South Australia Attorney General Demands $20,000 From Web Commenter Who Called Him A Crook
from the atkinson's-demands dept
We've written a few times recently about South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson, who not only fears angry video gamers, but also upset a bunch of folks with a law that would ban anonymous political speech online during election season. After public outcry over that law, Atkinson quickly backed down and promised (1) not to enforce the law and (2) to repeal it after the election. Now, reader athe alerts us that perhaps the reason Atkinson wanted to outlaw anonymity is because in a case where an online newspaper commenter referred to Atkinson as a "crook" in a comment, Atkinson is now demanding $20,000 from the guy. Seriously.Apparently, there was a story about Atkinson, and in the comments to that story, one Dean McQuillan -- who was not anonymous and did use his name -- vented his frustration with Atkinson by referring to him as a "crook." In the political realm this is a pretty typical and somewhat benign epithet. You would think that someone in politics for as long as Atkinson would brush it off. No way. He apparently sent legal nastygrams to the newspaper, who removed the comments quickly and then later was pressured to post a separate apology. Then he sent a letter to McQuillan with the following demands:
1. $20,000 as compensation; 2. Publication of a full retraction and apology to be posted on the Adelaide Now website;Honestly, I can't recall a politician ever demanding cash as "compensation" from someone over a random insult. As for "defamation," it's not like anyone reading those comments would think that Atkinson was actually a crook because some guy in the comments to a newspaper called him that. But, you might think that those reading stories about this $20,000 might think a lot worse of Atkinson than anyone reading about a random commenter calling him a crook.
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Filed Under: australia, defamation, michael atkinson, south australia
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Commenter proven correct
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Wonder if its the same down under...
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(P.S. Mike - You wrote "hame" instead of "name")
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Michael Atkinson
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Re: Michael Atkinson
At least, he hasn't offered any proof otherwise...
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Spending more time trying to go after those with a negative view of him online is such a great use of tax dollars! To hell with trying to pass any worthwhile legislation.
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Here's a sample Dean McQuillan could use:
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Re:
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Re:
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Re: Re:
We don't have quarters :)
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Re: Sample apology
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Re:
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Re:
we are a legal information portal that provides our Network Members the ability to advertise directly to potential clients who have answered a series of questions to become "qualified" for a particular claim using our patent pending model;
oooh patents!
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Re:
He's a cook? I don't think so, he strikes me as the "women stay at home in the kitchen" type.
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Re:
Or are you referring to his lineage to the famous captain Cook who alegedly "discovered" Australia?
A Kooky crook who cooks the books.
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And he'll still keep his position...
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Michael Atkinson YOU SIR are a crook
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Re: Michael Atkinson YOU SIR are a crook
You speak for ALL of Canada? Sweet, I gotta couple requests while you're here:
1. Change the name of Canadian Bacon to something else. You aren't fooling anyone....
2. The next time you want to host the winter olympics, how about doing it someplace where it snows occasionally?
3. We don't want anymore of your newscasters. Stop exporting the to the States....
4. Can you do something about Sarah Palin? I know she's one of ours, but your closer and the smell has to be KILLING you....
5. How about figuring out that whole Quebec thing? I'm sick of hearing about how they want independence. Slap that bitch down like it stole something!
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Re: Re: Michael Atkinson YOU SIR are a crook
Canadians actually call it back bacon. It's Americans who insist on calling it Canadian bacon.
"2. The next time you want to host the winter olympics, how about doing it someplace where it snows occasionally?"
Like the US did when they hosted it last in SALT LAKE CITY?
"3. We don't want anymore of your newscasters. Stop exporting the to the States...."
Speak for yourself.
"4. Can you do something about Sarah Palin? I know she's one of ours, but your closer and the smell has to be KILLING you...."
I'm not sure what smell you're (notice I used the conjuntive form) refering to, but if you get rid of Keith Olberman, I'll see what I can do about Palin.
"5. How about figuring out that whole Quebec thing? I'm sick of hearing about how they want independence. Slap that bitch down like it stole something!"
I say if they want independence, give it to them. Those Frog wannabes are annoying. Good riddance.
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Re: Re: Re: Michael Atkinson YOU SIR are a crook
Dammit, you totally busted me on an American ethnocentrism moment. Christ, and I do try so hard to avoid those....
"Like the US did when they hosted it last in SALT LAKE CITY?"
Huh, you know, I'm searching up and down for any reference to a lack of snow at the 2002 games, and I can't find any. Now, most of the events that required snow were held nearby at snowy locales, like Park City Resort, so I think we had that fairly well covered....
"Speak for yourself."
No. I speak for America as their unofficial Vizier....
"I'm not sure what smell you're (notice I used the conjuntive form) refering to, but if you get rid of Keith Olberman, I'll see what I can do about Palin."
Wow, you're smart, Captain no-typo. In any case, the smell would be some combination of sweat, gun powder, and despair. As for Keith Olberman, I'll gladly get on that for you....
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Michael Atkinson YOU SIR are a crook
I happen to like the smell of gun power. And women don't sweat, they glisten...
I couldn't resist the typo jab. Sorry.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Michael Atkinson YOU SIR are a crook
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Re: Re: Michael Atkinson YOU SIR are a crook
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Re: Re: Michael Atkinson YOU SIR are a crook
How Canadian would that be ??? Back in '95, Ottawa sent us busloads of people in a huge demonstration, to tell us how much they love us. They don't want us to leave... And in the last 15 years, there has been a big shift towards pragmatism in the public opinion. Independence has mostly left the public debate, except for some idealistic dreamers... But you, in your great quality of Dark Ruler, should know more than anyone how people get emotional around injustices... :)
You know it could have been a good idea back in '80... But the global political and economic climates have changed so much since then...
