[Jim Robinson]

"1. What arrangements are being made to pay the $105,000 Winston & Strawn bill in the Eschoir matter? Did you have any idea the bill would be this large?

2. What is the status of the appeal in the LAT/WP matter? Who is FR's attorney, now that Clarity has left the case?

3. Why is it costing twice as much to run FR today as it did last March, what with all of John's bandwidth improvements?

4. Did FR raise $7,300 for non-profit filings? If so, how was that money spent?

5. Who owns the forum software?

6. How is FR's revenue reported for state and federal tax purposes?

I have many more questions, but these will keep you busy for awhile. Thanks in advance for your answers, and the opportunity to question you!"

1. We are paying them $3,000 per month. I had no idea the bill was going to be so high.

2. The case is on appeal. We are waiting to hear from the court. David Flyer is our new attorney.

3. Our contract with our provider was for one year - ending next month. The improvements John made will allow us to have more users online without impacting the service as much. We will continue to contract for a 10mbps line, but we are negotiating a new contract at lower rates. We hope to bring our bandwidth costs down a couple thousand dollars per month next year.

4. Yes, we raised money for filing for three new 501(c) corporations and we paid $7,300 (or thereabouts - I don't remember the figure to the penney) to an attorney to file the necessary paperwork. The project ran into many snags and was eventually abandoned.

5. I own the original forum software. I developed it myself and John and I improved it over the years. John is now working on totally new forum software. He dropped our of Free Republic a year ago and formed a new corporation. He is developing his new software from scratch. He is a much more capable programmer than I am, and his software will be far superior to my own design.

6. FR is organized as an LLC. The taxes on an LLC are paid by the individual members (of the LLC). I am the majority owner and therefor pay the lion's share of the taxes on my personal return.

Not saying that I am willing to answer every question you may have, but I will answer all I can.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Well I have been following this thread, and would like to know is there anything wrong going on at FreeRepublic, but can't tell from all the bashing going on here. You seem to have a dog in this fight and are respected by quite a few here, so could you please give me and others a honest view from your side of what has happened.

I posted this to Inspector Harry Callahan for his story and would like to hear your side also so those of of us that don't know what is going on could have both sides of the story, if you would please. Thank You

BigMack

[Z2]

How did W&S manage to run up $105,000 in fees without you knowing about it? Why didn't you send Eschoir a certified letter and be done with it?

Why did it cost $7,300.00 for corporate and non-profit filing fees for three corporations? This kind of work is done all the time for a few hundred dollars per corporation.

Were the Free Republic Institute or Free Republic Network involved in those corporate filings?

[Eaker]

Jim,

Keep up the good work!

We need FreeRepublic.

Eaker

PS: Texas Loves FreeRepublic!!!

[A Navy Vet]

Okay Steve, here is your big chance to finally nail JR & FR. I'm sure you have some stong rebuttals in your archives. Let's see some proof to back up your dozens of accusations at other sites.

I stated my criticisms here some time ago. Got balls?

[willyone]

Jim, so the deal is that some are angry because you may be making some money off this site? I thought that was the goal of the free enterprise system. Even non profits pay the directors and employees. Anyone who objects to paying for a service the next time they go to the dentist and are half way through should demand free care. That would be fun to see. There is no one forcing anyone to frequent this site. The liberal mind is an amazing thing.

[Z2]

I had no idea the bill was going to be so high.

Jim,

Did you receive the following correspondence from Clarity on February 16, 2001?

----- Original Message -----
From: Brian L. Buckley
To: Jim Robinson
Sent: Friday, February 16, 2001 11:56 AM
Subject: FR v. Aldridge

Jim: Unless we are prepared to incur very substantial attorneys' fees (possibly as much as $75-100 M) and participate in legitimate discovery while vigorously opposing abusive discovery, it is pointless to continue the Aldridge matter. The pros and cons of proceeding or not have been pretty well discussed by now, so no need to repeat them here.

Let me know what to tell W&S.

-BLB

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