psychoceramics: Kook Alert: Suit filed against Concentric Network

[fed @ cca.org (Francis E. Decstation)]

And now, from alt.slack, an update on the antics of Rev. Steve 
"WAR on Satan's BBSs" Winter.

St. Francis E.

-----------------------------------------------

[NOTE from Modemac: Are you familiar with the rantings of Rev. 
Steve Winter, the famous crusader against "lying dirt false Christian 
scum" who are forever conspiring to keep him from bringing the truth 
about Satanic homosexuals to the world?  If you know of Mr. Winter, then 
you'll REALLY love this.  Probably the funniest thing about it is the 
fact that he manages to go through the entire thing without calling 
someone "scum!"  And believe it or not, the lawsuit is real.]

[ Article crossposted from news.admin.net-abuse.misc ]
[ Author was Guy Macon ]
[ Posted on 17 Jun 1996 06:22:09 GMT ]

Here is the text of the lawsuit as found on Winter's web page.

**** START OF QUOTE FROM WWW.PRIME.ORG/LEGAL/CRIS.HTM ****

NORTH CAROLINA
IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE
SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION
DURHAM COUNTY

STEPHEN RAY WINTER )
Plaintiff )

) COMPLAINT

) 96CVS01789 

) Filed May 6, 1996 vs.

CONCENTRIC NETWORK CORPORATION ) 
AKA CONCENTRIC RESEARCH CORP. )

and )
David R Schairer (Director Internet Services) )
Scott T. Mikusko (Internet Tech Support) )

Defendants )

_ 

The Plaintiff hereby alleges and says: 

The Plaintiff, STEPHEN RAY WINTER is a
citizen  and resident of the County of Durham,
State of North Carolina. The Plaintiff was
a customer of Concentric Network Corporation
accessing their network from a local call to
544-9219 in Durham North Carolina. The Plaintiff
is a Christian minister who does most of his 
publishing via electronic media and the Plaintiff is
in business selling computer telecommunications 
equipment. The Plaintiff's Internet access
account plays a major role in the Plaintiff's 
ministry and business. The Plaintiff's charges were
automatically billed by the Defendant to the 
Plaintiff's Corporate American Express card. The
Defendant's sales agent affirmed that the 
Plaintiff's account was a "permanent" account and the
Plaintiff was not advised of any conditions of 
service when the account was established. 

II 

The Defendants are an Internet service provider, 
employees Scott T. Mikusko of their technical
dept. and David Schairer, Director of Internet 
Services The Defendant provides service to
Durham NC and surrounding area with a local 
telephone dialup number 544-9219 in Durham,
North Carolina (under the name Concentric 
Research) and is in business here in the Great 
State of North Carolina providing internet service 
and receiving due consideration for same. The
Defendant, Concentric Network Corporation 
has a mailing address of Concentric Network
Corporation 10590 N Tantau Ave Cupertino 
CA 95014 and a local phone access number of
544-9219. The Defendant is not a common 
carrier and is fully responsible and liable 
as aCorporation doing business in the State 
of North Carolina and maintaining local 
telephone in Durham, North Carolina for the 
same as "Concentric Research Corporation". 

III 

Codefendant David R Schairer resides at 
908 Middle Ave Apt P, Menola Park, CA 94025 and
is the Director of Internet Services at 
Concentric Networks 

IV 

Codefendant Scott T. Mikusko has the addresses 
of 205 S Midland St Merrill, MI 48637 and 146 
Shannon St, Merrill, MI 48637 and is in the 
Concentric Network Corporation Tech support dept. 

V 

The Defendants failed to exercise reasonable 
action to protect the Plaintiff when the Plaintiff
was the victim of even criminal harassment 
through internet email. This caused the Plaintiff
much frustration, wasted time and mental 
anguish damaging him in excess of $10000. A
reasonable person would expect a service 
provider to offer assistance in matters of 
criminal harassment rather than joining with 
the malefactors in a conspiracy to do damage to 
them. Inone situation the harassment that the 
Plaintiff endured despite repeated pleas to the 
Defendants for reasonable assistance was 
sufficiently egregious for the local US Atty. 
to send an FBI agent to investigate and receive 
the evidence to be forwarded to Congress for 
consideration in ongoing lawmaking regarding 
the Internet. 