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What a crook! By the way Australia is amazing
But what could we expect from politicians from the country which banned anonymous political comments (Ahmadinejad was dreaming of it, those Australian asses did it), introduced web censorship mechanisms ("blah blah but we promised that's just in order to protect the children, and the 50+% of the censored sites which have no pedopornographic content are just here out of accident, our system is pefect, apologies to those dentists, youtube videos, torrent sites and others which will remained censored anyway"), and probably other horrors.
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Re: What a crook! By the way Australia is amazing
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Re: Re: What a crook! By the way Australia is amazing
"what could we expect from politicians from the country which..."
and not
"what could we expect from the country which".
Don't you worry, we also have some fine assholes, here, in France. They even copied your censorship system lately, although I'm not sure they stole yours and not the chinese one, considering a french member of Parliament said "we can filter the Internet : the Chinese do it, we can do it too".
So don't worry, there seems to be a stupidity contest between politicians when it comes to everything digital, and the French ones win it by a wide margin, without great effort.
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and if his letter contained a threat of litigation...
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Re: and if his letter contained a threat of litigation...
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Michael Atkinson is off the deep end
That's right. Atkinson thinks the public consultation is invalid because the people who are most affected and most passionate about the issue responded to it.
I think it is only fair that Atkinson is concerned about mentally ill adults. He is making it increasingly obvious that he is one of them.
(That's right Atkinson, I called you an assclown AND mentally ill. Try demanding money from me. I dare you.)
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Re: Michael Atkinson is off the deep end
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N.B. : Michael Atkinsoon is a crook AND a pedophile too
By the way, Atkinson, come and get me, I'm currently in France, good luck with that.
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@darkhelmet
LIKE the 6 billion to musicians for the cria run by a american
and give back the 1 billion you stole form softwood lumber
AND you can keep your twit politician sarah whats its name
and remember biden is mister hollywood so next time you get a dmca notice thank him WE DON'T HAVE A DMCA here.
um go see fox and cnn they are all Americans they do more harm to real news and make it all a laughing stock of the world ask around bud i choose the harper name as a pun at this noob.
as tooo the Olympics you watched that corporate crap? Shame on you. ITS all about getting cops and other hollywwod and business types together for an amusing look at some pansy lil athletes all in da name a profit not unity. HENCE all the restrictions on viewing.
and we have a HUGE beef cattle industry here so large that when your govt said it would not lift that lil ban after quite a while and we started to organize to ship it instead of to you who then ships it world wide YOU all caved in realizing no more $$$$ off that. WHICH is all americans care about.
worry about your own nation, whats so wrong with quebec, i dont see any revolutionaries , i do not see it separating tomorrow either. i have friends in quebec its politicians LIKE this aussie noob that are self absorbed morons like mike says are more not wasting our taxes looking at negative comments then DOING somehting useful and proving the poster of that comment wrong.
and we did give them the right to leave 50% + 1 had to vote for it and the best thats ever happened was 49% and that was 15 years back last time it was 35% get the hint.....
P.S. my dads been a farmer most of his life and he calls back bacon Canadian back bacon , of course cause what he ate was Canadian. again an american telling a farmers son anyhting about meat is like you needing to be told how to tie your shoes , SHOULD NOT NEED BE DONE.
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Re: @darkhelmet
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Re: @darkhelmet
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Re: Re: @darkhelmet
C'mon, I could mock MYSELF better than that....
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He wants $a20000
So the guy had it correct.
The comment about not enforcing that anonymity law, BS.
If it's on the books some one will enforce it.
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Also, if Mr Atkinson gets his $20k for being called a crook, can every gamer in Australia get $20k off him for being compared, and found more dangerous, then outlaw bikie gangs?
Or can the political party Gamers4Croydon get $20k off him for being accused of resorting to dirty tricks and criminal activity for their political campaign against Mr Atkinson?
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I am not a crook
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So someone basically called this guy a crook and what does he do? He turns around and proves them right by filing a bogus lawsuit. WHAT A CROOK!!!
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Wanna why I so says ?
Imagine an Indian charity club that is chock-a-block with techie celebs of the garden variety - read Infosys, Wipro Satyem icons (oops! lemme take the last one back). And what have they done ? They have sued a blog... yes, a blog run by parents of children studying at their school. Admittedly there are also Indian politicks, retired officials, judges and such as panelists or advisories. I guess the techies lost or the lawyer types prevailed. And who called who a crook ? I looked high and low for the vindaloo on the blog but couldn't find any except twitter minister of India, Shasi Taroor wearing an awkward Indian bindi and looking pleased.
techgoss.com report at
http://www.techgoss.com/Story/311S12-Global-Indian-Foundation-legal-action-against-blog.aspx
In any case I'd say $20,000 is too many vindaloos for any desi. So Atkinson can have the cake.
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Reminds me of November 17, 1973
Perhaps Atkinson should study Nixon's fateful speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh163n1lJ4M
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This is the man who said;
"I feel that my family and I are more at risk from gamers than we are from the outlaw motorcycle gangs who also hate me and are running a candidate against me,"
In 2004 Atkinson was forced to retract a statement that bikies had BBQed a cat in a public park in his electorate (except it was not a cat, done by bikies or in his electorate....).
He also does not like even the slightest criticism;
http://www.charlessturtratepayers.org/2010/01/18/apology-to-michael-atkinson/
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One apologises thus: "It has been said that I called Michael Atkinson a crook. It's true and I'm sorry for it, the gentleman may place the comma where he wishes."
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AG Michael Atkinson, a really cheap crook...
jb
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Atkinson worships Hitler
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