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1. Gay sex offender files phony “copyright infringement” claim vs MassResistance — causing host company to block web pages indefinitely.
As we’ve reported, over the last year Adam Flanders, a homosexual activist and convicted sex offender, has unleashed a flood threats and legal attacks MassResistance. He wants to stop our work exposing the homosexual agenda targeting schoolchildren — and especially his involvement in some of the more loathsome aspects of that. He has also threatened others across the US and Canada who have worked with us. Now he has filed a phony “copyright infringement” claim to get our web pages blocked.
Background
In 2006 Flanders wrote and distributed a public letter describing what really goes on at the “gay clubs” for schoolchildren run by homosexual adults in towns across the country. He described his own sexual relations with two 14-year-old boys and other horrible things (drug use, pornography, etc.) at the “gay youth club” in his town in Maine where he was an adult participant. He was later convicted and jailed for sexually molesting a teenage boy, along with other convictions, and is a registered sex offender in Maine.
At that time, his 2006 letter appeared in the local media, which Flanders had encouraged. But MassResistance is using this letter to warn parents about the homosexual movement’s dangerous efforts to attract children — and this angers the homosexual radicals. So last year Flanders (and his unidentified allies) threatened us. And when we didn’t take it down they began a vicious campaign to “punish” us and try to destroy us.
Over the past year, among other things, Flanders has: (a) filed a phony harassment order in Maine against MassResistance director Brian Camenker which was later thrown out by a judge; (b) threatened MassResistance’s web host company with legal action, causing them to close down our website and threatening our subsequent host company; (c) threatened other web sites across the country and in Canada which reported on Flanders’ actions; (d) filed two legal injunctions against Camenker, both of which were rejected by a judge; and (e) filed a $1 million “defamation” lawsuit against Camenker and MassResistance, which has been dismissed by a federal judge in Maine. (And recently there’s been even more, described in Part 2 below.)
Flanders has been spewing a stream of defamatory statements and lies about Camenker and MassResistance to anyone who will listen, including lawyers, web host companies, and even in legal documents.
Not backing down
Flanders’ vicious tactics are unfortunately being more commonly used by homosexual activists against pro-family groups they want to punish or destroy. The difference here is that MassResistance beats them in court and keeps going — which makes them furious!
The latest: Phony “copyright infringement” claim
A favorite method of corporations, cults, and radical groups who want to get embarrassing material taken off the Internet is to falsely claim violation of a copyright (or trademark). Now the homosexual movement is doing it. Last week this became Flanders’ latest tactic.
Unfortunately, they can take advantage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMC Act), passed in 1998, which makes it relatively easy for posted material to be immediately removed and tied up for an indefinite period of time — maybe months or years — by almost anyone willing to make a false or misleading claim.
Here’s the procedure outlined in the DMC Act (Sec. 512): All someone has to do is to fax the hosting company a copyright violation complaint letter. No matter how false or ridiculous the charges are, the company then permanently blocks all access to whatever material is described in the letter. If the affected website owner sends a properly worded “counter-notice” outlining its innocence, then the material continues to be blocked, but gets un-blocked if the complainant does not file a legal action within 14 days. But if a legal action is filed, the material stays blocked until a court rules in the website’s favor, which could drag on indefinitely. Websites across America are vulnerable to this terrible abuse of the legal process by activists.
Technically, the DMC Act also says that a person who knowingly files a false copyright complaint can be held liable for any damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees. (See Section 512(f).) But most of these activists seem undeterred by that, probably thinking that such a court action would be too difficult and expensive.
A hosting company may ignore the DMC Act and simply decide to allow the material to stay up, and let the courts decide. But then the company would also be liable for damages if the website lost in court, so few are willing to do that. Web hosting in the U.S. is price-competitive, and companies make very little profit from an individual customer. Thus they generally have no interest taking any stand to protect an individual website’s free speech rights.
The company we contracted with for our hosting, run by a fearless Christian, is actually a middleman — so Flanders went to the much larger hosting company he contracts from — which is not so fearless.
Flanders’ copyright infringement notice: Absurd claims and lies
Homosexual activists will to go to outrageous lengths. In Flanders’ copyright infringement notice which he faxed to the hosting company, he states under oath that the following are materials copyrighted by him, and which we have posted illegally:
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The public letter that he wrote in 2006about his involvement in the homosexual clubs for children. [NOT TRUE: A Maine District Court Judge ruled that we have a First Amendment right to publish that document.]
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The court filingsthat he wrote regarding the cases against MassResistance and Camenker. [NOT TRUE: Court filings are public documents.]
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The criminal background checkon him from the State of Maine. [NOT TRUE: It is a public document which is not copyrighted by him.]
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His police department mug shot.[NOT TRUE: It is a public document which is not copyrighted by him.]
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A photograph of him from his website. [NOT TRUE: This is clearly and unequivocally "fair use" per US copyright law.]
In addition, Flanders includes in his copyright infringement notice a further narrative of outright lies and distortions about Camenker and MassResistance. For example, he claims that because we “falsely accused him of crimes,” a court made a “factual finding” that we harassed him (NOT true) and that we “encouraged the public” to harass him (NOT true), etc. And of course, like other homosexual activists across the country attacking pro-family groups, Flanders repeats the phony and libelous writings of the extremist Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) listing hundreds of religious, civic, and mainstream pro-family groups like MassResistance as “hate groups” similar to the KKK.
