Now I Know Why Most Bloggers Are, Seemingly, Attorneys.

by Little Miss Attila on January 10, 2010

It’s a question of dealing with all those freakin’ threats.

(Not that I didn’t freak out last summer, when it looked like someone might file a nuisance lawsuit against me—and I had an offer from The Lawyer Who Has Taken an Irrational Shine To Me on tap. Objectively, I shouldn’t have worried. But because I couldn’t pay this person, I was lining up second- and third-tier contingency legal people to do charity work for this blog. In retrospect, it appears that some simple anti-SLAPP paperwork would have handled the situation, but I spent 3-5 days in a state of fear, and another few weeks in a fog of vague trepidation. Because, if one sails out far enough, it turns out that there really be monsters. There is evil in the world.

There is also justice, however, and there is a core* of people who “live this life” [sorry] who conduct themselves according to a strict code of decency. Real gentlemen. [Ladies, I suppose, but that word sometimes takes on a prissy, form-over-function connotation.] The very best people who publish serious online magazines have badass integrity, and I take comfort in that.)

Patterico is one of the good ones (unless one brings up He Who Must Not Be Named in his presence). He’ll be fine.

Via Insty.

* I mean core. Some of us haven’t earned the word “corps.” It’s too big a word for the likes of me. It has Connotations.

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

Joe January 10, 2010 at 1:36 am

I do not want to see Patterico sued, although I think the threat is rather small and he is more than capable of dealing with it. That photo is on dozens and dozens of blogs, is an actual item of discussion, and is obviously fair game to comment on.

It would be nice if Patterico, however, did not call out a guy like Robert Stacy McCain and accuse him of things best left to the Charles Johnson’s of the world. Because with friends on the right like that, who the hell needs enemies.

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Joe January 10, 2010 at 11:27 am

Were bloggers on the left, say husky Charles Johnson*, required to remove their post of the picture? Of course not, because they used it to denounce Sarah Palin and the GOP as a bunch of racists. It is all about intent, not protecting intellectual property.

* Husky Charles never linked to that Rainey LA Times story BTW. I wonder why? He mentioned before it went to print about it.

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John Hitchcock January 12, 2010 at 12:09 am

Joe, you apparently never read the photographer’s blogsite. Mr Szukalski has no interest in US politics. He lives in Australia and doesn’t care about US politics. He cares about his intellectual property (and he was wrong about remedies).

Mr Szukalski also stated he had issued take-down notices to other sites. Patterico was the only one to publish it. And I believe Mr Szukalski.

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