And the Unsuccessful Amicus Motions I Filed
This is the latest post in what I half-jokingly
call The Kimberlin Saga®. If you are new to the story, that’s okay! Not
everyone reads my blog. The short
version is that Kimbethomasrlin has been harassing me for over two years, his worst
conduct being when he attempted to frame me for a crime. I recognize that this might sound like an
incredible claim, but I provide video and documentary evidence of that fact; in
other words, you don’t have to believe my word.
You only have to believe your eyes.
So, if you are new to the story, go to this page and you’ll be able to catch up on what has been happening.
Well, dear
reader, after our “embarrassment
of riches” this morning you are going to be treated with even more legal
filings tonight. Aren’t you lucky?
Certainly Orville
Redenbacher is enjoying the windfall.
Those who have
been paying attention also know that Brett has, remarkably, a third case going
right now: an abusive copyright case against Kimberlin Unmasked (KU) alone. (That is, in addition to his state case and
his federal RICO case, which all also name KU as a defendant.) How do we know it is abusive? Because 1) lots of people have done what he
is complaining about, but he is only suing KU and 2) because it is obvious fair
use. For those that don’t know, you have
a right to use other people’s copyrighted work, for purposes such as satire and
criticism of that work (subject to a balancing test—this is not legal advice). And Kimberlin amazingly makes it clear that
some of the uses KU has made of his allegedly copyrighted work is fair
use. For instance, here’s a passage from
his complaint: “Kimberlin Unmasked alters these photographs by superimposing
Plaintiff’s face on to other backgrounds, for example in a Nazi uniform.” Well, guess what? That’s at least criticism, if not actual
satire.
So it is a
frivolous suit and the actual, plain intent was to use this as yet another
vehicle at identifying the person or persons who write as KU, with whom Brett
has become obsessed. And it looks like
it is crashing down. John Hoge posted
a show cause order that said that Brett had two weeks to explain to the
judge why he shouldn’t dismiss the case for failure to serve KU. But likewise, the court said something about
some motions about me appearing as Amicus
Curiae,* and so an explanation might be owing.
As I have said
repeatedly, the cases come first, the blogging comes second. And this is an example of that. Last Tuesday I filed four things in the
copyright case but I didn’t announce it because the longer it took for Brett to
realize something was happening in the copyright case. I mean, I served everything I filed on him
just as usual, but why tell him about it before I am certain that the mail
arrived? So I was quiet about filing it.
But that is no
longer necessary so I can present to you what I have filed. The first is a motion for leave to file as amicus curiae in that case.
Any person
technically can try to file as an amicus,
although you have to make the case to the courts that you are going to
contribute positively to the deliberation of the issues. And if you are not the ACLU, the ACLJ, Public
Citizen, or even the NRA, you are not likely to be accepted. But at this point, it was either this or
nothing and even if the Judge Titus ultimately did not give me leave to file, I
might make some arguments that still might have an impact. As they say, “you can’t un-ring the bell.”
And bluntly I
didn’t have to work too hard writing these things. As you will see, they are actually kind of a
“Frankenstein’s Monster” of other writings all stitched together, sometimes
taking stuff I had written before and sometimes lifting arguments from other
lawyers in the RICO case, and even borrowing from Beth Kingsley when she was
helping me out in the Kimberlin v. Allen
litigation over two years ago. I would
say around 30% of each document is original and new writing from me.
So first up
you have my motion for leave to file as amicus: