Random House Sues Me to Recover Lawyer Costs of Suing Me
Freedom of speech sure isn't free when it involves Random House.
Multi-billion-dollar global corporation Random House/Bertelsmann now wants me to pay the lawyers it hired to shut me up and deny me a trial.
Just to reiterate: Back in the spring of 2003, I began to receive emails from strangers all over the country telling me that they felt The Da Vinci Code had plagiarized my books.
I initially discounted this, conceding that different authors could write similar books. When I finally read Code in May of 2003, I was astounded and wrote to Random House with questions and asking for a discussion. I had not hired an attorney, did not anticipate litigation.
They responded with a thermonuclear fax which, among other things, made it clear that I'd face financial ruin should I proceed.
This extreme response convinced me that there must be something to my claim and prompted my search for an attorney and for better information about whether we were talking plagiarism or not.
That eventually led me to forensic linguist John Olsson and his conclusion, quoted in the NY Post on March 14, 2004,"This is the most blatant example of in-your-face plagiarism I've ever seen.
There are literally hundreds of a parallels."
Stung by public recognition that something seemed amiss with their big bestseller, Random House sued me to muzzle the discussion, keep the facts quiet, deny me a jury trial and now to ruin me financially so that I might serve as a public example of what happens to someone when they stand up for their rights.
I didn't start this legal battle. I didn't even start the public discussion – numerous ordinary readers who saw the stunning similarities brought it to my attention.
And yet, here we have highly profitable Random House -- the largest book publisher in the world -- demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars from me. To pay for legal action they started. Legal action because I dared to speak out.
Random House's documents can be found below.
Like their previous sets of documents, the filings are packed with provably false distortions, half-truths and outright fabrications of the sort already addressed in this blog's archives.
Please ask yourself: why – if they believe they have the truth on their side – that they must resort to such despicable tactics?
We have a great case. We've already filed the notice of appeal and will fight their outrageous financial demands.
And all I want is a jury to hear the evidence.
Multi-billion-dollar global corporation Random House/Bertelsmann now wants me to pay the lawyers it hired to shut me up and deny me a trial.
Just to reiterate: Back in the spring of 2003, I began to receive emails from strangers all over the country telling me that they felt The Da Vinci Code had plagiarized my books.
I initially discounted this, conceding that different authors could write similar books. When I finally read Code in May of 2003, I was astounded and wrote to Random House with questions and asking for a discussion. I had not hired an attorney, did not anticipate litigation.
They responded with a thermonuclear fax which, among other things, made it clear that I'd face financial ruin should I proceed.
This extreme response convinced me that there must be something to my claim and prompted my search for an attorney and for better information about whether we were talking plagiarism or not.
That eventually led me to forensic linguist John Olsson and his conclusion, quoted in the NY Post on March 14, 2004,"This is the most blatant example of in-your-face plagiarism I've ever seen.
There are literally hundreds of a parallels."
Stung by public recognition that something seemed amiss with their big bestseller, Random House sued me to muzzle the discussion, keep the facts quiet, deny me a jury trial and now to ruin me financially so that I might serve as a public example of what happens to someone when they stand up for their rights.
I didn't start this legal battle. I didn't even start the public discussion – numerous ordinary readers who saw the stunning similarities brought it to my attention.
And yet, here we have highly profitable Random House -- the largest book publisher in the world -- demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars from me. To pay for legal action they started. Legal action because I dared to speak out.
Random House's documents can be found below.
Like their previous sets of documents, the filings are packed with provably false distortions, half-truths and outright fabrications of the sort already addressed in this blog's archives.
Please ask yourself: why – if they believe they have the truth on their side – that they must resort to such despicable tactics?
We have a great case. We've already filed the notice of appeal and will fight their outrageous financial demands.
And all I want is a jury to hear the evidence.
posted by Lewis Perdue at 8:22 AM
1 Comments:
That's quite a fax alright. The more I study law the less I seem to understand about it. One thing is how far it can reach. As you know in science we can only reach so far. The unprotectable element plethora here and in my book about Arnold's expedition to Quebec makes this extremely difficult to contend.
I'll have to read your firm's brief again I guess.
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