A few not-so-brief thoughts (EC v DA)

So DA and EC settled. Well. Huh. #notchilled

— Courtney Milan (@courtneymilan) October 22, 2015

So.

That happened.

And #notchilled basically exploded.

For any of my readers who are not aware, erotic romance/erotica publisher Ellora’s Cave filed a defamation suit against the blog Dear Author, and the blog’s founder and owner, Jane Litte aka Jen Frederick.

The basis for the lawsuit is the publication, back in September of 2014, of The Curious Case of Ellora’s Cave. If you have a few days to spare, there are a number of interesting posts written about the case in the intervening thirteen (ye gads!) months. You can find links to quite a few of those at the bottom of this post. (Please note that I have continued to add new links at the end, particularly to Courtney Milan’s and Deirdre Saoirse Moen’s posts explaining some of the legal stuff in layman terms.)

Anti-SLAPP legislation

Some of us kibitzers in the vexatious defamation lawsuit that Ellora’s Cave filed against Dear Author and Jane Litte back in September 2014 have also been following along with recent developments involving Nevada’s anti-SLAPP Law and a bill that, should it pass, would not only kill that law, but negate many previous protections on lawful, protected speech.

Is this a troll? Why, I do believe it is! (EC v DA)

Updated (twice) (thrice) (four times) below

So our lady of the trolls, one TiNut that many of my gentle readers remember for the utter absurdity of her…its…her tweets, was listed first in the list of witnesses that DA and JL handed the court.

After a last salvo of stupidity on February 3rd, wherein TiNut defiantly stated that it/her/they will not be a witness for the defense, the account has been silent–on Twitter, that is, because apparently the scouts for EC erm…publisher protection managed to whine, in writing, to Judge Adams.

Courtney Milan is graciously hosting the letter here, and I’m hoping she’ll post more about what it means.¹

Personally, I wonder how that “we will not be a witness for the defense” would hold up were a subpoena issued. I cannot imagine a federal judge being all, “oh, you don’t want to show up? that’s fine, we can do without you in the stand, no need to bestir yourself, darling.”

But then, I do not claim to be a lawyer or a law student.

~ * ~

Discovery? This should be interesting (EC v DA)

There has been some movement in the vexatious defamation lawsuit Ellora’s Cave filed against Dear Author and Jane Litte back in late September. A new document, a report on a meeting of the parties to plan discovery, was filed with the court on January 22, 2015.

Hooray…or not?

Look at the dates here (hat tip to Deirdre Saoirse Moen, who is hosting this in her Dropbox)

Yes, folks, it’s been four months of the bullshit already, and we are going nowhere fast.

Ellora’s Cave has until July 15th 2015 to stall, drag their feet, and generally speaking, do nothing, before the court asks what the hold up is.

I wonder whether there are sanctions if the date comes around and plaintiffs have no discovery to show the court. And how many extensions (or whatever they are called in legalese) they can request before the court spanks them some more.

I’m hoping Courtney Milan will chime in to explain the legal differences between a motion to dismiss and a motion for summary judgement, but in the meantime, Ms Deirdre has this, with definitions from Wikipedia and hypothetical examples.