This post below comes directly from the Alticor Media Blog. The Alticor folks have been very gracious with allowing me to publish full posts from the site.
You might find it interesting that Alticor, (Amway/Quixtar) has never contacted me about the opinions that I share on the MLM Blog, and I have definitely been pointed at times. I did get a letter once about some pictures that I posted because Alticor felt the pictures were under copyright protection. I removed the pictures and have since only heard from Alticor/Amway/Quixtar in cordial communication.
Yes, we did.
We filed suit
this week in Ottawa County, Michigan seeking to learn more about a
number of “John Does” who have cropped up online since our dispute with
Orrin Woodward and TEAM began.Because we believe we can prove that some of their sites and posts
were engineered or directed by Woodward, TEAM, their lawyers or their PR agency. And that those sites were purposely used to post material that violates a court order.To us, this is a necessary measure in a commercial dispute. Because
we believe the TEAM machine has been fighting dirty, abusing the online
discussion and end-running the court.(It’s also a necessary step in a technical sense – the companies
that host these sites will not divulge information without a subpoena.
You can’t get a subpoena without going to court. So if you want to
demonstrate that Blogger X’s “spontaneous” site is actually part of a
planned-and-paid-for strategy of commercial attack… that’s the road you
have to go down.)So we are seeking to support the legal system – and not attack First Amendment speech. Tough line to walk, but we’ll walk it. Because we believe in both principles.
It could very well be that some of these sites truly are
spontaneous, just angry citizens independently voicing their opinions
without direction from anyone else. We have no problem with those
folks. We don’t want their money, we regret wasting their time and we will even offer to reimburse their costs.There are plenty of individuals out there posting critical comments
about our company, on this site and others. We welcome the debate and
value their opinions. (Don’t believe that? Scan through the 4,000 comments of all stripes we’ve posted here since August.)But e-guerrillas who won’t own up to being bought and paid for in a
commercial dispute so they can end-run a court of law are another
matter. We invite them to come on out – and fight in broad daylight.