VI 

The Defendants were fully aware that there 
were bitter theological opponents of the Plaintiff
waging a campaign of frivolous complaints and 
other forms of harassment against the Plaintiff
to try to have his account cancelled and to 
prevent the Plaintiff from expressing his religious
views or promoting his business on the Internet. 
The Defendants were aware that the complaints 
against the Plaintiff included counterfeit articles 
not even published by the Plaintiff.
The Defendant Schairer defamed and assassinated 
the character of the Plaintiff to the Plaintiff's
bitter theological opponents who then published 
the defamatory material on Usenet. Defendants
Mikusko and Schairer also threatened the Plaintiff 
with loss of his account if he continued to
publish his unpopular views on public usenet 
newsgroups and then breached the customer de
facto contract by causing the Plaintiff's account 
to be closed (thus blocking the Plaintiff from
accessing his Internet account) and returning as 
(undeliverable) all personal email sent to the
Plaintiff causing the Plaintiff damages including 
but not limited to extreme mental anguish and
frustration and thereby damaging the Plaintiff in 
excess of $10000. This is also a violation of
several of the Plaintiff's civil rights. 

VII 

Greg ( a supervisor who refused to give his 
name other than #4176) advised me on the
telephone on 5/5/96 that it is not the 
Defendant's policy to get involved in disputes, 
however, my account was canceled due to the 
selection of groups where I was publishing and because
they did not like the content of my publications. 
The Defendants' cancelling of the Plaintiff's
account and falsely labeling the Plaintiff as 
a "net abuser" for expressing his religious views
has caused the Plaintiff great damage to his 
ability to defend himself against his bitter
theological opponents in the future. This 
effectively censors the Plaintiff from publishing his
religious views and damages the Plaintiff 
in excess of $10000. 

VIII 

The Defendants' cancelling of the Plaintiff's 
account and falsely labeling the Plaintiff as a net
abuser for simply attempting to defend his rights 
has caused the Plaintiff great damage to his
reputation, defamed his character, and, since 
the Plaintiff is in the computer business and uses
the Internet to do business has caused the 
Plaintiff damages in excess of $10000. 

IX 

The Defendants' cancelling of the Plaintiff's 
account and falsely labeling the Plaintiff as a net
abuser has caused the Plaintiff great damage to 
his reputation, defamed his character, and has
effectively prevented the Plaintiff from effectively 
defending himself in the Usenet newsgroups
against a plethora of false accusations by his 
bitter theological opponents (which include open
discussions of their efforts to flood Concentric 
Network Corporation with complaints regarding
the Plaintiff in an effort to censor him for his 
theological viewpoints.) The newsgroups that the
Plaintiff was accused of "abusing" contain more 
articles by the Plaintiff's theological opponents
than they do those authored by the Plaintiff. 

X 

The Defendants are neither the owners of, or 
in any way legally responsible for the public
Usenet newsgroups that they have now undertaken 
to "censor" from the theological viewpoints
of the Plaintiff. They are public newsgroups 
and their Charters (modifiable at whim by those
with access), are merely suggestions and are 
in no way binding contractually. The Defendants
singled out, and discriminated against the 
Plaintiff by both refusing assistance to the 
Plaintiff in matters of vicious email harassment 
by those who would censor (through extortion by
harassment) his views and by discriminating 
against the Plaintiff by false accusations,
conspiring with the Plaintiff's bitter theological 
opponents to defame and censor him and finally
the unprecedented cancelling of his valid, 
"permanent", Concentric Network Internet account. 

XI 

The Defendants in spite of an established 
policy not to take upon themselves the positions of
religious censors of the public usenet newsgroups, 
discriminated against the Plaintiff by taking
the side of his bitter theological opponents, 
declaring the Plaintiff's attempts to defend himself
"abuse" and cancelling the Plaintiff's account 
as an act of censorship. This caused the Plaintiff
much frustration, public humiliation and mental 
anguish in excess of $10000 as well as being a
clear violation of the Plaintiffs freedom of speech 
and civil rights as well as being a breach of contract. 

XII 

The Defendants failed to act in a manner that a 
reasonable person would expect to protect the
Plaintiff against a known and published 
orchestrated campaign of frivolous complaints, 
and participated in a conspiracy with the 
Plaintiff's antagonists in efforts to , including 
but not limited to, depriving the Plaintiff of 
his civil rights by censoring the Plaintiff from 
expressing his religious views in public publishing 
arenas and in emailing defamatory accusations against
the Plaintiff to the Plaintiff's adversaries and 
thus encouraging and contributing to the ongoing
attacks against the Plaintiff. This culminating 
in the Defendants breaching the common law and
de facto contract by cancelling the Plaintiff's 
Internet account with Concentric Network. This
caused the Plaintiff great damage in excess of 
$10000 for reasons including but not limited to
defamation of character, libel, mental anguish, 
frustration, and from having his civil rights
violated. 

