I haven’t been following this story, but I received a Digg about it today from my friend Igor Polyakov.
American expat blogger Phil Schwarzmann, living in Finland, is being sued by Iranian expat and newspaper publisher Alexis Kouros over trivialities, it seems.
I am getting this strictly from Schwarzmann’s side so I have not read Mr Kouros’s statement of claim.
According to Mr Schwarzmann:
Yup, accomplished Iranian ?lm director and Finnish newspaper mogul Alexis Kouros is suing me for 9,800 euros over copyright infringement and libel on this blog!! He claims that I am legally responsible for all negative comments about him, written by you all in this blog …
Surely that can’t be right. As I read on, it seems that Mr Schwarzmann has been critical of Mr Kouros, and has said so on his blog. Mr Kouros has done a few things to upset that blog, such as getting the Google ads pulled off it. He’s made other complaints in the past, but each time the charges are dropped. And it seems that Mr Kouros can’t take it, despite being a ‘newspaper mogul’.
‘He’s also demanded that threads involving his name be removed from other online forums,’ says Schwarzmann.
‘If you’re going to be a controversial author, director, and political editor, and you’re going to own two big newspapers … you need to prepared for criticism.’
Schwarzmann says the accusations in the statement of claim are all ‘bogus’. In there, he claims that he is even being accused of the edits to Kouros’s Wikipedia pro?le. Two claims are pretty laughable:
After Kouros had lied to Google, claiming to legally represent YLE, STT, and Iltasanomat which forced Google to shut down my ads, I called him a “big fat liar”. Alexis claims I was making fun of his weight by calling him “fat”.
And:
I called him a “conservative” in this blog post. (Yes, Alexis Kouros thinks being called “conservative” is a crime!)
If none of these are true, then Schwarzmann opens himself up to libel, so I would imagine that he would not risk it.
And if they are true, then Kouros needs to grow a couple.
The charges seem ridiculous and offend free speech, and one would assume that Schwarzmann would easily win this case even as a civil matter.
Not that Schwarzmann didn’t attempt to be conciliatory. He claims he emailed Kouros but there was no progress, so the ?rst hearing is today.
It’s a shame he has to go straight to Google, then the police, then to the lawyers with his grievances when a simple e-mail could have quickly solved this. If he like me [sic] commenting on his articles, all he had to do was ask. If he wanted something removed, all he had to do was ask. I’ve been asked to remove things in the past and have obliged, this would have been no different.
No one likes negative things said about them but if we are putting ourselves out there, we had better grow a thicker skin, or plain ignore the critics.
It’s just a blog, for Chrissakes. If we took the entire blogosphere seriously it would do our heads in.
And if he owns newspapers then I would expect that he could get some reporters to make life tough for Schwarzmann, too, without using the courts.
In any case, Kouros probably would have got a better response if he approached Schwarzmann personally and discussed his grievances. Now, I doubt any of the posts will be removed.
I’d be interested in reading up Kouros’s side of the story. We all know some bloggers can create vendettas against someone out of nothing and, because of a fairly low standard of objectivity and research, write about them as though they were gospel when in fact they are misperceptions.
Schwarzmann doesn’t sound like one of those people, but it wouldn’t take long for us to ?nd someone like that on the ’net.
Those are the bullies—those who think they have a little ?efdom online and wonder why we don’t all love them as much as they love themselves.
Hopefully folks will cover the incident as I shall be interested to learn how things pan out between Kouros and Schwarzmann.
Based on the one-sided posts I have read, I have to be sympathetic to the defendant.
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Thanks for mentioning me and for the brilliant post. I am also eager to learn about second side’s opinion, but he show no sign of apperiance in blogosphere so far.
I don’t know what to think, completely. If Kouros was that big a bully, then surely he could use his newspapers to hurt Schwarzmann? He hasn’t, but his other actions don’t seem to be that normal, either. As to Schwarzmann, I read some of his past posts on Kouros and they seem pretty harmless—critical, subjective, but not libellous.
