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posted by janrinok on Saturday February 10 2018, @01:08AM   Printer-friendly
from the slapp-me-again,-I-like-it dept.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/02/08/bruce_perens_grsecurity_anti_slapp/
http://perens.com/2018/02/08/bruce-perens-seeks-mandatory-award-of-legal-fees-for-his-defense-in-open-source-security-inc-and-bradley-spengler-v-bruce-perens/

Having defeated a defamation claim for speculating that using Grsecurity's Linux kernel hardening code may expose you to legal risk under the terms of the GPLv2 license, Bruce Perens is back in court.

This time, he's demanding Bradley Spengler – who runs Open Source Security Inc and develops Grsecurity – foots his hefty legal bills, after Spengler failed to successfully sue Perens for libel.

Perens, a noted figure in the open source community, and his legal team from O'Melveny & Myers LLP – as they previously told The Register – want to be awarded attorneys' fees under California's anti-SLAPP statute, a law designed to deter litigation that aims to suppress lawful speech.

That deterrence takes the form of presenting unsuccessful litigants with the bill for the cost of defending against meritless claims.

"Plaintiffs Open Source Security, Inc. and Bradley Spengler sued Defendant Bruce Perens to bully him from expressing his opinions that Plaintiffs' business practices violate Open Source licensing conditions and to discourage others from expressing the same opinions," Perens' latest filing, submitted to a US district court in San Francisco today, declared.

"Rather than allowing the public to judge Plaintiffs' contrary opinions through public debate, Plaintiffs tried to 'win' the argument on this unsettled legal issue by suing him."

[...]

Perens is asking for $667,665.25 in fees, which covers 833.9 hours expended on the litigation by numerous attorneys and a $188,687.75 success fee agreed upon to allow Perens to retain representation he might not otherwise have been able to afford.


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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday February 10 2018, @01:57AM (2 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 10 2018, @01:57AM (#635838) Journal

    Note, not "Sue people who notice the violations you are trying to get away with." That's evil.

    But that's a blatant infringement to the constitutional right to sue!!! I'm sure there's an amendment somewhere.

    I... I'll... I'll sue ya! [youtube.com]

    (grin)

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    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Saturday February 10 2018, @02:48AM (1 child)

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 10 2018, @02:48AM (#635844) Journal

    constitutional right to sue!!!

    I'll see your right-to-sue and raise you one anti-SLAPP [anti-slapp.org].

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday February 10 2018, @03:36AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 10 2018, @03:36AM (#635854) Journal

      +0 Not funny

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      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford