Update on Greplaw Interview, changes and some aftermath

Peter Junger has a long post, More on the Greplaw Case, describing the latest updates, and how he approaches the whole topic:

.... the Greplaw Archive was again redacted to remove both Seth Finkelstein's explanation of what the Censorware Project was, and what happened to it, and the editorial insertions that were made in response to what [Mike] Godwin now calls ``moral suasion.'' The following statement has been inserted in the Greplaw archive in place of the removed material:

[This interview has been altered from its original format. Two paragraphs in the original interview have been redacted as of September 5, 2004.]

Note, again, I've mirrored it, and so has he (though I "accepted" the above official change).

Myself, I'm more focused on what I think of as the mathematics, which can be seen in this portion:

Shortly thereafter I found myself in correspondence with the director of the Berkman center and finally we spoke by telephone about this matter. It was clear throughout this correspondence and conversation that the director of the Berkman center felt that Greplaw and the Berkman center had been threatened with litigation, and not only by my comments about the possibility of Seth suing them.

Naturally, being caught in the middle of a dispute to which he was not a party, he regretted that the matter had arisen and also regretted the particular procedures that had been adopted in the case. It was also quite clear that he regretted the unfair way that Seth had been treated.

I view this as basically an example of "only have to be lucky once". Since there's no reputation-cost to making the threats, such a lawyer can keep attacking until one hits (and to add insult to injury, the outcome will be deemed my fault, or at the very best, a moral equivalence). Again, I appreciate the support messages. But, remember, lucky once ...

I'll probably never be able to fully convey to people that it's not about a flame-war. Rather, the problem is being under-powered and over-matched and hence being driven to quit. It's sad, unpleasant, and depressing to write. But this situation overall has been another turning-point for me.

Seth Finkelstein's Infothought blog (Wikipedia, Google, censorware, and an inside view of net-politics) - Syndicate site (subscribe, RSS)