davis_square | Entries tagged with jonmon

First of all, this post is not about JonMon specifically. I'm posting in response to this thread, and as in the comments I made on that thread, I intend to address something more general in our culture that this lawsuit relates to. I'm writing here about some of the effects of lawsuits like this, and the kinds of reactions people have to them, generally.

Set JL = People who have are being currently sued by JonMon or have received letters from him informing them that they'll be added to the suit.

Set A = People (most of them not connected to JonMon or this lawsuit in any way) who have been sexually assaulted by someone who had previous assaulted or showed warning signs to multiple other people in their social circles or communities, where such people had shared information privately with each other about this someone, but that information had never reached the assaulted individual before the assault.

Members of set A who I am personally aware of, exceed members of set JL who I am personally aware of.

This is despite the fact that I'm confident that I'm personally aware of only a teeny tiny minority of the global membership of set A, while I am probably personally aware of a significant percentage of the total set JL.

So, when someone promotes the message "people need to be more careful about what they say on publically-accessible community forums about serial assaulters in their communities", I believe I need to respond loudly that the actual problem is that, on the whole, people are too careful about what they say on publically-accessible community forums about serial assaulters in their communities.

Again, this is independent of any assertions people make about JonMon. It's also a much bigger problem, that affects orders of magnitude more people, than the current lawsuit. But to whatever extent some well-meaning people's responses to the lawsuit may contribute to this larger problem, I want to try to balance that out.

shava23.livejournal.com

First, IANAL. I did used to be executive director of tor.eff.org, but I haven't been for years, and I wasn't a lawyer then either. But I do have a reasonable expertise in online privacy issues (including cyberbullying).

I did used to live in Davis Square, and I did used to know jonmon when he was a grad student (hi!). Since I moved back to Boston some years back though, I've seen him at a couple parties and bought some curtains from him on Craigslist I think it was. We have oodles of mutuals. Not a friend, not an enemy, just this guy. I'm also pretty good friends with Ron Newman, which is how I know about all this. I posted this in an old thread and Ron suggested I post it in its own thread.

( click here )

supersojo.livejournal.com

I just heard about this interesting research at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and thought others might be interested, too:

Berkman fellow Wendy Seltzer leads the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse "Chilling Effects" refers to the deterrent effect of legal threats or posturing, largely cease and desist letters independent of litigation, on lawful conduct. The Chilling Effects clearinghouse will catalogue cease and desist notices and present analyses of their claims to help recipients resist the chilling of legitimate activities (as well as understand when their activities are unlawful). The project's core, this database of letters and FAQ-style analyses is supplemented by legal backgrounders, news items, and pointers to statutes and caselaw. Periodic "weather reports" will sum up the legal climate for online activity.

The project invites recipients and senders of cease and desist notices to send them to a central point for analysis, and to browse the website for background information and explanation of the laws they are charged with violating or enforcing. Clinical law students will prepare issue-spotting analyses of the letters in the question-and-answer style of FAQs, which we will post alongside the letters in an online database. The site aims to educate C&D recipients about their legal rights. Site visitors may search the database by subject area or keyword.

"The Chilling Effects Clearinghouse collects and analyzes legal complaints about online activity, helping Internet users to know their rights and understand the law. Chilling Effects welcomes submission of letters from individuals and from Internet service providers and hosts. These submissions enable us to study the prevalence of legal threats and allow Internet users to see the source of content removals.

Chilling Effects aims to support lawful online activity against the chill of unwarranted legal threats. We are excited about the new opportunities the Internet offers individuals to express their views, parody politicians, celebrate favorite stars, or criticize businesses, but concerned that not everyone feels the same way. Study to date suggests that cease and desist letters often silence Internet users,
whether or not their claims have legal merit. The Chilling Effects project seeks to document that "chill" and inform C&D recipients of their legal rights in response."

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/chillingeffects#

genesayssitdown.livejournal.com

this press release, like all his other press releases, is now being spread far and wide over the spammy areas of the internet:

"Boston, MA-NH (1888PressRelease) May 08, 2013 - Jon Monsarrat announced this week that as part of an Internet defamation case, he will expose the real identities and addresses of 100 cyber bullies as part of his new cyber investigation service. The dotcom era icon and Internet expert was previously the founder and first CEO of Turbine, which makes games like Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online and was bought by Warner Brothers for $160 million in 2010."

here is a link to the full press release: http://www.1888pressrelease.com/johnny-monsarrat/jonathan-monsarrat/jon-monsarrat-160-million-dotcom-icon-to-expose-100-cyber-pr-470259.html

moechus.livejournal.com

I have offered my help to a couple of people involved and earlier this evening I attended a meeting with a few people. I thought I should make my offer public to anyone who is involved. Feel free to contact me. In particular, if you got one of those obnoxious letters offering to settle, I would be happy to write a response to his lawyer (where I think the response should go, because I suspect his lawyer is unaware of these letters and they are highly improper).

