PLEASE READ THESE FACTS FIRST:

  • Random House sued ME; not the other way around.
  • Random House filed suit to silence the facts I was posting on the web.
  • There has been NO trial on the facts, only the Random House effort to prevent a trial.
  • NO expert testimony was allowed despite three international plagiarism experts who were willing to testif that it existed.
  • The only sworn statements made under penalty of perjury are affidavits from me and my experts, nothing from RH.
  • The judge refused to consider any expert analysis.
  • Despite suing me first, Random House & Sony UNsuccessfully demanded that I pay the $310,000 in legal fees they spent to sue me.
  • Contrary to the Random House spin, I am not alleging plagiarism of general issues, but of several hundred very specific ones.
  • This is not about money. Anything I win goes to charity.

Legal filings and the expert witness reports are HERE

I have a second blog, Writopia
which focuses on Dan Brown's pattern of falsehoods
and embellishment of his personal achievements.


Thursday, April 20, 2006

The Battle Continues

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals violated its own rules regarding summary judgement and about considering works as a whole in copyright infringement cases and has affirmed the District Court ruling.

We are currently preparing our petition to have the U.S. Supreme Court consider the case.

The biggest issue (other than the Second Circuit not following its own rules) is the fact that the Ninth Circuit out here on the West Coast has standards regarding infringement that are significantly different from the Second Circuit's especially when it comes to interpreting the lay reader role with regard to summary judgement.

The 9th consistently denies summary judgement (allowing a trial on the facts) even in cases where there are far more significant issues and far fewer of them than we have shown so far in our case.

And while the 9th has a reputation as the most overturned circuit in the nation, the Supreme Court as consistently upheld its rulings in copyright infringement.

More later.

7 Comments:

Blogger Mark said...

Sorry to hear this but there's nothing left to do but dig in on the procedural angle. I don't know what the accptence rate is for copyright cases is at SCOTUS.

Thu Apr 20, 02:01:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Lewis Perdue said...

I do know from my Con Law course at Cornell Law school that the SC loves cases where two major circuits have substantially different standards of adjudicating/interpreting the same issue ...

And the fact that SCOTUS has affirmed so many 9th cir copyright decisions will make this interesting.

This could be a very interesting case.

Ironically, if RH had not sued me to recover legal fees, I would probably have bowed out after the District Court decision when I realized that the court system is nothing like we learned in civics class ... "of the rich, by the rich and for the rich" is how things should be explained ...

And, as several of my own attorneys have said, "the court system is not about justice, it is about winning."

Thus, all the verified lies in the RH briefs are okay ... because winning is far more important than the truth.

I believe in fighting for what is right, but when the deck is so totally rigged, you have to think twice.

Thu Apr 20, 02:40:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Mark said...

Sure it's about winning. And that includes suppression of information. What we need to know is what can be taken from other writers in the name of research. That's what needs to be settled, so I think they'll probably take the case.

Fri Apr 21, 05:06:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Kodewulf said...

Just thought you'd like to know what people are saying about your case:

http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read/8599
http://techdirt.com/articles/20060421/1710243.shtml
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20060407/0952237.shtml

It's nice to see that media has such a good grasp of the facts... NOT!!

Sat Apr 22, 06:12:00 AM PDT  
Blogger Lewis Perdue said...

Thanks for the post ... yes, the media thinks that reprinting a press release is reporting.

The Random House spin machine is formidable and, like their lawyers, know they can get away with twisting the truth because they know the media won't take time to look at the facts for themselves.

Neither truth nor accuracy nor facts are held in very high regard.

But we all die and because of that, the things of this world are meaningless. When I die, at least I know I stuck to the truth.

Sat Apr 22, 08:29:00 AM PDT  
Blogger RC said...

Man, random house is crazy!

--RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com

Mon Apr 24, 04:52:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Lewis Perdue said...

Nah, not crazy ... just lacking in scruples.

Mon Apr 24, 04:57:00 PM PDT  

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