[12390] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Details on Brock Meeks Case
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Meeks Defense Fund)
Tue May 17 13:01:09 1994
Date: Tue, 17 May 1994 09:37:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: Meeks Defense Fund <fund@idi.net>
To: com-priv@psi.com, telecomreg@relay.adp.wisc.edu, roundtable@cni.org,
COMMUNET@uvmvm.uvm.edu, cni-announce@cni.org, cpsr-announce@cpsr.org,
eff-activists@eff.org, alt-activism-d@cs.utexas,
alt-activism@cs.utexas.edu, alt-society-resistance@cs.utexas.edu,
alt-politics-datahighway@cs.utexas.edu
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.85.9405111330.A13722-0100000@idi.net>
Dear Net Citizen:
The recent Internet posting launching a fund raising drive in
order to help Brock Meeks defray the legal expenses of a lawsuit
brought against his news wire, CyberWire Dispatch, has drawn
several inquiries for a summary of the issues involved in this
case. In response, we have put together the following summary.
(Please note, too, that the case was featured in the April 22
(Fri.) issue of the Wall St. Journal (page B1))
Sometime during February of this year, an electronic solicitation
began appearing on the Internet from a company identified only as
the "Electronic Postal Service" (EPS).
The solicitation from EPS said the service, "will pay you money
to receive commercial e-mail. EPS estimates you will be paid an
average of 6.5 cents per commercial e-mail message. It is
estimated that the average commercial e-mail receiver can make
$200.00 to $500.00 a year and likely more. There is absolutely
no charge, periodic charge, hourly charge or phone charge to
receive or review EPS commercial e-mail. The sender bears all of
the cost.
You are provided with a free EPS mailbox and you may access this
EPS mailbox through a toll free phone number so there are no
phone line charges... In addition... EPS offers you... full
Internet access including network Internet e-mail remote log-in,
file transfer capability and much more."
To sign up you were required to call an 800 number or send for
information to the EPS Internet account (eps@world.std.com). You
had to include your name and address.
Brock called and asked for the EPS information. It never came.
Instead, he received an unwanted and unsolicited direct mailing
from a company called Suarez Corporation Industries (SCI). The
mailing came in the form of a 6 page letter signed by Benjamin
Suarez. That mailing claimed that for a price of $159, Suarez
would send you a book and software that could help you create a
"net profit generation system" capable of earning anywhere from
$30,000 to $1 million per year.
Brock began investigating why he received the SCI mailing and
soon found out that Suarez had obtained his name from the request
for EPS information. More investigation found that the EPS
account was registered to Suarez Corporation Industries. Brock
then looked into the background of this company.
During his investigation into SCI, Brock discovered that state
and federal enforcement agencies had brought actions against SCI
result of their direct mailing practices.
In his article, Brock expressed his personal disapproval of the
SCI business activities. SCI objected to the article and has
filed a defamation lawsuit claiming Brock made defamatory remarks
and sought to disparage his products "and otherwise tortiously
(sic) interfere with the plaintiff's ability to develop" EPS.
Suarez claims the Dispatch article lost him business and he is
seeking compensatory and punitive damages and demanding an
injunction to block Brock from writing further about SCI or its
founder, Benjamin Suarez.
The April 22 (page B1) issue of the Wall St. Journal says lawsuit
"is one of the first U.S. libel cases to arise out of the
free-for-all on the Internet... If it succeeds, some legal
experts say it could spawn other complaints."
For those who don't know Brock, he has a long history as a
journalist writing in the on-line field, having written for Byte,
Wired and other journals over the years. He lives and works
today in the Washington, D.C. area writing during the day for a
communications trade journal. Cyberwire Dispatch is his own
creation. The suit against him was filed in Ohio. Without
the generous offer of legal support from his current lawyers, who
have offices in Ohio, Brock's situation would be even more dire.
The Meeks case raises legal issues that may have far-reaching
implications for freedom of speech and free expression on the
internet. If journalists are unable to pursue important
investigative issues without fear of reprisal, then
all of us will suffer. This is exactly the type of chilling
effect hat the First Amendment was intended to avoid and the
reason we need your support.
Of course defamation laws are to be applied to the Net, but how
they are applied -- and this case will be an important first step
in that process -- could determine just how open and free people
will feel to speak their minds.
This is NOT a case in which a writer on the Internet has, in
fact, libeled someone else. Brock absolutely denies the charges
against him. And every lawyer that Brock has consulted and
looked at the text Brock wrote, and the charges against him,
believe that he ha not written anything that can fairly be
characterized as libelous.
The Legal Defense Fund is formed to assure that Brock is well
defended.
As a reminder, contributions can be made in two ways, either
tax-deductible or non-deductible.
A special thanks goes to the Point Foundation for agreeing early
on in the process to assist in organizing and serving as a
collection agent for the Fund.
If you have any questions, you can contact the Fund at
Fund@idi.net.
For tax-deductible contributions send those checks to:
Meeks Defense Fund
c/o Point Foundation
27 Gate Five Road
Sausalito, CA 94965
For those who don't care about the tax deductible status, send
contributions to:
Meeks Defense Fund
c/o IDI
901 15th St. NW
Suite 230
Washington, DC 20005
THE BROCK MEEKS DEFENSE FUND COMMITTEE
Samuel A. Simon
President, Issue Dynamics, Inc.*
ssimon@idi.net
John Sumser
Editor/Executive Director
Whole Earth Review/ Point Foundation
jrsumser@well.sf.ca.us
Mitch Kapor
Chair, Electronic Frontier Foundation*
mkapor@eff.org
David Farber
The Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunications Systems
University of Pennsylvania*
farber@central.cis.upenn.edu
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Senior Writer
TIME Magazine*
ped@panix.com
Marc Rotenberg
Electronic Privacy Information Center*
Rotenberg@epic.org
Nicholas Johnson
Former FCC Commissioner*
1035393@mcimail.com
Jerry Berman
Electronic Frontier Foundation*
jberman@eff.org
Mike Godwin
Electronic Frontier Foundation*
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# 901 15th St. NW 27 Gate Five Road #
# Suite 230 Sausalito, CA 9465 #
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