Adam Miller Says He'll Reopen Bogus Copyright Lawsuit Against Critic, Declares 'War' On 'Communists' Who Mock Faith Healing

from the good-luck-with-that-one,-adam dept

Remember Adam Miller? The so-called, self-professed "faith healer" sued an online critic, Stephanie Guttormson, earlier this year. It was a clear SLAPP lawsuit. Guttormson had taken one of Miller's laughable promotional videos and added some commentary mocking it. You can see it here: That video had less than 1,500 views at the time Guttormson was sued. It now has about 65,000. The main claim in the lawsuit was copyright infringement, which is laughable. It's clearly fair use. The video was used in a non-commercial manner for commentary and criticism. It's easily fair use, and the lawsuit was clearly designed to silence public comment. The lawsuit also made some ridiculous claims, such as claiming that calling Miller's nonsense "faith-based bullshit" is "defamatory" because "Mr. Miller's work does not require a client to hold any faith." Yeah. Let that one sink in for a moment.

Either way, just days after this started getting attention, it appears that Miller and his lawyer realized that this was going to end badly and let the matter drop. As we noted at the time, he dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice, meaning that he could potentially file it again in the future. We wondered if that opened up an opportunity for Guttmorson to file for a declaratory judgment, but she announced that she was just going to let the matter drop.

Well... Adam Miller is back and he's insisting that he's going to reopen the lawsuit against Guttormson. Oh, and not only that, he's also launched a new site, FaithWarrior.org where he insists that he's declaring "war" on "anarchy" and a variety of other things, including communism (he insists his critics are all communists), "faith bashing," "cyberbullying," "online harassment" and more. I'm almost wondering if he's signed up Charles Carreon as his lawyer. Carreon similarly declared war on his online critics, after they mocked him for his own SLAPP antics, and he shows up every once in a while to randomly attack those who called him out for his censorship attempts. Miller's own personal website has been redone -- though parts of it mentioned in the article above appear to have been taken down and replaced with a "coming soon" promotion for a book (which makes it look like Miller thinks all this negative publicity may help him sell books) and the following almost incomprehensible text:

The truth always comes out. Regardless of how many idiotic minds shout in the streets. Faith will prevail and communism shall not rule. And you thought that this was about the healing work... this was just a bait and you have taken it. " Hook. Line. And Sinker. " Every one of you will be exposed. :)

Got that? He's also started posting videos to a YouTube account, where he has one specifically for Guttormson: For a "faith healer" he sure seems pretty angry. It starts out "Hey, Guttormson, ASSHOLE!" The rest of it is also somewhat incomprehensible. After some weird mention of Deepak Chopra (huh?), he says:

So here it is. Just because you have a computer, does not mean that you people are something new. Because 80 years ago, in Russia you same people took over the churches and killed all the priests. That's who you people are and I'm going to take you all down.

I have no idea what he thinks he means by that, but then there's his second video where he insists that he's reopening the copyright case against Guttormson and explains how he's going to war against his critics. In it, he declares that athiests are "communists." He claims "they're backed by the Communist rule. They're put as cells around the country in order to disrupt any kind of belief system." Considering that Miller himself argued that anyone calling his nonsense "faith-based bullshit" was defamatory, you'd think he'd be more careful about making statements of facts about his critics that are laughable.

Then he insists that the lawsuit is back on, though it's not clear he understands the lawsuit he himself is supposedly filing.

My lawsuit is for copyright infringement only.... I am suing Guttormson because he has made ridiculous statements that are completely untrue about a work he knows nothing about. I am now going to reopen that case. We're going to drag this individual into Arizona because he is in Maryland, and we're going to continue the lawsuit. It's very important that everyone follows this lawsuit and understands what I'm going to do to this individual. Because this has everything to do with faith. You see these people are set in this country and they are completely brainwashed again as communist cells and they want to bring communism to America and make sure that we have no freedom of any kind of rights whatsoever.

So much to parse and so little time. If the lawsuit is for "copyright infringement only" as Miller claims, then why does he say it's about "ridiculous statements that are completely untrue"? That's not about copyright at all. That's only true about defamation. And, again, nothing in the original appeared to be either defamatory or infringing. Also, directly saying that you intend to drag someone across the country, and saying it's because you believe she made statements you don't like kind of makes it that much more clear that this is nothing other than a clear SLAPP suit.

Unfortunately, while both Arizona and Maryland have anti-SLAPP laws, they are both super narrowly targeted, only focusing on lawsuits that are about speech regarding government efforts. Yet another reminder of why we need (desperately) a federal anti-SLAPP law.

