Goldman Sachs hires law firm to shut blogger's site

[FreeJG]

this would be a very interesting freedom of speech trial. I hope the ACLU takes it.. and gives all kinds of bad publicizing to Goldman Sachs.

Goldman Sachs hires law firm to shut blogger's site

Goldman Sachs is attempting to shut down a dissident blogger who is extremely critical of the investment bank, its board members and its practices.
By James Quinn, Wall Street Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:16PM BST 11 Apr 2009
The New York headquarters of Goldman Sachs, which has instructed a Wall Street law firm to tell a blogger to stop criticising the bank. The bank has instructed Wall Street law firm Chadbourne & Parke to pursue blogger Mike Morgan, warning him in a recent cease-and-desist letter that he may face legal action if he does not close down his website.
Florida-based Mr Morgan began a blog entitled "Facts about Goldman Sachs" – the web address for which is goldmansachs666.com – just a few weeks ago.
In that time Mr Morgan, a registered investment a dviser, has added a number of posts to the site, including one entitled "Does Goldman Sachs run the world?". However, many of the posts relate to other Wall Street firms and issues.
According to Chadbourne & Parke's letter, dated April 8, the bank is rattled because the site "violates several of Goldman Sachs' intellectual property rights" and also "implies a relationship" with the bank itself.
Unsurprisingly for a man who has conjoined the bank's name with the Number of the Beast – although he jokingly points out that 666 was also the S&P500's bear-market bottom – Mr Morgan is unlikely to go down without a fight.
He claims he has followed all legal requirements to own and operate the website – and that the header of the site clearly states that the content has not been approved by the bank.
On a special section of his blog entitled "Goldman Sachs vs Mike Morgan" he predicts that the fight will probably end up in court.
"It's just another example of how a bully like Goldman Sachs tries to throw their weight around," he writes.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Mr Morgan explained how he went through a similar battle with US homebuilder Lennar a few years ago after he set up a we bsite to collect information on what he alleged was shoddy workmanship in its homes. The pair eventually settled out of court.
"Since I went through this with Lennar, I've had advice from some of the best intellectual property lawyers, and I know exactly what I can and can't do. We're not going to back down from this," he promises.
Mr Morgan adds that if Goldman manages to shut down his site, he has a number of other domain names registered.

(more at link below)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/5137489/Goldman-Sachs-hires-law-firm-to-shut-bloggers-site.html

[Supersedeas]

1. can money buy you censorship -- even if it might mean abuse of civil process??

[GreenTea]

2. Yeah, but who supports & donates to the much needed underfunded ACLU?

http://www.aclu.org/

:pals: :fistbump: :toast:

[truedelphi]

3. Thank you for this blogger's plight and also

His URL

I'm gonna check it out.

goldmansachs666.com

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

4. I think the issue is his web site name which includes the name "goldmansachs"

He just made a silly error which he could rectify if he changed the name of the site.

I think Goldman Sachs would prevail easily if this actually went to court. It's more about trademark protection than it is about free speech.