[If this letter is faithfully reproduced, as it appears to be, then shame on the Miles and Stockbridge law firm and especially Robert Brennen (http://www.milesstockbridge.com/bios/bio_brennenr.htm) for sending this on behalf of his client. Rule 11 sanctions, anyone? I've copied Ahold, which owns U.S. Foodservice (and Peapod) and should exercise better care when choosing its outside counsel. See also: http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/030313/1228000842_2.html --Declan] ---- Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 15:23:14 -0500 From: "Paul Levy" <PLEVYat_private> To: <declanat_private> Subject: Foodservicespeechsuppression.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Disposition: inline Here is a nasty gram that I just saw. The lawyer is presumably hoping for the intimidating effect that will occur if the recipient of his letter is unaweare of his immunity uinder the CDA. Robert S. Brennen (410) 385-3653 rbrennenat_private March 12, 2003 VIA FACSIMILE [SNIP] AND FIRST CLASS MAIL Mr. Stephen Hoschler P.O. Box 1020 Loomis, CA 95650 Re: FOODSERVICERUMORS.COM Dear Mr. Hoschler: We represent U.S. Foodservice, Inc. ("USF"). Our client is, of course, aware of the FOODSERVICERUMORS.COM web site and its apparent use by present and former food service employees as a forum for voicing their opinions about USF and other companies engaged in the food service and distribution industry. While USF may disagree with many of the opinions that have been posted on your web site since its inception, it respects the individuals' First Amendment rights to express them. However, those rights cannot be used as a pretext for, nor do they afford protection against liability for, statements that are false and defamatory. Unfortunately, several recent postings on your web site contain such statements. As an "Information Content Provider," as defined by the Communications Decency Act of 1996 [47 U.S.C. § 230], you are potentially liable for such defamatory statements. We request that you take immediate action to remove them from the web site. In the absence of such action, we reserve the right to initiate an action against you and the original authors. It also appears that, in a departure from the function of providing a forum for the expression of opinions, your web site is actively soliciting confidential and proprietary information from current USF employees. You should know that all documents that become known to employees as a consequence of their employment with the Company and that are not readily available to the public are considered confidential and proprietary. This includes but is not limited to all Company policies, records and memoranda. As you are no doubt aware, the disclosure of such information would constitute a breach of USF's employees' duties to the company in connection with their employment, as set forth in Company policies, the employees' written agreements with USF, and as established by common law. Thus, through your web site you are engaged in an effort to improperly interfere with USF's relationships with its employees by causing them to breach their duties to the Company. It is reprehensible for you to importune USF's employees to, perhaps unwittingly, engage in wrongful conduct against the Company by soliciting this information. Of course, we understand that employees may, as appropriate, provide government agencies with information and/or documents concerning Company practices. The Company will not retaliate, and will not tolerate any retaliation, against any associate for making good faith statements or inquiries to either the Company itself or appropriate government agencies. However, disclosing confidential information to your website or other media is in fact improper. This constitutes our demand that you remove all such solicitations immediately and that you refrain from posting further solicitations in the future. We request your prompt response to these matters. Very truly yours, Robert S. Brennen RSB/kac ::ODMA\PCDOCS\BALT01\582899\1 bcc: (via fax) David B. Eberhardt, Esquire (via fax) Ellen Rice, Esquire Jefferson V. Wright, Esquire John B. Frisch, Esquire Paul Alan Levy Public Citizen Litigation Group 1600 - 20th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 588-1000 http://www.citizen.org/litigation/litigation.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/ Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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