Also, it seems ridiculous that Miller is claiming that it's Guttormson and others critics wanting to make sure "we have no freedom of any kind of rights" (whatever that means), when it looks like he is seeking to suppress speech through questionable lawsuits. So, again, he's claiming (maybe) defamation while defaming people, arguing that those he's looking to silence are trying to take away all "freedom of rights." So that's two out of the three things that he's claiming others are doing to him that it appears he may actually be trying to do to others. What about the third? Remember how he claimed this is "about copyright infringement only"? Well, the third video that Miller has uploaded to his new YouTube account is a clip from a documentary on the Soviet Union. That seems like it may be copyright infringement, no? Again, it seems like there's a decent chance Miller is trying to pull a reverse Streisand Effect here. Deliberately picking on those who mocked him in the past, thinking that it will apparently help promote his new book. And, as he says himself, "this was just bait and you have taken it." I doubt it's going to help sell many copies of the book though. Either way, people filing bullshit censorious lawsuits deserve to be called out for doing so.

Filed Under: adam miller, copyright, criticism, defamation, faith healer, free speech, slapp, stephanie guttormson

Faith Healer Adam Miller Drops His Lawsuit (For Now) After Being Widely Mocked Online

from the can-beings-of-light-cure-a-streisand? dept

A couple weeks ago, we wrote about faith healer Adam Miller's monumentally stupid and ridiculous SLAPP lawsuit against Stephanie Guttormson because she posted a video that was critical of a video Miller put together promoting his faith healing nonsense. We dissected how weak and laughable the lawsuit was -- and it's possible that Miller and his lawyer have now realized this, as they've dismissed the lawsuit, but without prejudice, meaning he could potentially file it again in the future. Given that (and the fact that Guttormson has raised a bunch of money in a crowdfunding campaign), I wonder if she'll now file for a declaratory judgment of non-infringement... Update: Guttormson notes that while she could go after him, she's going to let the matter drop.

Either way, Miller said he filed the lawsuit because he felt it was unfair that people were seeing this video that Guttormson put together: When he filed the original lawsuit, it noted that the video had been viewed approximately 1,500 times since it first was posted back in December of last year. So, 1,500 views in a bit over four months. In the two weeks since the lawsuit was filed, it's now up to about 50,000 views. Nice work, Adam.

Separately, if you do a Google search on "adam miller healer" (as he likes to be known), it's full of stories about how he's suing Guttmorson and mocking his faith healing nonsense. One of these days people are going to understand the nature of the Streisand Effect, but apparently that day is not today.

Filed Under: adam miller, anti-slapp, copyright, criticism, faith healer, slapp, speech, stephanie guttormson, streisand effect

Faith Healer Adam Miller Sues Over Critical YouTube Video, Guaranteeing It Tons Of Attention

from the can-you-heal-not-understanding-the-law? dept

Oh boy. Today in Streisanding, we've got a lawsuit filed by Adam Miller, a faith healer, against Stephanie Guttormson, supposedly over claims of copyright infringement and defamation, though neither claim holds up under much scrutiny. Instead, this looks like a typical SLAPP suit, in which Miller is upset about a video that mocks him and his faith healing and decides to sue over it. Enter Stresiand Effect. The video is currently up, and the view count is rapidly escalating. At the time the lawsuit was filed (according to the lawsuit) it had about 1,500 views. Now it's much more: There's nothing too surprising in the video, but it basically uses one of Miller's own promotional videos and intersperses some commentary and criticism. The lawsuit... is... well... a joke. First, he claims copyright infringement, though this is pretty obviously fair use. It's being used for criticism and commentary, and in order to make that work, it needs to show clips of the video. Miller's lawyer tries, weakly, to present a few arguments to try to get around fair use, including arguing that it's commercial use. Of course, as we keep repeating, commercial use does not mean that you can't have fair use. Tons of fair use involves commercial use. And, even given that, it's ridiculous to argue that this is "commercial use." The best the lawsuit can do is claim that the inclusion at the end of the video of a couple of "advertisements" makes it commercial. That, alone, probably isn't even enough to claim this is "commercial use," (which is generally more about selling the actual work or directly profiting). Plus, it's not even accurate. The "advertisements" aren't really advertisements at all, but rather a friendly acknowledgement of who sent her the video, with a link to that guy's own website and audio bookstore, with a mention that Guttormson appears on that guy's podcast every so often.

The lawsuit also claims too much of the original video was used, but there's little evidence to support that. Guttormson comments on basically every clip in the video, so it's hard to see how she's using "more of the original work than was necessary" as the lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit also alleges, as part of the copyright claim, that "Guttormson is liable for the actual harm caused to Mr. Miller as a result of Guttormson’s infringement and statutory damages." That's an interesting claim, but completely bullshit in the copyright context. The "actual harm" has to be over the copyright. Unless there was "actual harm" in Miller no longer being able to license/sell that video to a third party because they felt they could see it all for free through Guttormson's video (a crazy claim), then there's no actual harm. If the commentary in Guttormson's video, which mocks Miller's wacky faith healing nonsense, created "actual harm," well, that's not a copyright issue and is unrelated to any copyright claim.

