Why We Are Suing Matthew J. Garrett for Harassment and Why It's Important to Everybody in the Community
Matthew J. Garrett got sued today. Twice (two people*). We hope this will send a very clear message to everybody; if you're going to commit horrible acts (if not crimes) against us, you may be sued and we might well go ahead and sue you (should escalation become imperative) irrespective of the costs involved.
There's a limit to how much abuse to me and to my family I can tolerate for the act of merely reporting on corporate corruption.
For my wife and for myself, this is probably the first and last ever lawsuit against anybody. I need to protect my own right to report facts without being stalked, harassed, defamed, and cyber-attacked. I will follow up later with more information.
The idea of attacking family - especially spouses - isn't unprecedented among Microsofters. Tim Bray wrote about how Microsoft targeted his wife, even at her workplace, seeking to attack him not only directly but also by peer/spouse. To quote his blog post: "Netscape hired me to represent their interests, and when I announced this, controversy ensued. Which is a nice way of saying that Microsoft went berserk; tried unsuccessfully to get me fired as co-editor, and then launched a vicious, deeply personal extended attack in which they tried to destroy my career and took lethal action against a small struggling company because my wife worked there. It was a sideshow of a sideshow of the great campaign to bury Netscape and I’m sure the executives have forgotten; but I haven’t."
The net effect - if not a deliberate aim here - is to devastate the people left who work hard, pro bono, to expose and challenge corporate corruption and crimes. Put another way, it is to help the rich and corrupt by abusing those whom they dislike or fear. █
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* Because technically and legally he is being sued by "Schestowitz and Schestowitz" (the wife). "A civil Counterclaim is a claim made by the defendant in a civil lawsuit against the plaintiff," one law firm explains. "In essence, a counter lawsuit within a lawsuit."