Interesting post, but a few essential corrections needed here:
1. Kouros is not a media mogul, but the editor of a small, grass root, immigrant newspaper called Sixdegrees.
2. schwarzmann has been harassing Kouros in his blog for years, Kouros never reacted to that.
3. Schwartzmann sued Kouros first, Kouros countersued.
4. Before finland for thought, Schwarzmann used to bark at Kouros and Sixdegrees in an Neo-Nazi site called stormfront.org, using the nickname “Eldrich”. He also donated money to that site through Amazon.com using his credit card (police is investigating).
5. Kouros is the best thing that has ever happened to the immigrant community in Finland, has produced a lot of genuine cultural stuff.
6. Scwarzmann is a shame to the blogging community, using his blog to abuse and defame people in the name of freedom of speech. He is certainly a troubled individual who needs professional help.
7. Scwarzmann gets salary form Nokia, using most of his working time to post and comment in his abusive blog. (he comments regularly on his own posts using a false nicknames)
8. Many of these Diggs and are Schwarzmann (and co) himself using this and bloginterlinking to desprately get publicity.
9. Pathetic! Isn’t it?
As I said twice in the post, Freelancer, my post was strictly one-sided, not having read anything from Alexis Kouros’s end. Your allegations are interesting and certainly paint Phillip Schwarzmann in a more negative light.
Have you some links you can share with us? It would be excellent to see the statement of claim as Schwarzmann describes it as being sizeable, yet we only know a few claims from his side.
Jack, thanks for covering this story!
Let me address freelancer’s statements…
1. Kouros is not a media mogul, but the editor of a small, grass root, immigrant newspaper called Sixdegrees.
Kouros owns two newspapers, has directed six films, written a few books, won some awards. He’s a rather famous celebrity, especially amongst us foreigners.
2. schwarzmann has been harassing Kouros in his blog for years, Kouros never reacted to that.
I’ve never harassed Kouros. I’ve never even met the guy. He’s a political commentator and I’ve disagreed with him on some of his articles.
3. Schwartzmann sued Kouros first, Kouros countersued.
Yes, after Kouros lied to shut down my Google Ads, I filed a complaint to the courts.
4. Before finland for thought, Schwarzmann used to bark at Kouros and Sixdegrees in an Neo-Nazi site called stormfront.org, using the nickname “Eldrich”. He also donated money to that site through Amazon.com using his credit card (police is investigating).
LOL!! Never heard this one before. There’s nothing like this in Kouros’ court papers, so freelancer you’re obviously just making this up.
5. Kouros is the best thing that has ever happened to the immigrant community in Finland, has produced a lot of genuine cultural stuff.
Absolutely.
6. Scwarzmann is a shame to the blogging community, using his blog to abuse and defame people in the name of freedom of speech. He is certainly a troubled individual who needs professional help.
You got me there, I definitely need help. :-)
7. Scwarzmann gets salary form Nokia, using most of his working time to post and comment in his abusive blog. (he comments regularly on his own posts using a false nicknames)
While some take a smoke break, I take a blog break. Some years ago I had a lot more time to write during work, but lately I’ve been working 12 hour days plus weekends and don’t see my own blog for days. And I’ve never once post under a false nickname.
8. Many of these Diggs and are Schwarzmann (and co) himself using this and bloginterlinking to desprately get publicity.
I only Dugg that article once.
9. Pathetic! Isn’t it?
You are!
Phil, thank you for stopping by here. Freelancer has been going around a few blogs and even at Digg to copy and paste the same allegations. I have to say that weakens his or her case substantially. Also, I thought it was very strange that (s)he called these nine points ‘corrections’ when in fact many of them are clearly opinions and unsubstantiated, and some do not relate in any way to my post as ‘corrections’. No doubt I must be you, too, posting a positive response under an alias.
I’m still open to hearing the other side of the arguments to balance out the comments, but it does appear that the blogosphere, at least, is effectively silent on them.
The only problem Kouros has with criticism is that some Finns do not like his racist anti-Finnish agenda. We do not want global coca-cola culture, we are an independent nation with our own language and culture.