![[Politech logo]](http://www.politechbot.com/image/logo.gif){kind=logo}
Politech is the oldest Internet resource devoted to politics and technology. Launched in 1994 by Declan McCullagh, the mailing list has chronicled the growing intersection of culture, technology, politics, and law. Since 2000, so has the Politech web site.
Zenon has been sued by Scientology for mirroring their ostensibly secret scriptures: http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~d1dd/cos/zenon-eng.html --- Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2001 04:24:47 +0200 From: Zenon Panoussis <oracle@xs4all.nl> Organization: Marcab Technologies To: Steven A Smith <steves@prestongates.com> Cc: politech@politechbot.com, Kirkland City Manager David Ramsay c/o <webmaster@ci.kirkland.wa.us> Subject: The fine art of suppressing information on the Internet Dear Steven With some amazement, some disbelief and a lot of amusement, I read at http://www.politechbot.com/kirkland/ that you have been threatening legal action on behalf of the city of Kirkland against Declan McCullagh's politechbot.com for its publication of some police officers' social security numbers. Dear Steven. Being a good counsel to your client is not limited to firing off standard cease & desist letters at the press of a button. On the contrary, being a good counsel involves advising the client on strategy and, in doing so, taking into account the nature, strength, habits and expected reactions of the counterpart. Dear Steven. You have advised your client to start a war against the Internet. Not only that; you have actually started a war on behalf of your client. Any half-wit who has been online for more than six weeks could have told you that anybody who starts a war on the Internet is guaranteed to lose it. If you would rather not take the advise of half-wits, you could have asked the Recording Industry Association of America, The Motion Picture Association of America, the Church of Scientology (OK, I admit, those *are* half-wits, but they are half-wits with millions), the Ford Motor Company or the German government instead. They would all have told you the same. Dear Steven. I regret to have to tell you that you did a lousy job in persuing your clients' interests. The best way to go about it would have been a polite e-mail, asking whether politechbot.com would kindly remove those SSNs from the web as a token of consideration and respect of the officers' privacy and worry about possible abuse. You never know, you could have striken a cord there. The next best way to go about it would have been to just do nothing. Dear Steven. Your client has to pay for your mistakes. The article that you demand removed is now republished by me at http://www.provocation.net/mirrors/kirkland/p-02008.html and I am hereby inviting your clients to sue me. You can do so in the US, but a US ruling will not be enforceable against me. If you want an enforceable ruling, you need to sue Zenon Panoussis 2e van Swindenstraat 188 1093 XA Amsterdam The Netherlands (that's me) at the appropriate Dutch court, which is Rechtbank Amsterdam Parnassusweg 220 1076 AV Amsterdam The Netherlands You see, dear Steven, this means that any legal action against politechbot.com will be useless even if it is successful; the article in question will remain on the web, and it will attract so much more attention precisely because of your lawsuit. Of course, you could continue threatening and sueing left and right for ever, until your clients run out of money and you become known to your collegues as Don Steven Quixote. Somehow, though, I think that you are able to learn from your mistakes and that nothing of this will happen. Somehow I suspect that you will not reply to this mail, and that you will quietly and with as little loss of face as possible drop the whole issue and forget that you ever started it. I am pretty sure that your client will appreciate that. Best regards, Z -- oracle@everywhere: The ephemeral source of the eternal truth... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------