The EPO's attempts to gag and/or censor Techrights using threats [1, 2] is becoming the subject of some news coverage with a broad audience. As this one article (among several) put it: "In fact, to argue that Schestowitz's post is defamatory is crazy. Threatening Schestowitz with a defamation claim is much crazier and dangerous than even Schestowitz's own interpretation of the EPO's memo. If you're working for a government agency, such as the EPO, you have to be willing to accept some amount of criticism, even if you disagree with it. To claim it's defamation and to threaten a lawsuit is really, really screwed up. [...] I'm having trouble thinking of any other governmental agency that has ever threatened a public critic with defamation. Basic concepts around free speech suggest that the EPO should suck it up. If it disagrees with Schestowitz's interpretation of what it's doing, then it can come out and explain its side of the story. Threatening him with defamation actually only makes me think that perhaps his interpretation hits closer to home than I originally believed."

“That might be one important reason why cleaning out the EPO stable is different from FIFA. At the EPO, there are victims.”
      --AnonymousI am not the first EPO and/or UPC critic whom the EPO threatened to sue, it's just that a lot of people don't know about these cases. The EPO hopes that its victims will stay silent and afraid. In fact, this one example may have resulted in the site becoming inactive (for a number of years now).

Techrights is eager to get to the bottom of everything and won't give up as the EPO probably hoped it would. "I finish on one straw of hope," an anonymous comment wrote last night. "Thinking about FIFA, there are not thousands of employees involved. That might be one important reason why cleaning out the EPO stable is different from FIFA. At the EPO, there are victims."

Some of these victims commit suicide, too.

"In the coming days or weeks we intend to show that what the EPO did wasn't just foolish but also dubious from a legal standpoint."The EPO is clearly out of control. It is a quasi-political entity working using taxpayers' money (to some degree) and abusing those taxpayers. Think about if for a moment; that's worse than the British Conservative party hypothetically threatening to sue blogs critical of British Conservatives. In the case of the EPO it's even worse because it was not even elected and the British Conservative party is not taking the money of the public to use for its own promotion at election time.

In the coming days or weeks we intend to show that what the EPO did wasn't just foolish but also dubious from a legal standpoint. Then again, the EPO doesn't exactly care about what's legal. It mostly disregards the laws and makes up its own on a whim (or the President's whim). The two last comments which stand out in the above article say that "EPOnia is not a "government agency", it is legally a Kingdom above the EU countries, it is a tyranny with ZERO accountability... legal-wise"; another says "German employer rules or any other EU country do not apply inside EPOnia".

If EPO thinks that it is above international law, then we need to show here just to what degree it disregards -- if not deliberately violates -- the law. ⬆

"Denial ain`t just a river in Egypt."

--Mark Twain