Saturday, February 08, 2003
Of course, it's the sharks that win
So the situation is that they are suing me to force me to remove graphics that are already offline and which I have told them will remain offline. And they are suing me to recover money that they know does not exist. Taubman is wasting not only their own time and money blindly pursuing this meaningless charge, this waste of resources has a ripple effect:
- I'm wasting my time having to defend myself.
- My attorney (a noted public-interest lawyer) is spending his limited time defending me from this charge, time which certainly could be better spent addressing more important issues instead of wrestling with Taubman over an issue that they've basically manufactured out of smoke and mirrors.
- And now, a United States Magistrate Judge has had to conduct a hearing and write a 12-page order just to get Taubman to produce information that they should have provided months ago!
In fact, oddly enough, the only people who appear to be benefiting from this absurd situation are the law firm of Gifford, Krass, Groh, Sprinkle, Anderson & Citkowski, P.C. – and, in particular, Ms. Julie A. Greenberg, the lead partner on this case, whose website bio proudly boasts of her “extensive experience in the field of pretrial injunctions involving infringement." (I had a comment prepared to insert here, but I'll let Ms. Greenberg's words speak for themselves … )
Via Techdirt, Taubman Sucks! Act 97: The Discovery Order
I used to wonder why law suits took so long to work their way through the court system. After reading this entire site (way over 120 pages of it, and it's still on-going!) I can see why they take as long as they do as each side jockeys to prove they're right and to prove the other side are incompetent to stand trial.
And this is a relatively small case over a fan site of a mall!
What, exactly, do the lawyers suing Hank Mishkoff, think they are going to accomplish? They first started off by threatening Mr. Mishkoff with legal action for making a fan site for the client's mall and saying it was doing irreprable harm (trademark dilution most likely). Mr. Mishkoff would have taken the site down if they actually responded kindly to him, but no, after some discussions he was sued. At first he made a valient effort to defend himself but the lawyers have the law so stacked against everybody that you need a lawyer just to make any headway (and now Mr. Mishkoff has a lawyer working pro bono on the case). And nearly a year later, was hit with copyright infringement.
Who exactly, besides the lawyers, is gaining from any of this?
Certainly not Taubman's client, who have to pay for what is fast looking like a lost cause on their part, and even if they do win, any financial retribution will not cover their lawyers' fees at all.
It's coming to the point where businesses are going to have to reign in their legal departments before they're bled dried trying to defend their businesses—some actions are just not worth the effort.
![[The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades]](https://www.conman.org/people/spc/about/2023/1023.t.jpg "The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades")