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#16766 - 06/06/03 02:40 PM Re: Aron Ralston Threatens Doug and ETS
Anonymous
Unregistered


And I thought it took b***s for him to cut his arm off. If this makes it to court it will redefine "frivolous lawsuit".

Ed <img src="images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

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#16767 - 06/06/03 03:40 PM Re: Aron Ralston Threatens Doug and ETS
Anonymous
Unregistered


So all I have to do to get rich is go out, get stuck, cut my arm off, and then threaten to sue ETS? *walks away scratching his head over that one*

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#16768 - 06/06/03 04:03 PM Re:Do you have a solicitor?
Doug_Ritter Offline

Pooh-Bah

Registered: 01/28/01
Posts: 2197
<img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
_________________________
Doug Ritter
Editor
Equipped To SurviveŽ
Chairman & Executive Director
Equipped To Survive Foundation
www.KnifeRights.org
www.DougRitter.com

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#16769 - 06/06/03 07:12 PM Re: Aron Ralston Threatens Doug and ETS
mick Offline
dedicated member

Registered: 09/27/02
Posts: 134
Loc: England west yorkshire
don't know why he's so upset! He's name was all over tv any way. As for distasteful well lifes distastefull anyway.

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#16770 - 06/06/03 10:58 PM Re: Aron Ralston Threatens Doug and ETS
NeighborBill Offline
Enthusiastic
Enthusiast

Registered: 03/02/03
Posts: 385
Loc: Oklahoma City
<img src="images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> I want to buy one of Doug's PLBs that will keep me from cutting my arm off! Why can't I buy them here?! <img src="images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

Sheesh. Now, if there had been a link to a paypal account directly following the comment about the PLB, the leach would have some kind of case...but...


Shakespeare was right. The ingredients for lawyer soup follow....
_________________________
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein

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#16771 - 06/06/03 11:37 PM Re: Aron Ralston Threatens Doug and ETS
cliff Offline
Sultan of Spiffy
Enthusiast

Registered: 05/12/01
Posts: 271
Loc: Louisiana
Doug:

So we give him his way. Never more will ETS hear "Aron Ralston" again. But nothing says we can't give him our own special ETS nom-de-filet, as it were. <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

And with the spectre of of legal fees looming, make a contest out of it. 20 nominations, and you have to pony up a buck a vote for your favorite. (My nomination suggestion: "OHC" - One Hand Clapping.....)

And Doug, to see that lawyer's face when he read your response to his letter, I'd about give my right arm. No. Wait....... <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

.....CLIFF

Proudly exercising my 1st Amendment rights - one, two, feel the burn.....


Edited by cliff (06/06/03 11:49 PM)

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#16772 - 06/07/03 12:31 AM Re: Aron Ralston Threatens Doug and ETS
Doug_Ritter Offline

Pooh-Bah

Registered: 01/28/01
Posts: 2197
Billy,

Well, as much as I may rant at times against the bad lawyers myself, and there is no shortage of them, this being a good example, there are also some good guys out there. You will notice, for example, that the Board of Directors of the Equipped To Survive Foundation now has a lawyer on it, an intellectual property lawyer, AAMOF. <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
_________________________
Doug Ritter
Editor
Equipped To SurviveŽ
Chairman & Executive Director
Equipped To Survive Foundation
www.KnifeRights.org
www.DougRitter.com

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#16773 - 06/07/03 12:34 AM Re: Aron Ralston Threatens Doug and ETS
Doug_Ritter Offline

Pooh-Bah

Registered: 01/28/01
Posts: 2197
Cliff,

I have no intention of giving him his way. We have done nothing wrong.
Quote:
My nomination suggestion: "OHC" - One Hand Clapping

<img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
_________________________
Doug Ritter
Editor
Equipped To SurviveŽ
Chairman & Executive Director
Equipped To Survive Foundation
www.KnifeRights.org
www.DougRitter.com

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#16774 - 06/07/03 02:55 AM Re: Aron Ralston Threatens Doug and ETS
aardwolfe Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 08/22/01
Posts: 924
Loc: St. John's, Newfoundland
Okay, at the risk of p1$$1ng everyone off <img src="images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />, I'm going to play Devil's Advocate here.

