TechgnosisWeb Prime

Dear Jack,

Hi! How are you? I hope you and your family are well. I’m doing good, been having some minor health issues, but nothing too serious. Work’s been keeping me terribly busy, though. Well, I’m sure you know how it is.

Let’s get down to business, Jack: I’m putting up this open letter in response to the comment you left on my previous entry, which I quote below:

# Jack Thompson Says:
October 18th, 2005 at 3:33 pm

This story is completely false and defamatory. Take it down or else legal action will follow.

Now, I know you’re a very, very busy guy, Jack, since your license to practice law is currently under review and you seem to be in danger of being disbarred, which is why I’m going to go ahead and give you the benefit of the doubt and say that you were probably just distracted, or maybe suffering from lack of sleep, when you penned that little comment on my personal website. Still, the fact remains that you’re clearly mistaken on the basic definitions of the words ‘false’ and ‘defamatory’. As a favor to you, allow me to define these words:

false (fôls) adj.
1. Contrary to fact or truth
2. Deliberately untrue
3. Intentionally deceptive
4. Not genuine or real

and…

de·fame (d-fm) tr.v
1. To damage the reputation, character, or good name of by slander or libel.

… which of course, requires us to define ‘libel’:

li·bel (lbl) n.
1. 1. A false publication, as in writing, print, signs, or pictures, that damages a person’s reputation.
2. The act of presenting such material to the public.

So… basically, in order for my statements to be ‘defamatory’, they must be false. Unfortunately, my dear Jack, they are not false. Here, let me do you a favor and provide my sources, as your antics are quite well documented:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php?date=2005-10-17
http://gc.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=5883
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=12259
http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000627063759/
http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000743063662/
http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000193063914/
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/gta4/news.html?sid=6135979

There are more, of course, but I do think that these present a fairly accurate picture. Now, seeing as my statements, or ’story’ as you refer to it, is not demonstrably false, then it stands to reason that it is also not defamatory. Sorry, Jacko, but you struck out on both counts.

In fact, let me go a little further, you know, just so we’re all on the same page here. What I posted up about you, not only was it factual and not defamatory, but it also contained my personal opinion of you, which, I’m sad to say, is not terribly flattering. Seeing as this website is my very own, personal place of expression, and I am putting forth a personal opinion, and, furthermore, identifying that opinion as such (please see the final paragraph of the previous entry for confirmation), it is therefore constitutionally protected free speech, which I would assume you know all about, being a big-shot lawyer and all. Just in case it’s slipped your mind, however, I refer you to the 1st Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, under which jurisdiction we both fall. So, I am entirely within my rights to express my opinion on this, my personal website. Sorry about that, Jack.

Now, I know the whole Free Speech thing can be a heady experience, and you’re obviously the kind of guy who tends to get carried away when he gets excited over something. So, before you start warming up those cute little fingers and typing up yet another comment response on my personal website, let me clarify something: by reading and using the comment form on this website, you are making use of my personal computer resources, which I own and have paid for personally, and which are, therefore, my property. This means that, while the Right to Free Speech allows me to use my own personal website to put forward my opinion of you, it does not protect your comments on my website, nor does it give you the right to make comments on my website. As this is my personal property, using the comment form on any part of this website is a privilege that I afford my visitors, and it is one which I can revoke. Therefore, I’m terribly sorry to do this, but I am hereby revoking your privilege to use the comment forms, read articles, and post responses on this website. That’s right, Jack, you’re not allowed to post any further responses to anything I post in this site. If you want to respond, then, please, email me (I feel no need to provide said email address, by the way. Since it would be you initiating contact, it is your job to find my email address, not my job to give it). Or, hey, start your own website. TechgnosiswebSucks.com, it’s got a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

In any case, it is my sad duty and obligation to inform you that any further comments posted on this website, or any further attempts to contact me, will be considered personal harassment, as I have broken no laws. Of course, ‘legal action will follow’, as you’re so fond of saying, if you continue to harass me or mine. And as it seems quite clear that I am quite a bit more proficient with the English language, the law, and the Constitution than you are, I do not believe that ‘legal action’ against me is something you would enjoy pursuing.

Hugs and kisses,

Katsushiro

UPDATE: Oh, Jack, you never really learn, do you? Now you’ve gone ahead and posted the following on the same previous entry:

I have sent the following letter to your local Police Department:

Superintendent Pedro Toledo Dávila
Police Superintendent
Puerto Rico Police Department
Ave F.D. Roosevelt 101
Cuartel General, Piso 3
San Juan
00936-8166

Dear Superintendendent Toledo:

A Puerto Rico business by the name of Techgnosisweb, employs certain personnel who have decided to commence and orchestrate criminal harassment and difamation of me.

This company has done thise because I dared to go on CBS’s 60 Minutes in March and again in July to explain a wrongful death lawsuit I have brought on behalf of two police officers and a police dispatcher in Fayette, Alabama, who were shot in the head and killed by Devin Moore who obsesively trained on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City to kill them.

As you may know, this incredibly violent Rockstar Games product is actually a “cop-killing” murder simulator. There are a bunch of computer geeks out there who think that the video game industry has a constitutional right to paint a bullseye on your back and on your officers’ backs but that I do not have a constitutional right to point out on 60 Minutes or anywhere else that they do not have that “constitutional right.”

That is what the criminal difamation of me by Techgnosisweb is all about. Their diffamation can be found on their www.techgnosisweb.com web site.

I look forward to working with your fine Police Department to shut this little extortion factory down.

Regards, Jack Thompson

… sigh… really, Jack, I’d hoped we could resolve this with just a few vague legal threats back and forth, but you had to go and try to call in the police. I’d say that was a bold and original move, if it wasn’t for the fact that you’ve done it before to other people, and, in fact, you’ve even forgotten to actually send the letter to the intended recipient (although you’ve sent copies to everyone else). In fact, the letter is almost word for word a copy of the same one you’ve sent to others. If it wasn’t for all the misspellings and grammatical errors, I would say that it wasn’t you. Alas, the IP address for both comments was the same, so I’m forced to conclude that it was you after all. In any case, your letter contains a number of factual and grammatical errors, which, in the interest of not wasting the police department’s time, I will detail below.

1. You misspelled ‘Superintendendent’
2. There is no ‘Puerto Rico business by the name of Techgnosisweb’, and this fictional business does not employ anyone.
3. ‘criminal harassment and difamation of me.’… Haven’t we discussed this before?
4. Also, you misspelled ‘difamation’… and ‘thise’.
5. My criticism of you has little or nothing to do with this supposed appearance on CBS, which I, in fact, did not watch, as I prefer to get my news from actual respectable journalists, rather than the type of attention-hungry media whores who would actually consider someone like you to be any sort of ‘expert’ on video games.
6. Actually, I strongly believe in your constitutional right to express your free opinion… just like it is my constitutional right to express my personal and free opinion that you’re obviously a deeply disturbed individual with less than average inteligence.
7. You misspelled ‘difamation’ two more times.
8. For this to be extortion, I would actually have to be demanding something through coercion or intimidation, which, as it is quite clear, I am not doing.

Now, as you know, Jacko, my boy, any further contact or attempts to post here from your part will be considered harassment! You’ve been warned, my friend!