Lawyer Puts $10k Bounty on Blogger's Identity

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Raymond Niro of Niro Scavone Haller & Niro is fighting back against criticism from the Patent Troll Tracker blog by offering a $10,000 bounty for the identity of the person behind it. He thinks the blogger might work for Microsoft, Intel, or has connections to a 'serial infringer' and that could 'color' what they say."

So long as said blogger is truthful....

[KublaiKhan]

Truth is a defense for libel. So long as the blogger in question has not made any actual false statements, and has couched all opinions as such, rather than as facts--then he should STFU and GBTW.

But then, if he's a patent troll, he's rather defined as "not being able to STFU and do something useful," now, is he?

blog link

[TheRealZeus]

http://trolltracker.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com] *slashdot effect activate*

Re:So long as said blogger is truthful....

[arizwebfoot]

Yeah, truth IS a defense for libel, but not an absolute defense. If you hold someone up to public ridicule, regardless of the level of truth, you can still be guilty of either libel or if it's spoken, slander.

Re:Oota Goota, Troll Tracker?

[Fallen Seraph]

No I'm Troll Tracker!

Re:Also blood banks ...

[conlaw]

This story about Dr. Drew's death is an urban legend. A biography of him, Charles Richard Drew : the man and the myth by Charles E. Wynes, sets forth what really happened:

Dr. Drew suffered fatal injuries in the wreck. Despite the immediate attentions of the three other physicians who were with him (two of whom were substantially uninjured), and prompt attention at a nearby mixed-race (segregated) hospital, where he was attended by three other physicians, one of whom was the co-owner of the hospital, Dr. Drew died from the massive injuries. Included in the treatment was the administration of "at least one blood transfusion" - the hospital stocked both whole blood and plasma.

...

But the story lives on. A McGill University publication, the _McGill Reporter_, repeated it in its December 1981 issue. Fortunately, it brought a vigorous denial from Dr. Edward Bensley, professor emeritus of medicine at McGill, [...]. Part of the evidence that Dr. Bensley had was a copy of a letter written by Dr. Ford [another black physician who was with Dr. Drew in the accident], in which Ford tried to lay the 'bled to death' canard to rest.

...

[Dr. Ford stated that] Doctor Drew's cause of death was that of a broken neck and complete blockage of the blood flow back to the heart. Immediately following the accident in which he was half thrown out of the car, and actually crushed to death by the car as it turned over the second time, the doctors who were were able to, got out of the car quickly and came to Doctor Drew's rescue, but it was of no avail because even at that time, it was quite obvious that his chances of surviving were nil.

Quoted in http://tafkac.org/death/charles.drew/charles_drew.html [tafkac.org]

Re:So long as said blogger is truthful....

[Romancer]

Uh, no.

"In law, defamation (also called vilification, slander, and libel) is the communication of a statement that makes a false claim, expressively stated or implied to be factual, that may harm the reputation of an individual, business, product, group, government or nation."

notice the "false claim" and "implied to be factual" parts.

even the law websites out there classify libel as: "A false and defamatory statement concerning another." Notice again the "false" part.

Re:Oota Goota, Troll Tracker?

[Anonymous Coward]

Niro, Scavone, Haller & Niro, Ltd.
Business address: Suite 4600, 181 West Madison Street, Chicago, IL 60602-4515
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Unfortunately, he has the same name as the firm's president and senior partner (Raymond P. Niro, Sr.), so it's hard to separate out their records.
They appear to have homes in Barrington, IL, Arlington Heights, IL, Chicago, IL and Snowmass Village, CO (perhaps they like to ski).
For some reason, even though the law firm is in Chicago, the president's address in its corporate filing shows his home as 2401 Spanish River Road, Boca Raton, FL 33432, phone [phone].
Another address seems to be 1005 N Arlington Heights Rd, Arlington Heights, IL 60004-5669, phone [phone].

Their addresses within Chicago are likely to be:
Raymond P. Niro, Sr. - 181 W Madison St, Ste 4600, Chicago, IL 60602-4635, phone [phone]
Raymond P. Niro, Jr. - 25 E Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60604-2201, phone [phone]

Oh, and just in case Raymond P. Niro, Sr., his wife Judith, or Raymond P. Niro, Jr., are reading this - all this information is publically available, so don't even think of suing.

Bulverism strikes again

[Oloryn]

Sounds to me like yet another exercise in Bulverism [wikipedia.org]. Rather than actually try to argue with your opponent on the merits, you fantasize some motive on the part of your opponent, and assert that that motive must be throwing your opponent's reasoning off. You saw the same thing with SCO insisting that Groklaw must be being paid by IBM. Actually, this reasoning is irrelevant. Even if the opposition actually is motivated by the fantasy motive, their reasoning could still be correct. You find out if their reasoning is correct by examining it logically, not by speculating about their psychology.

Re:So long as said blogger is truthful....

[Chris Mattern]

The parent post is correct for US law. The grandparent post is correct for UK law, which is why libel lawyers have a lot more fun in the UK.

Well

[bigsexyjoe]

His number is [phone]. Call him and give him theories. I think everyone should.