The statement Mr. Ralston was objecting to, from the "Cease and Desist" letter, was:

No Need To Amputate

Your survival should not require you to amputate your own
arm, as Aron Ralston was recently forced to do in order to
escape being trapped by an 800-pound boulder. Nor should
you have to make any other extraordinary sacrifice. While
too late for Aron, come July 1, 2003, you will be able to
purchase a pocket-sized emergency beacon that will alert
authorities that you need to be rescued and also give them
your location.

Now, I'm pretty sure even without looking that this was taken out of context. However, just reading that section, it sounds to me like some pitchman who's trying to capitalize on Mr. Ralston's misfortune. In my opinion, IF Doug had been using this incident to sell merchandise (which I'm certain he wasn't) or even to promote some particular brand and drum up business for one of his advertisers (which, again, I'm certain he wasn't), then I'd be pretty p-o'ed and ready to seek legal redress. Maybe somebody brought this to Ralston's attention and he didn't take the time to read the web site in a calm, clear-headed manner before he fired off a complaint to his lawyer. Pretty hot-headed behaviour, for sure, but I guess Doug could give him lessons <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I mean, how would you feel if you saw a company that sold burglar alarms and monitoring services using this to sell their product?

Elizabeth Smart Didn't Need to Suffer

Don't let your 14-year old be kidnapped and raped like
Elizabeth Smart; with our state-of-the-art alarm and
monitoring system, your children - unlike sweet little
Elizabeth - can sleep secure in their own beds.

I'd be pretty damn offended <img src="images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> if I read an advertisement like that - I can't imagine how the Smart family would feel. But - other than the fact that Doug isn't trying to sell PLBs - the tone is quite similar to the quoted text.

All you people immediately jumped on the bandwagon and attributed all sorts of base motives to Mr. Ralston, without any evidence to back them up. (EVIDENCE? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING EVIDENCE. HANG THE GUILTY BASTARD! <img src="images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />) Nowhere in any of the correspondence is there any indication that Mr. Ralston is hoping to make money from his ordeal; isn't it possible his concern is that people might THINK he's endorsing a commercial product when he isn't?

The tone of his lawyers' correspondence doesn't indicate someone who's out to make money. The first letter stated clearly that if Doug would remove Mr. Ralston's name from the website, they would consider the matter closed. The letter clearly states that Mr. Ralston "is not interested in allowing his name to be used to promote the PLB technology, your lectures, or any other products or services ...". Maybe he's not interested because Doug didn't offer him any money; or maybe he's just not interested period. But it doesn't sound like a man who's just out to make an easy buck.

I personally wish that Doug had taken a deep breath, counted to 100, and then politely replied that Mr. Ralston was simply mistaken - there was no intent to use his name for commercial gain or advertising purposes and that the post in question was of a purely educational nature, or words to that effect. Doug might even be willing to point out that one reason Mr. Ralston didn't have one of these devices is that the damn gummint has been dragging its heels for years on this issue, (so it wasn't like Mr. Ralston was simply too cheap to buy one).

At the risk of further alienating everyone, I'd also like to point out that what happened to Ralston was a fluke - far less foreseeable than what happened to our deeply revered Chris Kavanaugh on the California Channel Islands (http://www.equipped.org/0601rescue.htm). <img src="images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Even the best of us make mistakes. Cut the guy some slack, why don't ya?
_________________________
"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled."
-Plutarch

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#16775 - 06/07/03 03:16 AM Re: Aron Ralston Threatens Doug and ETS
AyersTG Offline
Veteran

Registered: 12/10/01
Posts: 1272
Loc: Upper Mississippi River Valley...
Just another way to look at it:

Why not simply ask Doug to desist (for whatever reason)? Why go to all the trouble of a) hiring an attorney and b) one who practices in one of the few (3 was it?) states that has that specific law on the books?

I'm philosophicaly with Doug w.r.t. to his reaction to receiving a letter from an attorney rather than simply a note from Aron (or his Mom or g.f. or buddy or whatever...) Actually, since Indianapolis is only about a 5 hour drive from me... nah. But seriously - wouldn't better council have been "Well, have you asked Mr. Ritter to stop using your name...?" Eh?

As I said, another viewpoint.

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