Woven into this are common homosexual activist tactics: (1) Personalizing themselves as the victims and (2) Employing whatever lies, distortions, or illegal tactics they wish.
“Counter-notice” to hosting company from our lawyers
Immediately after Flanders filed his notice, our lawyers at Thomas More Society drafted a “counter notice” per the DMC Act, debunking the claims that Flanders made, which was then faxed to the host company. However, as described above, according to the DMC Act the material still stays blocked. The counter-notice simply gives Flanders and his allies 10-14 days to file a copyright action in court, which we’re sure he’ll do — and which we’ll fight .
Note: The “copyright infringement” tactic is not new. In 1939 a reporter named Alan Simpson (who later became a US Senator) published a version of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf which included the anti-Semitic and militaristic portions left out of the American version of the book. Hitler sued Simpson for copyright infringement, and a Connecticut judge ruled in Hitler’s favor!
We’ll keep you informed on what happens.
2. And more: Flanders, files legal complaint against our lawyers. New “harassment” claim against MassResistance and Camenker. Announces that FBI is “investigating” us.
The phony copyright infringement claim is just the latest abuse of the legal process that Flanders and his currently unseen allies are using to attempt to stop MassResistance, and to frighten everyone else.
Over the last several weeks we’ve been notified that Flanders is also:
A. Suing Thomas More Society for “defamation”!
On November 14 the federal judge dismissed Flanders’ absurd defamation case against Brian Camenker and MassResistance. However, Flanders has filed for a review of that decision and is amending it to add our legal counsel, the renowned Thomas More Society, as additional defendants! Flanders is claiming that the announcement which Thomas More Society made on its website about the dismissal of the case — which includes a re-statement of the facts — constitutes defamation of him!
This is another classic harassment tactic by the homosexual movement, and the left in general. They not only want to punish and intimidate pro-family people, but they harass the lawyers, too. And very often, this has the intended effect of scaring pro-family lawyers away from being aggressive or getting involved at all in these kinds of cases. But luckily, Thomas More Society is not intimidated!
B. Filing new “harassment” action against MassResistance and Camenker
On October 22 the District Court Judge finally threw out the 2011 “harassment” order against Camenker and MassResistance that Flanders had managed to fraudulently obtain. But that isn’t stopping him. On December 17, Flanders announced that he is initiating a new “protection from harassment order” against Camenker.
This “harassment complaint” will undoubtedly be as disingenuous and absurd as the previous one. As we reported, when Flanders tried to have the previous order “enforced” through an injunction, the judge completely denied it and declared that MassResistance’s actions were perfectly legal.
But this represents another common homosexual activist tactic: Keep harassing through any means possible.
C. Announced that the FBI is “investigating” Camenker and MassResistance
On December 19, Flanders wrote in an email to a web hosting company that “the FBI is currently investigating Mr. Camenker” because, said Flanders, he feels the need “to protect myself.” This is another incredible abuse, which unfortunately is likely to become more common as a tactic.
As we’ve recently reported, under the Obama Administration the FBI is now embracing the homosexual movement and “reaching out to the gay and transgender community.” (The FBI also now treats the extremist SPLC as a “reliable source.”) Thus, it doesn’t surprise us that Flanders would have relatively easy access to them. We intend to get to the bottom of this.
3. Our lawyers at Thomas More Society are making the difference!
We want to say that we are very proud of our legal team at the Thomas More Society in Chicago. No matter what Flanders and his friends in the homosexual movement throw at us — or at our lawyers — they are sticking by us and fighting strong.
We’ve seen a constant temptation in conservative legal circles to compromise make a settlement, and move on. After all, time is money. But the Thomas More Society “gets it.” They understand the vicious and “bullying” nature of the homosexual movement and that this is a larger “culture war” battle where it’s crucially important not to be afraid or back down. They know that if good people fight back properly, we will ultimately win.
4. What this means to you.
It’s necessary that people internalize the concept that the only effective strategy is not to back down and always fight back.
The overall homosexual (and now transgender) attack on families, culture, and society is hugely destructive. But their agenda targeting innocent children (as appallingly described in Flanders’ letter) is particularly horrible. So it is all the more necessary to confront evil rather than shrink from it.
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Homosexual activists are obsessed with getting kids in school to join homosexual “clubs” run by adult activists. [MassResistance photo.]
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Unfortunately, the battle is not going well. The radical and militant homosexual movement has become the 800-pound gorilla in the room that the mainstream conservative movement pretends it doesn’t even see. And even worse, many are starting to view radicals’ victory as inevitable, so conservatives turn away, give up, and talk about other things.
Most conservatives are in denial about the vicious and relentless nature of the homosexual movement. They are afraid — and hope that by placating them and moderating their opposition, it will persuade them to slow their aggressive push to change our culture.
For example, how many pro-family groups, for example, talk about “gay marriage” in the abstract but are terrified to anger the homosexual groups by discussing the perverted behavior? But if anything, the opposite is true. Silence on that only makes them bolder, more vicious, and more aggressive.
We know of pro-family groups that caved in to Flanders’ early demands to take down the incriminating letter. And others who were afraid to put it up once they saw what he did to us. On the other hand, every time someone publicly fights back and wins, it has an effect. It pushes the radicals back a little and in many cases it energizes many, many others on our side.
So don’t let the “moderate” conservatives drag you down and make you more afraid. Fight back with MassResistance!
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