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Bob, (and others) a very short and therefore imprecise lesson.
Every person who contends against someone else's position, in order to be safe
from a successful law suit for libel (written) or slander (oral), must be able
to prove his/her argument with true facts from which the opinion is derived; so
truth is a complete defence.
Hollywood movie critics have qualified privilege to make
negative comments only because the movie business is public and expects and
encourages debate - part of the the qualified privilege is absence of
malice. This is different than a private person or enterprize selling to the
public.
This go-round is at least the second time the libel and Loce
issue has been raised since I've been on mopo, with the same result, much worry
and no outcome. Just be sure you're right.
On the issue of legal costs - in the US mostly each party
covers its own; in the UK the winner's are recouped from the loser and in Canada
the winner gets partial recompense - each system is designed to encourage
settlement because of what's at stake over the damages and/or
principle.
Craig, Vancouver
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, June 25, 2006 11:43
PM
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Lawsuit
threatened
Hey Steve:
That's all it is, just a threat. He
will NEVER, ever follow through - or else he'll have every expert in the
business lining up to testify about the 'product' he sells (and the loser is
often responsible for court costs).
If he ever is stupid enough to sue,
just give me a shout, and I'll be happy to testify (or write a notarized
letter) for you about my opinion of his business practices.
By the way, I didn't just call Miramax, I talked
with someone who had access to the room in Miramax's office where they
stored some of their posters - and, surprise, surprise, they never had a
stamp (and none of the posters they had there had a stamp
either).
There's also someone on the list here who worked
at the printers (Consolidated or Continental, I always mix those two
up) at the time the poster was printed - and he has confirmed (on Mopo, I
believe) that the stamped Pulp Fictions WEREN'T from the run they
printed... Of course, Loce gets around this fact by claiming that the
posters were printed by NSS.
And, here's another thing, if you say you
'believe' something - that's not the same as saying you 'know'
something. And, as long as you said it was your opinion, I doubt that
you are liable (even if what you said was wrong, which I would doubt).
And, you also can't be sued for calling someone an 'asshole' or a 'douche bag'
- both of which he is in spades.
Cheers,
Bob
PS. Watch out, the new reprints of that
poster have fixed the white specks (check Dan's site, I'm sure he has a list
of other things to look for).
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, June 25, 2006 11:06
PM
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Lawsuit
threatened
Hello all,
I am hoping that someone can give me some
advice. I recently mentioned Thomas Loce and that I believed he is
selling Pulp Fiction Lucky Strikes reprints, because he stands behind his
claim that the "Miramax Stamp" is the proof of a guaranteed original, and
even proposed that I call Miramax to prove it. Personally I have read
enough to know that this is not the case, so I posted on MOPO that both he
and another seller on eBay, postergalleries, are knowingly selling
reprints. It is obvious in the case of postergalleries, as he outright
refuses to send a detail picture of the area in Uma's cleavage, which on at
least every reprint that I've bought (no less than six) have the tell-tale
white flecks which are the result of a printing flaw in the
reprints.
Anyway, Thomas has now threatened me with a libel lawsuit,
and was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction on how to
handle this. I am simply trying to educate the community about known
reprint resellers (not necessarily the ones who print them), as this is a
part of the hobby that is nothing short of fraud, and since eBay does not
know how to handle it (as some of these people are Power Sellers, and eBay
won't take action against the hand that feeds it), I am addressing it in an
open forum.
I am more than happy to retract my statements if he can
prove that he is selling originals.
Thoughts?
Best
regards,
Steve Zammar
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.dsonesheets.com
303/478-3973
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