Shutuppery — With an Update (Fisking Bill)

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Update: Bill Schmalfeldt has commented.  For the sake of simplicity I’ll comment below — so everything is chronological.  I’ll give you a hint:  He’s wrong, I’m right and I can prove it.

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Lately I’ve been writing about Shutuppery.

Shutuppery is the practice of shouting down or punishing those who dare write something controversial. I got involved in this when an internet troll named Bill Schmalfeldt published a Google maps picture of my house, some publicly available documents about me, and my photo from Facebook. He wasn’t breaking the law, I suppose. He just wanted me to stop writing about him.  Oh yeah.  He also wanted me to inform on my fellow commenters at Hogewash.  He wanted their real names and IP addresses. Jerk.

.Now, I didn’t pick some random guy out of the phone book and start writing about him. Here’s a post about my interaction with Bill Schmalfeldt. Of course you could just Google him.

His latest tactic is to threaten lawsuits against folks who use his likeness or his name without permission. He expects some other writers to negotiate a licensing agreement for the use of his name. On behalf of all non-fiction writers, I must respond: Bill Schmalfeldt, no. Never.

Krendler/Grady needs to contact me so we can set up a licensing agreement for the use of my name and image. No license, no permission. – Tweet by Bill Schmalfeldt, 5/23/2015

Bill Schmalfeldt, who writes internet virtual pron about Cub Scouts, harasses people with such regularity that he has had 5 Peace Orders/Anti-stalking Orders written against him. (The orders are called different things in different states. Basically a handful of regular folks have convinced judge that Bill Schmalfeldt needs to leave them the hell alone.)

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And now, some more from the Shutuppery Files:

Sister Toljah takes on the inventors of the so-called “rape culture.
Feminists have even gone so far as to accuse those in favor (gasp!) of due process for college men accused of sexual assaults of being “pro-rape”, while at the same time suggesting that the “default” position for anyone listening to a woman accuse a man of rape is to believe it without question. In other words, guilty until proven innocent.
I feel an obligation to say that I do not condone rape, micro-aggression, sexism, violence against women/by women. Apparently I’m obligated to write this since otherwise I might be accused of heinous thoughts.  (Heh.  Heinous rhymes with….nevermind.)
Finally, some books I’d love to read soon. I can’t say I’d agree with both authors, but here’s a review of So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Ron Johnson John Ronson and Hate Crimes in Cyberspace by Danielle Keats Citron.  Without reading either book, I can’t offer much of an opinion, but hate crimes in not a phrase I like to see.  The Ministry of Truth should work on a better term.

(Fixed the name for the author of So You’ve Been…  He’s Jon Ronson. 5/27/15 3:52p)

Update on 5/27/2015 at 10:22:

Bill Sez:
I have never threatened a lawsuit against someone who uses my name or image without permission. I stated the Restatement (Second) of Torts says in § 365 (I believe) that we each have our own right of publicity. If people want to write about me, that’s fine. All I ask is that it be true. If you use my image, you need my permission. That’s the law, junior. You have fallen short in being truthful, so I’m afraid I am going to have to ask for a retraction.

The following is available at this link.  Random caps in the original:

YOU ARE HEREBY FORBIDDEN FROM USING MY NAME, MY LIKENESS, OR ANY OTHER INDICIA THAT YOUR READERS WILL UNDERSTAND REFER TO ME.
This takes effect immediately, is retroactive, and will be enforced in our instant lawsuit.

Argue with me if you like. But show this to a lawyer and save yourself some expensive trouble.

I will reciprocate by removing all reference to you, all likenesses of you, from my website.

I am a private person. I have the right to use my own name, my own likeness. You do not have that right to use my name and likeness without my permission, which I do not give.

I will await your response. If you have not removed all references to me, all uses of my name, all images of me from your website by our motions hearing on June 3, I will amend my complaint to include this fact and will ask for significant damages for the two years you have abused my name and image.

Bill, you’re busted.  You threatened someone that using your image/name would be ADDED to an existing case.  Same thing as suing.  Oh, and if I have to drag out all the many hints that you’re gonna sue us all, I will.  And don’t call me junior.

Bill Sez:I have never written virtual ANYTHING about Cub Scouts.

Wrong. I own a copy of the hateful, disgusting comedy clip. If you want to argue that you wrote and performed an audio comedy virtual porn act about BOY Scouts, and not CUB Scouts, the ages of the fictional boys in the recording is consistent with CUB Scouts. I’m sure most people would agree with my interpretation.

We all know you think it was funny, and that no actual children were involved.  Doesn’t matter.  It’s sick.

Bill Sez: While the number of Peace Orders and such is accurate,, you neglect to mention the lies people told to get those…

So, you are still complaining that Hoge said he wouldn’t press his case…and you didn’t know enough to show up for your court date?  Good God man.  Let it rest.  Either you got played like a cheap violin, or Hoge changed his mind.  If you really have/had five POs in 4 states, NOBODY will assume everybody else lied. It’s inconceivable.  And yes I know what that word means.

Bill Sez: Grady lied about my calling his employer and his wife — never did that. The Causeys said that I was a convicted domestic abuser. Never even charged with that. They also said I called his wife and employer. Never happened. Ask them for proof of these allegations before you publish defamatory lies,

I just reported the fact that you have all those POs. You think it’s ‘MY job to re-litigate all the cases that you’ve lost, just so I can write about you?   I suggest YOU appeal anything which was decided in error.   I really don’t need proof of the allegations.  The judges presumable already looked at the proof.

Bill Sez:  …because I’m not in the best of moods these days with scoundrels mocking my wife’s terminal illness. So please, double check your facts and issue the proper retractions and we’ll consider this matter concluded.  I’m sorry about your wife’s terminal illness.  I’m sorry she is a subject of discussion among people who dislike you so much.  I’m also sorry that you published intimate details of her illness along with pictures of her bra-less in a tank top. Nobody with any respect for the dignity of a loved one does that.

My sorrow is for her, not you.  When it suited you, you hid behind your disease.  Now it suits you to blame your sour moods on scoundrels mocking your wife’s terminal illness.  Get yourself to a qualified counselor.  Parkinson’s and depression have been linked.  Long term illness, grief and internet trolling are a very poor combination.  If you can get help, it may be the best thing for your wife.

And finally, a note about irony.  I wrote an article about Shutuppery.  It was all about how people use legal threats to stop people from writing.  You responded with legal threats.  Baseless legal threats designed to convince me to shut up.

No retraction.

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