$1,000,000 Million Judgement against Jim/FR LLC - What does it mean?

12-02-01 | Bob J

[Bob J]

Nothing...thats what it means.

The afholes have been trying to scare FReepers with this little bit information. Here is my opinion on the subject.

As you all know, the Washington Post and LA Times sued FR LLC and Jim to stop it from posting full text articles. The basis of FR's attorneys defense rested on the fair use clause. Unfortunately, Jim drew probably the worst judge he could...Margaret Morrow, a Clinton nominee, whose appointment was held up for a long time by Republicans due to here obvious left wing opinions.

The plaintiffs attorneys filed a pre trial motion to squelch the fair use defense and Judge Morrow ruled affirmatively. That basically took all the guts out of the Jim's defense. At that point, Jim's most prudent course of action was to stipulate to a decision against him. That way the case could get into the appeal with the least cost. This may have actually worked for the best since if Jim won, the WP was certainly going to appeal. It would also follow that whoever lost the appeal would then appeal to the SC. It has been estimated going directly to appeal may have saved Jim and FR 200-300k. Now, it may only cost 20-30k to get all the way to the Supremes.

Once Jim stipulated, they were allowed to ask for a dollar judgement. When Jim found out it was 1 million, he said "Why not make it 500 million. Hell, make it a billion!" The fact is Jim nor FR LLC have any money. What is raised during the quarterly FReepathons is used during the next 3 months for expenses. The LAT and WP know this. I doubt if they expect to ever see a dime of it. The judgement allows them to put a nice round number on their balance sheet to offset the obvious huge expenses this case is chewing up on their P&L's. Can you imagine the public relations nightmare for a multi billion dollar corporation to going after a disabled vet for a million bucks he doesn't have? How about a billion...heheh.

Obviously, some donations go to legal expenses, as in any business, but Jim is trying to minimize the cost. So, when an afhole throws that million dollar judgement in your face, as if you are or they expect you to pay for it, say what Jim said, "Thank you sir, make it a billion, please!"

Ha! What loosers...

[Bob J]

Possibly.

[Bob J]

JE, which portion of my post did you find sophomoric?

[lavaroise]

Fair use shmair use. All I say is that people can protest in the streets with copied articles of the papers. A free protest site is just that, freedom of speech and dissent about what is written in the press.

If people have to pay copyrights to protest a copyrighted thought, then we are on the highway to hell and mind control. Don't you dare learn by heart this LATime article, you could be violating a copyright.

[ICU812]

Thanks for this post, I've been wondering about this stuff.

But what happened to Clarity?

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

But what happened to Clarity?

He and I got in a flame war about Bret Schundler, and 3 months later he decided he couldn't take it anymore (not really, though we did flame each other back last spring).

[lewislynn]

I thought that sort of sophomoric behavior exited with Brian Buckley's departure...apparently not...

If what you say is true then it's the stuffed shirts, (or is that empty suits?) at the Ninth Circuit who are exhibiting "sophomoric behavior ". In fact your line above (in itallics) is sophomoric.

Your paranoia may be showing.

[Lancey Howard]

You smoking Jamaican, or Thai sticks ? :)

You're showing your age. Everything nowadays comes from the Carolinas, I heard. :)

[Bob J]

I know you put a lot of work into that post, but sometimes things are less complex than they appear. This lawsuit would never have happened if FR excerpted and linked. Not only did Jim feel this would change the essential nature of FR (and it's utility) he feels we fall under the fair us provision and that the copyrite law is too expansive.

[ICU812]

I think the model to look at is Napster. How much money did the music industry spend to put a leash on Napster? And as soon as they did a hundred baby Napsters sprung up in its place. Hell, if you get Gnutella(freely available on the web) you can file swap to your hearts content and there is no way they can shut it down because it works with individual PCs pulling files off each other with no central axis. The internet is like the Hydra, cut off one head and two more appear(or more accurately it has no head to cut off, no heart either, no vital organs at all, its like fighting smoke).

If FR shut down tomorrow the dream of FR would go on.

[Don Joe]

"In my opinion, where Jim went wrong was when he quit simply being a guy who was fed up with government and he launched a website and became Free Republic, an idea with the potential of being very dangerous if the American people actually used it. One hundred or so posters is not a problem, but thousands and thousands has the potential (there's a lot in that word) for actually doing something that is not on the planning boards of the powers that be. That's what this lawsuit is all about. Even though the site is currently the blind leading the blind for the most part, it has tremendous potential for righting the oh so many wrongs, a potential that must not remain."

So the moral of your story is that Americans should just sit down, shut up, and be quiet little mice? Or else?

You remind me of someone.

In case you're wondering, he's the guy who promised us "the mother of all battles".

[AmericaUnited]

If FreeRepblic is an LLC, why not just pull the plug and declare "corporate" bankruptcy and then open up another LLC, which would be a new, distinct legal entitity. That way, the $1,000,000 judgement would get flushed into never, never land.

All of the existing posters would instantly move to the new site. Why not?

New web site name: www.FreeRepublic2.com

[PeaceBeWithYou]

True, not to mention that there are Free Republic movements in Canada(Free Dominion) and Britain(Free Britania) now as well. Freedom is contagious and the internet is spreading it.

Anyone found any other FR copycats?

[JZoback]

Isn't this a collosal conflict of interest for the judge?

Since when does that matter to a liberal judge?

[packrat01]

Strict analysis suggests that your best option would be to have someone throw you in front of a rapidly moving train; and have your surviving kin sue the choo-choo maker.