By the way, I am a lawyer.

ds-crier.livejournal.com

I am documenting the saga of jonmon, 140 characters at a time. Follow me at @ds_crier (https://twitter.com/ds_crier). I will post new developments as they happen. I'm hoping that this will help spread the word as to what has been going on here.

Edited to update Twitter handle (it had been atrkurha).

Current Mood: determined

audioboy.livejournal.com

It seems Nicholas and Humphrey are dismayed at being left out of the current debacle.

Current Mood: snarky
Current Location: Home

hahathor.livejournal.com

Here I was thinking that I was going to be overlooked by the lawsuit, but lo and behold I got a letter in my mailbox today, citing this post in Zen Running Order, which doesn't mention any names, but does point to the news article that started it all. Oh, and it's from February 2010, which means the statute of limitations is past. I did point to the mix in a recent thread, and am pointing to it again here, so I suppose that's the impetus.

I wonder if he's going to try to track down all the people who commented on the mix. Because I'm sure somebody saying that they like Thee Headcoats' cover of "She's Just Fifteen" is seriously injurious to his well-being.

anomie666.livejournal.com

An open letter to Jonathan Graves Monsarrat,

I'm having a very hard time trying to understand you. You obviously are a fairly intelligent person, but you have just done an amazingly ignorant thing. By going after Ron Newman and others from this community with a legal claim, you have exponentially increased the number of people who now know about your past. Frankly, after 3 years, most people have forgotten about you.

If I was a psychiatrist, maybe I could theorize why someone craves attention to such an extent that they are willing to have every shameful thing from their past out into the open.

Jon, you are a pervert. There is no mistaking that. It is both not libel to state the truth and calling someone a pervert is an opinion. Links to your past behavior can be found here and many other places. It is not a "witch hunt". Why would so many people claim similar experiences with you? What would be the point of making it all up?

The most important question is why would you sue? You think you are going to cleanse the internet from mentions of your perversions? What you have done is create THOUSANDS of more pages linking your name with your past. AND YOU KNOW THIS WOULD RESULT.

You can go after Ron Newman and 10 more "Ron Newman's" will pop back up. In fact, Ron Newman actually had nothing bad to say about you and is universally respected by the Davis Square community.

rufinia.livejournal.com

icecreamempress has been kind enough to set up a paypal donation bucket for legal fees. The email is: friendsofdavissquarelj@gmail.com.

(I removed the button because Paypal is fussy about these things- see comments)

There is also a Go Fund Me bucket here: http://www.gofundme.com/2u9m6o

She has also offered to set up a PO Box at the Post Office, if people think it's a good idea. Thoughts? EDIT: We will be doing that.

Edit to add: I am meeting with Ron later today to hash out some details of how to manage this money, we will keep everyone updated. We thought it would be a good idea to start the fund now.

We haven't incurred legal fees yet, but it's pretty much a guarantee that we will, even with pro bono counsel. If a miracle occurs where we don't, we will be keeping track of who donated how much so we can refund.

cos

Fascinating. I never commented on the original post this lawsuit seems to be about, but yesterday I received one of those letters to notify me that I'm one a "Doe Defendant" that will be added to the lawsuit. This letter tells me I'm being added because of my posts at both the original post (where I actually did not comment at all) and also this recent post - the one where

ron_newman first told us that he's being sued. So... it looks like JonMon is watching the new posts and adding people to the lawsuit as they comment? In any case, the URL of that newer post is in the letter.

As in the other letters, he informs me that he holds copyright to this letter and implies that because of that, he can "prohibit anyone from publishing or disclosing it in whole or in part". Kinda wacky. Copyright doesn't actually give him the right to prohibit disclosure, and even directly quoting it "in part" for the purpose of commentary or criticism is fair use (which is what I'm doing here).

Return address, BTW, is PO Box 391512, Cambridge MA 02139

greenlily.livejournal.com

Edit: For anyone who's keeping track, I received my very own letter this morning, at my work address, addressed to me using a middle initial which I don't use socially but which appears on official records.

