 pm
I just got off the phone with my ex-husband, a British patent attorney with 20 years in the legal field in the UK and an American law degree and 10+ years experience here in the US. I love bringing him legal hypos, so I asked him how hard would it be for a citizen of the US to sue a British blogger for libel.
First of all, we both agree that Karen’s banner, prior blog posts (which are visible even as someone comes here to read the current post), and reputation would severely limited any claim that this is a reputable blog known for its reporting and accuracy. Bluntly, this isn’t the Times (London or New York). (No offense, Karen — clearly we all love your blog for its colorful and intelligent reflections on what’s going in Romlandia!)
Next, a US citizen with a perceived libel action has to make a difficult decision — if she sued Karen in the UK, it could be very expensive as the UK doesn’t favor contingency fee litigation and the losing party can end up paying the winning party’s legal fees.
And if a US citizen wanted to sue in the US, where it might be easier to get a lawyer to take the case on a contingency basis, there are all kinds of problems finding a court that would agree it has jurisdiction over a UK citizen.
And all of those problems are just jurisdictional and logistic — when you get to the actual law to be applied, it doesn’t get any easier. Libel laws in the UK are stricter than in the US and thus favor the plaintiff, but I think it would be hard for a US citizen to prove monetary damage suffered by virtue of a UK blogger’s comments. Libel laws in the US are rather more generous to the defendant, so while someone might be able to show monetary damage (still a tough sell, but let’s assume) establishing the elements of libel would be much tougher.
Sorry for hijacking the comment thread to discuss a law school hypothetical, but I like this stuff.
SarahT
February 10
4:08 pm
Thanks, Magdalen, for that info. I was wondering what the law said with regard to suing someone who lives in a different country.
Given Kirk’s use of the word “attorney”, I assumed he didn’t realise Karen is in the UK.
katiebabs
February 10
6:47 pm
Karen, better go run and hide now. LOL
Karen Scott
February 10
7:35 pm
Sarah, I’m betting that Clueless Kirky was told that somebody on the internet was casting aspersions on his character, so he came over here, all guns blazing without bothering to read the post or the comments himself. Always a bad idea that.
At least I have somebody else to pin the blame on for the Quartet Press fuck-up. Anybody so-called professional who wades in without taking stock of a situation isn’t somebody that I’d want running a business.
At least Kassia was measured in her defence of herself, whereas Clueless Kirky just blundered in like the twat that he seems to be.
Anyhow, being threatened with legal action by a failed e-book publisher seems to be par for the course, Clueless Kirky should be pleased, he’s now joined the plethora of epub owners who have threatened yours truly with the long arm of the law, Madris De Pasteur, from NCP, Teresa Jacobs from Mardi Gras. He truly is in good company. Hahaha…
eggs
February 10
11:21 pm
Happy sigh. And this is why I love the internets.
Throwmearope
February 11
8:22 pm
K. Z. Snow
February 11
9:41 pm
“Actionable”? (I’m sorry. I stubbed my toe but good on that one and had difficulty going on.)
I guess the upside is, your attempt only seems actionable. So the implied threat isn’t all that concernable. Don’t you find that reliefable, Karen?
Jennifer
February 14
4:33 am
What’s so funny about “actionable”?
(Merriam-Webster)
Main Entry: ac·tion·able
Function: adjective
: subject to or affording ground for an action or suit at law