XIII 

While denying the Plaintiff reasonable 
assistance in areas of actual criminal harassment and
other abuses against him, the Plaintiff took action 
against the Plaintiff for exercising his right to
publish in public areas over which the Defendant 
has no jurisdiction causing the Plaintiff to
suffer a plethora of damages in excess of $10000 
including but not limited to damage to his
reputation, character defamation, lost profits 
from potential Internet business connections, etc. 

XIV 

The public forums where the Plaintiff was 
exercising his right to free speech are a virtual 
"no man's land" in cyberspace. Compared to the 
average fare on these groups, the Plaintiff's
publishing were mild at their most intense, 
AND were quite often exceeded in volume by
attacks (often vicious open attempts to violate 
the Plaintiff's civil rights) from his bitter
theological opponents and other antagonists 
who wage an ongoing campaign to have the
Plaintiff's views censored. The Defendant 
openly discriminated against the Plaintiff and
damaged him in excess of $10000. 

XV 

In consideration of the extreme and growing 
importance of the Internet to modern society for so
many aspects of life and business, to allow 
the Defendant to commit the aforementioned actions
with impunity against an individual who was 
merely exercising his right of free speech in an
open public arena would be very bad law and 
set a very bad legal precedent. The Defendants
have also made themselves coconspirators with 
the Plaintiff's bitter theological opponents who
openly conspired to violated the Plaintiff's 
civil rights by having his religious publishing
censored. 

WHEREFORE, the Plaintiff prays judgment against 
the Defendants for all the damages to the
Plaintiff for the torts and offences listed 
above. In in addition to the aforementioned, 
the Plaintiff prays the court to also award 
the following to the Plaintiff: 

1. Punitive damages in excess of $10000 for 
the Defendant's deliberate violations of the civil
rights of the Plaintiff including but not limited 
to the right of free speech that any reasonable
person would expect on the Usenet. 

2. Additional damages in excess of $10000 for 
damages including but not limited to emotional
strain, frustration, and general inconvenience 
and lost time suffered by the Plaintiff due to the
direct discriminatory actions of the Defendants. 

3. Additional damages in excess of $10000 for 
lost profits from the Plaintiff's current and future
business dealings due to the damage to the Plaintiff's 
reputation inflicted by the Defendants. 

4. Additional punitive damages in excess of 
$10000 against the Defendant for failure to act in a
manner that a reasonable person would expect, 
to protect the Plaintiff against ongoing criminal
harassment through private email. 

5. Additional punitive damages in excess of 
$10000 against the Defendant for issuing
defamatory statements to the Plaintiff's bitter 
theological opponents and conspiring with them to
deprive the Plaintiff of his civil rights. 

6. Additional punitive damages in excess of 
$10000 against the Defendant for failure to act in a
manner that a reasonable person would expect to 
protect the Plaintiff against a known campaign
of harassment, frivolous complaints, and an 
acknowledged campaign of religious censorship. 

7. Additional punitive damages in excess of 
$10000 against the Defendant for failure to act in a
responsible manner that any reasonable person 
would expect towards any paying customer
whose business was solicited through US mail.. 

8. Any and all additional damages including 
punitive damages in excess of $10000 against the
Defendant that the court believes would be 
covered by any other established legal precedent. 

9. Reasonable monies to cover legal fees 
incurred by the Plaintiff in his efforts to recover
damages from the Defendants through the courts. 

10. Judgment against the Defendants and awarding 
any and all amounts both compensatory and
punitive to the Plaintiff for any and all torts 
and offences that the court feels would be
supported by legal president. 

___________ Stephen Ray Winter (the Plaintiff)
1806 Albany St. Durham, NC 27705-3134 

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE The undersigned 
certifies that a copy of the foregoing instrument
was served upon all parties to the above cause by 
depositing a copy hereof, postage fully prepaid, 
in the United States Mail, properly addressed as 
disclosed by the pleadings of record herein to 
each said party or his/her attorney of record on 
the day of , 19 . Signature of Party or
Attorney: 

**** END OF QUOTE FROM WWW.PRIME.ORG/LEGAL/CRIS.HTM ****

(Missing date was missing on original)
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