It is with mixed feelings that I am officially announcing my return to ELI after my nearly year-long (10+ months) self-imposed exile. I say “mixed feelings” because I don’t consider my return to be an entirely voluntary one. It is a direct response to the most recent attack on ELI.
On January 27, 2014, I unexpectedly received a copyright infringement / defamation / harassment letter from
Seattle Attorney Timothy B. McCormack, more infamously known as ELI’s most despised copyright infringement collections lawyer for Getty Images.
http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/forum/getty-images-letter-forum/mccormack-legal-sends-copyright-infringementdefamationharassment-letter/Although I maintained ownership of ELI and administrative rights to the website throughout my self-imposed exile period (from March 28, 2013 until January 31, 2014), ELI was managed and operated independently by volunteer ELI community members with no daily involvement from me. I trusted them to keep ELI alive and operational and they did a great job.
The reason for my self-imposed exile was my unhappy reaction to an unfavorable legal ruling during a court hearing from February 28, 2013. Having no criminal record, I was stunned by the outcome of this lawsuit. Even more stunning was that, despite my best efforts to defend myself in that hearing, I entirely lost the case. The good news is that with ELI Community support, I appealed the case in August 2013. My appeal case is currently awaiting a ruling from the GA Court of Appeals:
http://www.gaappeals.us/docket/results_one_record.php?docr_case_num=A14A0014Since then, McCormack has made multiple attempts to attack, accuse, and discredit me with lies, half-truths, distortions, and exaggerations. He did it with the Muscogee County Superior Court with his hearsay "affidavit". He did it with the PDN article. He did it with Matthew Cuomo (of Cuomo LLC) trying to discredit both me and Oscar. He did it with the GA Court of Appeals with his outlandish excuse of an “amicus brief”. Each of those times during the last 10+ months, he was met with public silence and no public rebuttals from me.
And now, he comes at both me and the owner of
http://copyright-trolls.com simultaneously with a form letter of frivolous accusations and more legal threats.
http://copyright-trolls.com/site/seattle-attorney-mccormack-ip-law-claims-copyright-infringementdefamation/It has been clear that my efforts to be the better man have been unsuccessful. McCormack has taken my ongoing silence and self-imposed exile from ELI as an apparent sign of my weakness and that I no longer have the will defend myself. He is absolutely wrong in this.
People should know that in the last 10+ months, I’ve had several ELI members, including Oscar Michelen, periodically ask me to return and resume my role as leader of ELI. For both personal and professional reasons, each and every time I’ve been adamant about staying silent and not publicly posting or commenting on ELI.
However, McCormack single-handedly accomplished something within 60-seconds of my reading his letter that no one else could in the last 10+ months. I am breaking my silence, ending my self-imposed exile, and returning to ELI as Leader to publicly defend myself and ELI. Unlike my adversary, I have no problems staying in the light whereas he prefers to operate in secrecy behind closed doors.
And I have a lot to say and information to share and report. Stay tuned.
Topic: ELI Founder Matthew Chan Returns to ELI After Year-Long Exile (Read 16966 times)