The letter arrived several hours after I'd written a parody referencing myself as one of the people affected by the threatened lawsuit. Admittedly, I did post a single comment on one of the contested posts. However, I'd much prefer to think either that I'm psychic or that there's a blue police box in my future.

Further edit: My mother received a copy of the letter, addressed to me, at her home address (where I was once, briefly registered to vote while I was between apartment leases in two other cities). She is very upset. To avoid any further risk of involving my family in this mess, I've removed the potentially objectionable content.

Current Mood: evil

spatch

There've been many songs written about the eternal triangle. This one tells the story of a Mr Jonmon, a LiveJournal community and a moderatin' man named Ron Newman. When the sun rises tomorrow, Ron Newman... will be served.

Hang down your head, Ron Newman
Hang down your head and brood
Hang down your head, Ron Newman
Oh boy, we've all been sued.

We read it on the LJ
This Jonmon had been bad
Read it on the LJ
And there we laughed like mad.

Hang down your head, Ron Newman
Hang down your head and brood
Hang down your head, Ron Newman
Who knew this was a feud?

We forgot about it all, then
We let three whole years pass
We got on with our lives, then
We're put on by this ass.

Hang down your head, Ron Newman
The one who was least rude
Hang down your head, Ron Newman
Yet he thinks you're the dude.

Trouble, oh there's trouble
For all Does, Jane and John
He sent us all nice letters
Some found him on their lawn.

Hang down your head, Ron Newman
Hang down your head subdued
Hang down your head, Ron Newman
Oh boy, we've all been sued.

This time tomorrow
Reckon where we'll be
Prob'ly banding together
As one weird family.

Keep your head up, Ron Newman
Keep your head up this time
Keep your head up, Ron Newman
Jonmon won't see a dime.

PS THIS IS ALL TOTALLY COPYRIGHT ME WHICH MEANS YOU CAN'T COPY IT OR POST IT OR REPOST IT OR PROBABLY EVEN LOOK AT IT WITHOUT MY CONSENT, BECAUSE THAT WOULD BE AN INVASION OF PRIVACY AND PRIVACY IS VERY IMPORTANT WHEN IT'S MY OWN.

rufinia.livejournal.com

It is not clear to me that these letters were sanctioned by Mr. monserrat's attorney. Nor is it clear that the email address belongs to his attorney. Seeing as anyone who received the letterr is aware that he is represented by counsel, and is a party to a suit, we should NOT be communicating with him without his counsel present.

I urge everyone to not respond because of that. In the words of admiral Akbar: it's a trap.

genesayssitdown.livejournal.com

two months ago, my mom called me with news about a MYSTERIOUS visitor to her house, in a large black trench coat, blond hair, asking all sorts of questions about me, my whereabouts, et cetera. this haunted me for months afterwards.

SKIP FORWARD TO LAST WEEK, and the news of ron newman being sued by jon monsarrat. the idea struck me; i sent images of jon mon to my mom, and LO AND BEHOLD, it was none other than JON MON who had visited my mom, looking for me.

i'm not exactly sure how he found my address, although it was probably from unprotected whois information on the now defunct texarrakis.

it took me a while to decide whether or not i would share this story publicly, but i figure it is possible it may be helpful to any sort of court case situation. i will say this though; i do not feel as comfortable walking the streets knowing that there is a JONMON out there looking to find me.

WELL THEN. if you come anywhere near me, my friends, or my family again, johnny, i am going to get a proper restraining order.

ds-crier.livejournal.com

Let the record of this forum show that Jonathan "Johnny" Monsarrat is hereby declared a rotten scoundrel. He is entirely lacking in all scruples and abilities to function within society. Such is his infamy that now bestowed upon him is the title of "village idiot" of not one, but two cities: both Cambridge and Somerville. His rancid reputation is such that even the insects in his apartment have fled to avoid his association.

Mr. Monsarrat is, as a former CEO, a lecturer, a public artist, and so forth, clearly a public figure. As his lawsuit is clearly of a public nature, and his antics are clearly of public interest, reporting on his infamy - both objective reporting and opinion editorials - are protected under the first amendment.

As such, as soon as this lawsuit is thrown out (and it will be thrown out with prejudice), an online archive will be created to document the facts about Mr. Monsarrat. This will include details of his arrest, this will include his lawsuits, and this will include the LiveJournal threads regarding him - which I have saved in full before any posts were deleted.

In addition, in any case where Mr. Monsarrat attempts to interface with the general public - be it art projects, be it lectures, be it on city properties, be it on university properties - it will be ensured that the entity involved is made fully aware of Mr. Monsarrat's repugnant past and his history of attacking respected members of the community with pathetic abuses of the judicial system.