The lawsuit also makes some claims about how the video itself was never actually released, but rather was password protected in Miller's wife's account. So the lawsuit alleges that Guttormson must have "hacked" into Eve Miller's account. In the video itself, however, as mentioned above, Guttormson notes that it was actually David Smalley who sent her the video. And while it's not entirely clear, from the comment threads under the video, it certainly sounds like Miller's video was most likely publicly available somewhere online. The evidence of "hacking" here seems really weak. And if there was hacking, the evidence that it was Guttormson is non-existent.

As for the defamation claims... there are only two specific things called out in the lawsuit. The first is this:

As just one example, Guttormson explains what happens at an appointment with Mr. Miller, “You will be fed faith-based bullshit.” This statement is false and defamatory; Mr. Miller’s work does not require a client to hold any faith, and he has worked with non-believers and atheists.

Um. Okay, it appears that Miller's lawyer is misrepresenting what "faith-based" means in this context. Guttormson isn't saying that those seeing Miller are expected to "have faith in a certain religion." She's saying that the treatment by Miller is not evidence based but is based on someone's blind "faith" in Miller being able to actually do something. And, besides, Miller's own words show that he's pitching a bunch of faith-based quackery. In the video clip, he himself explains the process, noting talking first about how he talks to people who come to them about things that happened in their childhood, like "traumas" that might explain their illnesses (really) and then says:

And then after we get through this, we put them on the table, and great holy spirit comes and breaks up dark cellular structure that creates any illness. Because I believe that illnesses are of a dark path.

That's like the definition of "faith-based" right there.

The other "defamation" claim is about the title of the video, which refers to Miller as a "con man." For the most part, courts don't consider phrases like that defamatory though (there are some exceptions, but it very much depends on context and if they're alleging a very specific thing, rather than a general insult). The link there is from Perle & Williams on Publishing Law and notes:

As Dean Prosser observed, "[A] certain amount of vulgar name-calling is tolerated on the theory that it will necessarily be understood to amount to nothing more." Thus, "communism" is too amorphous a characterization to be actionable, as is the term "grifter." The term "crook" has been held by one court to be a word of general disparagement rather than an allegation of specific criminal conduct, and thus was not slander; a restaurant critic's remark that a restaurateur was a "pig" and a television news editorial that referred to a chiropractor as a "quack" and a "cancer con artist" were held to be expressions of opinion; the words "those bastards" were held "mere epithets... as terms of abuse and opprobrium" and as such were not actionable for defamation; referring to a judge as "incompetent," "arrogant," "biased," and "one of the 10 worst judges in New York" was not held to be defamatory; calling a stockholder a "silly, stupid, senile bum" was not held to be slanderous; referring to Carl Sagan as a "butt-head astronomer" was held not libelous; and referring to a masonry contractor as a "shithead" was held not actionable....

In short, the likelihood that calling Miller a "con artist" is "defamation," let alone "defamation per se" as the lawsuit alleges, is... quite unlikely.

Even more to the point, this was a video that almost no one had seen. And now, because of this lawsuit, not only are tons more people checking it out, even more people will start investigating Adam Miller and the claims he makes about his "healing" services. Miller's website has gone down, but a quick look through the internet archive shows that it's chock-full of quackery (note to Miller's lawyer: that's not defamatory, so buzz off):

What this healing work is...

The Great and Holy Beings, such as Mother Mary, Jesus, Buddha, Quan Yin, Saint Germain, Archangel Michael and many others come into a person's body and transmute with light every single cell and raise the vibratory rate. In other words, diseases or injuries in the body have a very low, darkened vibration and when a Holy Being works with any person it changes the cellular structure permanently and the issue that is being worked on will never come back. This work is permanent. It is important to understand that Adam Miller is not a conduit, or psychic or related to any other work on the planet. This work is a result of Adam's death experience. Adam Miller would never claim to do this work himself. It is done by Holy Beings only.

So, uh, yeah. And he's the one claiming that "faith-based bullshit" is defamatory? Yikes.

Meanwhile, before filing the lawsuit, it appears that Miller posted another video announcing his response to the video above. In it he notes that a lawsuit is being prepared. But he also has a bunch of his "happy clients" give testimonials or complain about Guttormson, claiming that what she said was, like, really mean and "unprofessional." If Miller had merely posted his response including such testimonials, that would be perfectly fine. You deal with speech you dislike with more speech. But suing someone with bogus claims of defamation and copyright infringement? When you're spewing quackery? Not only is that going to flop in court, it's just going to lead a lot of people to examine what you're selling yourself...

Filed Under: adam miller, anti-slapp, copyright, criticism, defamation, eve miller, fair use, faith healer, free speech, healer, holy spirit, opinion, slapp suit, stephanie guttormson, streisand effect