Aron Ralston, who self-amputated his arm when he disregarded common sense safety precautions before heading off into the wilds, has threatened Equipped To Survive and Doug Ritter for use of his name on the ETS Web site. Get the details and read the absurd Cease and Desist Letter from his lawyer.

http://www.equipped.org/ralston_threatens_ets.htm

A reminder that this is a Family Friendly web site and that profanity and personal attacks on forum members are not acceptable. Let's keep the discussion of Aron Ralston on a civil level.

I'm amazed. In reading the forum thread and sundry commentary, I did not get the impression that you or ETS was selling PLB's, and I for one MOST CERTAINLY DID NOT GET THE IMPRESSION that you, ETS or the forum posters were trying to sell or gain from his self inflicted misfortune. My viewpoint is that it was simply a discussion about various news articles. If he did not want the publicity then he should not have put himself into the predicament in the first place.

If anything, the entire thread seemed to discuss the incident in much the same way as it would be spoken about after a coworker read the news article in the breakroom and commented on it while on break. I'll re-read the thread again to see if I missed some nuance, but IRRC there was not anyone of us standing to gain from his lack of preparedness.

Disclaimer> I am not a legal professional, nor do I want to be.<
My overall impression after reading the linked documents that you provided on this thread is that perhaps somebody is tired of chasing ambulances and decided to saber rattle.

Reading the threat letter makes one wonder what other exciting lawsuits this "lawyer" has threatened other folks / outfits with. Where there is smoke there is usually some fire.

If Aron really wanted to do something constructive with the experience, I would suggest writing a book about "the stupid thing that I did" in the hope of keeping others from doing the same.

I concur with the ETS stance on this saga and find it strange that someone with as much experience as he is ALLEGED to have would even speak with legal folks about starting such a frivolous suit.

Thanks for your support. There are lots of issues involved, especially when public forums are hosted, but I am confident that we have not overstepped any reasonable bounds, there's no libel and lord knows we have no commercial interests that amount to a hill of beans. The entire assets of the Foundation wouldn't cover an hour of this lawyer's time. One cannot let bullies get away with this sort of thing, it would be the end of our freedoms. All we can do right now is spread the word and hope they come to their senses. <shrug>

Is this for real or is it some kind of a joke, about lawyers, that I don't understand ???!!!! <img src="images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Unfortunately, no joke. No legal system is perfect, and this is proof of that.

OK, you do something that grabs people's attention and they talk about it...

Am I missing something here?

BTW I just saw Elvis, but on second thought... I probably shouldn't say anything... just forget it... Mac

A novel concept to be sure. <img src="images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

I, for one, would have loved to have seen the look on this hot shot lawyer's face when he read your response, nicely done <img src="images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I've met a lot of people who take themselves way too seriously, but this might take the cake.

And the countdown to me being sued for slander begins......NOW

well, you'll be in good company, if I do say so myself <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

And I thought "one-armed bandit" refered to Las Vegas-style slot machines.....