Johnny Monsarrat - withdraw your ridiculous lawsuit or let your infamy grow further. Your scandalous attempt to turn the seventh amendment against the first will be entirely countered with a show of force of the first. If your lawsuit goes before a judge, it will be thrown out, and your threats will no longer intimidate anyone. Then you will see the community truly speak its mind.

icecreamempress.livejournal.com

Just got a super-professional letter telling me that I could remove my posts about our very favorite Davis Squarean and avoid the wrath of his mega-lawsuit. Otherwise, he's going to tell people who I am, so scary.

Dude, you presumably found out who I was from the entry in my LiveJournal where I give my full legal name; why do you think that outing me is some big threat?

ron_newman

[continuing the discussion that started here: Help! I am being sued for my participation in davis_square ]

I have placed on Dropbox a scan of the Amended Complaint that I was served with yesterday afternoon.

Here's a list of username handles mentioned in the lawsuit:

( List is behind cut ). Most are from LJ, but a few are from the Wicked Local/Somerville Journal blog, and one is from journalfen.com .

Someone also found the original complaint in a court database. (I was never served with this one.)

The amended complaint has hundreds of pages of attached exhibits, which I did NOT scan in. They are copies of posts and comments to

davis_square,

davis_snark,

sf_drama, discussions at journalfen.com, blog posts and comments at Wicked Local Somerville (Somerville Journal), Encyclopedia Dramatica article, etc.

ron_newman

Twenty-five minutes ago, a constable delivered to me an unexpected package. It is a lawsuit by Jonathan Graves Monsarrat, alleging that he was libeled by me, Deb Filcman, and "John and Jane Does 1-100, presently unknown individuals". He is seeking $500,000 in compensatory damages, $5 million in punitive damages, and deletion of various LJ posts and comments.

I am called (incorrectly) "the moderator" of this forum.

Many participants here are named by LJ handle. "Plaintiff intends to identify the Doe Defendants through means of discovery and will amend this lawsuit to identify the Doe Defendants by proper legal names upon obtaining such information"

If I don't reply within 20 days, a default judgment will be entered against me.

All possible advice and help would be greatly appreciated right now.

In particular, if anyone here is or knows an appropriate attorney who'd be willing to help out at least a bit pro bono, let me know.

ETA 5/1/13: please see this followup post for PDF scans of the amended complaint I was served with, as well as the original complaint that I never received. Please continue the discussion there after reading the complaints.

plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com

[excerpt] Patrolman John Thermidor reported at least 25-30 teenagers in the apartment, as well as people on the stairs leading up to the second floor. He asked to talk to an adult, but there was no response from anyone.

A few minutes later, a man came down from the second floor and identified himself as Jonathan Monsarrat, 41, the resident and host of the party, according to the report. Thermidor told him to inform his guests that the party was over and they have to leave, but Monsarrat allegedly became argumentative and refused to comply. He assured Thermidor that there was no alcohol at the party. According to the report, the officer informed him that he had seen teenagers with beer bottles.[/excerpt]

Read on.....
http://www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/news/x1878079036/Somerville-Police-bust-underage-drinking-party-on-Summer-Street

UPDATE: By decision of the Moderators on 2/6/2010, any further replies to this thread are permanently frozen/screened. The discussion has begun to distract from other community posts, which deserve equal attention. The Moderators' decision was not made in response to threats made to the community, but for the sake of keeping the community's conversational flow normal (500+ replies to one post is not normal). The original post and existing replies will remain as read-only.

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The Davis Square Community

Entries tagged with jonmon

Navigation

On saying things in public

Want to really control a pest?

Apropos of nothing whatsoever: Chilling Effects Clearinghouse

Jon Monsarrat, $160 Million DotCom Icon, to Expose 100 Cyberbullies

JonMon lawsuit

Documenting the saga of jonmon on Twitter

Jealous kittens

I'm a Doe!

I am Ron Newman

PayPal Set up for legal fees

New post added to JonMon lawsuit

I can't help it. I was born sneering.

What good's a protest without a song?

To everyone who has gotten a letter

heeeeeeeeeeeeere's johnny!

Jonathan "Johnny" Monsarrat is a rotten scoundrel

Quivering in my boots!

PDF scans of lawsuit against Deb Filcman, Ron Newman, and John and Jane Does 1-100

Help! I am being sued for my participation in davis_square

Today's Somerville Police Blog