Like many others I've become hooked on the Daily Kos site over the past couple of years, with its mix of serious political discussion, pro-active campaigning and bright, irreverent commentaries on topical news items. From here in the UK it's given me a real insight into the American political system in a way that our own Papers and TV commentators never seemed to able to do. Maybe some of you in the US feel the same way!
So how would you feel if you logged in and found a message saying:
"Sorry but due to ongoing legal action the Daily Kos website has been discontinued"
Set aside thoughts of George Bush, "Black Ops", or Karl Rove machinations. Do you think such a scenario could realistically take place in America. Do you believe it couldn't happen here? Well, I have to tell you that through a combination of bad luck, poor legal advice and an exceptionally vindictive plaintiff, for one well respected niche website it already has.....
For reasons too lengthy to explain here I have had a longstanding interest in the activities of the timeshare industry in Europe. As such I regularly visit sites such as Crimeshare which as the name implies have a pretty low opinion of the industry in general.
However in the US there existed a positive website devoted to Timeshare issues that provided news items, editorials and discussions on the industry since the late nineties. So popular was it that many resort developers would happy advertise there and in its last year of operation it had over 4 million visitors. It was called The Timeshare Beat. The Link may not work now but this is the message the site editor, Rod Hackman, posted three months ago:
For the record, I and I alone have made the decision to publish this editorial (and any required updates) as this publication has an adversary who is attempting to close down our business, eliminate our website, has attempted to have us arrested, has garnished and seized our bank accounts and is now processing court orders to garnish any advertising revenue etc. that may or may not be due our organization from various current advertisers.
We have commitments to our existing advertising clients and feel a deep obligation to our readers, and although we could simply file the appropriate bankruptcy chapter, and may yet have to do so, as of this writing that decision has not yet been made. In order to protect our clients in the event our adversary succeeds in obtaining a court order to shut us down, I've decided to disclose relevant and factual information that has led us to this point so that all our clients and readers worldwide will fully understand what has occurred.
He then revealed details of a legal action that had been running over the previous three years by a dubious timeshare developer who had taken umbrage to certain comments made regarding a failed resort that he had managed. An insider in the organisation had provided various details to Timeshare Beat, including internal emails and the developer wanted to know who they where. Rod continued:
...our original attorneys had informed us that in the end-- regardless of our attempts otherwise-- we would be required to turn our source and the email over to the Plaintiff's attorneys, along with other confidential source material which in no way was related to the case but which could have been used to cause harm to many people in our industry, and we could not bring ourselves to perform such an abhorrent act. Ultimately a default judgment was entered against us that included damages, sanctions, attorney fees, costs etc.
I believe that it is in the interest of our publication, our good names, industry developers, management, administrative, sales, marketing (employees), ancillary business and timeshare owners the world over who depend on our publication, to understand what has transpired so that they all will be better informed as to the true cause and forces that may, at any moment, prevent this online publication's further existence.
Due to the fact that Plaintiff and/or Plaintiff's counsel have attempted to have us incarcerated, have seized our bank accounts and in my opinion willfully misled the judge on several key issues I fully expect the aggression will continue and attempts will be made to further block our 1st amendment rights as well, using the legal system, as they have previously attempted, to shut down our publication.
Although Hackman gained a massive positive reponse from his readers, on November 24th he posted the following:
It is with deep regret that I am announcing today that due to circumstances beyond our control 'The Beat' will soon cease to exist and we will no longer be publishing daily timeshares news stories, timeshare company press releases, travel reports, Resorts In The Spotlight and other such information that we have proudly and freely provided for the past 7+ full years to our (now) 4 Million+ annual readers.
How did it come to this? The full details have been cross-posted here on the otherwise generally scurrilous Crimeshare site which ironically has proved far more impervious to legal challenge than a mainstream US based business site appears to be!
At least the associated blogsite Streettalk is still running.
So is this just a one-off experience - or should it be regarded as a wake-up call?