Background on Washington Post etc. vs. Purdy: http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=purdy Without taking a position on the merits of their claims, it seems to me that the attorneys for the Washington Post and the other plaintiffs have placed themselves in a difficult position. They've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of their clients' money and, in doing so, have successfully spawned (according to Bill's story below) Bill Purdy imitators. I don't share Bill's views on either abortion or the Washington Post Co. -- but I suspect there are plenty of people on the planet with access to domain name registrars who do. For the record, lest the Wilmer attorneys subscribed to Politech get subpoena-happy: I do not know the identity of the mysterious (apparently Italian) domain name bandit. Naturally if I did know that person's identity and had agreed to keep his or her identity confidential, I would not divulge it. -Declan --- From: "William S. Purdy" <wpurdyat_private> To: "Declan McCullagh" <declanat_private> Subject: No Jail today Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 18:04:40 -0600 Feb. 4, 2003 4;30pm Dear Declan, The court had mercy on me today and did not put me in jail. I believe I had purged myself entirely except for www.TheWashingtonPostCHRISTIAN.com which I truthfully told the court that I had not yet purged. The court fined me $500 for today, and it is unclear if I will have to pay for any following days. After the hearing I borrowed $20 from a friend and gave it to The Washington Post attorney, Thomas Olson, as payment for today's fine, but for some reason would not take it and gave it back to my lawyer. Declan, YOU and your readers did it again. The Court read aloud from my emails I have sent you that you have sent out, and Mr. Olson offered my emails to you as proof of so many things that I can't remember it all. But one of YOUR READERS on YOUR Politech list from Italy has gone off and registered about 50 domain names that Mr. Olson said, "looks exactly like Purdy's work." I have to tell you that I was dumbfounded by the news as he spoke, absolutely stunned, but ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED just the same. Mr. Olson demanded that the Court make me testify about the new and wonderful Italian free-speech advocate copycat, and said that if I took the 5th to questions about my involvement in the Italian registrations, then the Court should ASSume that I am involved in the Italian registrations and hold me further in contempt. The Court summoned me to the microphone and I told the Court that I had nothing to hide from the Court and that I would tell the Court anything it wanted to know. The Court took a 5 minute recess at which time the Court called me to testify, but advised me that I could take the 5th for any question I wanted. I asked the Court if I took the 5th if the Court would then assume my answer to the question, and the Court said it would not. Although I had nothing to do with the wonderful Italian, and to my honest recollection have never met him, have never spoke to him, have never emailed him, and never received an email from him, on the advice of my CRIMINAL lawyer I took the 5th on all questions relating to the "Italian domains". I have scanned in a copy of the email that the wonderful Italian emailed to The Washington Post attorneys, and a translation that the Post also entered as an exhibit - view at http://www.billpurdy.com/wonderfulitalian.htm Mr. Olson also asked me if I had ever used a language interpretation website, and I answered yes. But before I could answer that I had never used a website to translate any Italian, my lawyer objected and the Court sustained the objection. I honestly do not know who this wonderful Italian is, but he got all the information from YOUR Politech mailings, and all I can say is, "Praise God" and "Praise Declan" for getting the word out to the entire world about all attempts to quell our FREE SPEECH Rights. This wonderful Italian fellow signed the email, "The Holy See" which translated from Catholic means "The Pope". He has a rome.com address so maybe it is the Pope, or one of his agents. That would be really cool, and I know he's with me on the abortion issue. The Washington Post attorney said that so far all they could determine was that that the street address listed is a hotel in Rome. The Plaintiffs are certain that the wonderful Italian is really me, and they told my lawyer that if I fessed up it would go a lot easier on me. But they are quite wrong as time will prove. But even though this wonderful Italian chap has registered all the domain names that he has WITHOUT my knowledge, encouragement, or involvement, I exclaim to the world that I am ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED that he has! I don't think it is against the law yet to be "delighted", and to express such delight on the internet, but who knows what the Post will try and make of it - maybe the crime of being "Delighted of International Contempt". I was so delighted with the news of what the wonderful Italian had done that I immediately told my lawyer to tell the court that I would now purge myself www.TheWashingtonPostCHRISTIAN.com, even though it had not been asked of me yet. I kind of think that is what motivated the wonderful Italian to register all the domain names that he did, so I wouldn't have to go to jail by standing on www.TheWashingtonPostCHRISTIAN.com. When I got home I went to several of his domain names and they point to prolife websites that I am not connected with at all. Also, Gandi.net which is in France is NOT cooperating at all with the transfer of registrations. I don't know if they don't feel a U.S. Court can order them to do anything, or if they are on your mailing list and are aware of what is going on over here in this land of FREEDOM, or what. The Court ordered me to send Gandi an email by 5:00 pm today, and so I sent them the email and a hyperlink to the order. Lastly, the Court ruled that the new domain names that I just registered yesterday, iLIKEtheWashingtonPost.com and iADOREtheWashingtonPost.com are "confusingly similar" to The Washington Post, and such then ordered that they be immediately added to the list of domain names in paragraph 4 that I cannot use and must be transferred. The Court scheduled another hearing for February 14, 2003 to see what the status is, but the Court told the Plaintiffs that they could cancel that hearing if they didn't feel it is necessary at the time. I think by then the Plaintiffs will surely realize that they are barking up the wrong tree in trying to connect me with the that ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL Italian who saved me having to go to jail today. Yours truly, Bill Purdy ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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