Source
Automatically imported from: http://commons.somewhere.com:80/rre/1997/German.lawsuit.over.e-ma.html
Content
| | | | --- | --- | | Red Rock Eater Digest | Most Recent Article: Sat, 21 Oct 2000 |
German lawsuit over e-mail
``` [What I find most interesting about this is the reported role of PR firms in monitoring e-mail among environmental activists. This is not surprising, given a variety of past stories about PR surveillance of nonviolent activist groups (see Covert Action Quarterly for Spring 1993 or John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, Toxic Sludge is Good for You, Common Courage Press, 1995), but it's the first time I've heard of such tactics being extended into computer networks. Forwarded with permission.]
---
This message was forwarded through the Red Rock Eater News Service (RRE). Send any replies to the original author, listed in the From: field below. You are welcome to send the message along to others but please do not use the "redirect" command. For information on RRE, including instructions for (un)subscribing, send an empty message to rre-help@weber.ucsd.edu
---
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 17:38:31 +0100
From: Werner Reisberger
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
As I wrote earlier Monsanto sued me for distributing a message on a mailing list. Members from this list asked me to give further information and although I haven't still get the reasons from court I will try my best to tell you (with my basic english) what happened.
As I posted the message to GENESIS, a german mailing list concerned with novel food, I couldn't imagine such a harsh reaction.
I received the message from activists who were preparing a demonstration against Monsanto Germany on November 25 th 1996 in Duesseldorf. The cause for the demonstration was the import of Monsanto's RR-Soya in the European Union. Never before a genetically engineered organism which elements are part of the most processed foods had been imported in the whole european market.
To support the demonstration a decided to post the proclamation to the mailing list. I read the text and couldn't find any lies or serious unreasonable offences. Two days later, on a friday evening, a courier brought me a letter. I anticipated nothing and acknowledged the delivery. The letter was from a german lawyer, representing Monsanto Germany in Duesseldorf. It was stated that I distributed a proclamation on the Internet in which Monsanto is called a
"corporation of poisons, genes and swindle".
The origin of this slogan depends from Greenpeace. The activists only added the german word "Gaunereien" which means swindle or cheat. I use the word swindle for "Gaunereien" because the german word "Schwindel" sounds similar and has the same meaning.
Monsanto claimed I offended the company with the word swindle and endangered their creditworthiness. They gave me three days to sign a declaration in which I had to oblige myself to say nevermore: "Monsanto, the corporation of swindle". Every time I repeat this sentence I should pay 100,000 DM (1 Dollar equals ca. 1.5 DM). The lawyer demanded for the writing 3777 DM.
I was puzzled because no lawyer was available on this friday evening and I was forced to find a decision until Monday 12 o'clock. On monday two lawyers gave me the information that there is a good chance to win the case. I went to my lawyer in my home town, but she adviced me to sign the declaration. She couldn't estimated the chances of winning. Eventually I didn't agree with her and sent Monsanto's lawyer a fax refusing to sign the declaration of the following reasons:
1. I am not the author of the proclamation. 2. The opinions expressed are sheltered by the german constitution.
Next day, November 19 th, I was lucky and found a lawyer experienced with political cases and willing to support me. He anticipated that Monsanto would apply at court for a decision which would forbid me to say the very sentence. Therefore he wrote a letter to the court at my home town in Bochum. He was right but Monsanto already applied for the decision in Duesseldorf. The court in Duesseldorf followed the application and issued a preliminary judgement on the same day, forcing me not to repeat the very sentence otherwise I should pay 500,000 DM or spent 6 month in prison. Monsanto argued that the court in Duesseldorf is responsible because the proclamation was distributed on the Internet and therefore every Duesseldorf citizen with an Internet connection was able to read the message. This statement was wrong. Following this argumentation also the court in New York could have been responsible. When I posted the message to GENESIS the list had only 24 members and wasn't direct reachable from the Internet.
Some people may ask: How did Monsanto knew about the proclamation?
The headquarter of Monsanto Germany is in Duesseldorf but Monsanto didn't get the proclamation by e-mail. Monsanto's public relation activities in Germany are performed by the New York PR company Young & Rubicam which tried to influence the german public in favour for the RR-Soya. A so called "Internet Counsellor" from this company subscribed to GENESIS with the address info_soya@yr.com. The proclamation was sent to this address located in the USA, probably New York. From there the message was sent or redirected to the subsidiary of Y&R in Frankfurt/Germany. Finally Monsanto Germany received the proclamation by fax from there. PR firms working for Monsanto have a bad reecord. An employee from the PR firm Fleishman Hillard e. g. betrayed rBST activists and journalists about her real identity. She claimed to be a student in order to get information and addresses (Sunday, Chicago, Sept. 8 th 1996, "Food maker keeps close eye on press"). The "Internet Counselor" from Y&R gave a declaration to the court in Duesseldorf which was obviously wrong. He stated he read on one of my web pages an explanation how to subscribe to GENESIS. He even added a copy of this web page to his declaration. Everyone able to read english could see that the page is about GENTECH. There could be two explanations: He didn't read this page or he thought the german judges couldn't read it! This isn't a minor fault. It was part of Monsanto's argumentation, GENESIS would have been reachable from the Internet.
My lawyer worked very hard but he couldn't achieve a quick withdrawal of the preliminary judgement. The demonstration in Duesseldorf took place on November 25 th 1996. Approximately 80 people took a walk to the Monsanto headquarter. The small demonstration was attended by environmentalists, organic farmers and activists against GMO releases. The media coverage was weak.
I was wondering why Monsanto sued me for a paper which is hardly derogatory. I know other people who are calling Monsantos sweetener aspartame a "deadly poison" and criticizing the companies policy in a hard way without beeing sued. I think the reason is the special situation in germany last autumn. Greenpeace and other environmental groups started a campaign against RR-Soya and the public opinion and media coverage weren't in favour of the new food. Maybe Monsanto feared a strong demonstration and tried therefore everything to stifle upcoming protest.
The hearing for my case was scheduled for December 4 th 1996 but then the decision was adjourned for January 8 th 1997. On this day all claims Monsanto's have been rejected. Monsanto has to pay the whole costs. As soon I receive the substantiation from court I will report about it.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3i Charset: latin1 Comment: Processed by Mailcrypt 3.4, an Emacs/PGP interface
iQDVAwUBMuJNbMn3jv3tUnRJAQH8yQYAvA9ajl2XxnIHHCDeK3AiknU2wZqXfqAS tFe34Ta3GKWkYEO9GVVGvPK1NRkcv+iIK4ksALdRbsU3F9PWtYi97p4GYGdtXaw8 W5JUppXncGokZeA7hJAQxLmzqlwb7qRIbi5YUggVs8NTTo5N8Q2n24PivqaNBf35 e7x7IF4hCT5JJhY6FVrnp/9yhoykS6ysLCDcMlgiT9MLtRhzcxWIaS0mFR4xnV7c zl+Y0xV8C8TZMHbeo3ROGwAhm3dImAkD =AB7a -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> To remove yourself from GENTECH@tribe.ping.de send a message with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject to:
GENTECH-REQUEST@tribe.ping.de
To get general information send "help". The REQUEST-address is only for the administration of the list. ```
| | | --- | | ProcessTree Network TM For-pay Internet distributed processing. | | Advertising helps support hosting Red Rock Eater Digest @ The Commons. Advertisers are not associated with the list owner. If you have any comments about the advertising, please direct them to the Webmaster @ The Commons. |