If Jamie wishes to have the full content of the letter posted in this forum he may do so. He has my 100% permission. The case law in me doing so on a website I am not a partner in is iffy. By the way it is important for everyone to know that some of Jamie's allegations occurred here at Two Plus Two in the forum that I moderate. You will see more details of that here.
Here are the highlights:
The lawyer that sent the letter failed to source anything. There are no links, domains, dates - absolutely nothing to help me locate some of their quotes. Some were hard to find because they removed portions of my quotes, which gave them a completely different meaning.
1. The first point they made is that my articles have encouraged players not to use Pokervip as an affiliate. Their quote came from an article I published about PokerUpdate making false statements about a competitor. Pokerupdate.com made edits to their article after three news sites published stories about it. Here is the quote:
Quote:
“[PokerVIP] is also in violation of the terms and conditions of many or most affiliate programs. These T&Cs are clear that affiliates cannot attack other affiliates…”
The above quote goes on but since they chopped it up it is pointless because the meaning of it was changed anyway. The long part I cropped goes on to say that affiliates that break T&Cs risk losing their affiliate accounts.
First, their quote is not what I said and they removed important parts of it, which gave it a different meaning. Second, it seems they are trying to assert that affiliate programs do not ever have T&Cs about publishing false statements about competitors or maybe that affiliates cannot be removed for breaking T&Cs. Regardless their point was not clear and the quote was altered.
2. This one states that I have accused Pokervip of illegal activities. I do not know what they are talking about since they failed to produce a source or link. I suppose it has something to so with the accusation in point 3.
3. Pokervip alleges that I said this in the Affiliate/Rakeback forum here at Two Plus Two where I am moderator and he is a sponsor:
Quote:
Obviously the entire industry is awaiting his proof he has yet to provide although he has been asked countless times. ... Instead countless ones are saying it isn't legal.
What I actually said was this:
Quote:
Obviously the entire industry is awaiting his proof he has yet to provide although he has been asked countless times. Not one person that I know to be an affiliate has come to say "Yes this is legal, why isn't everyone doing it?" Instead countless ones are saying it isn't legal. So the entire industry is wrong and you are right?
Surely as a moderator of a forum at Two Plus Two I may rightfully ask questions without the fear of having their meanings being altered in a threatening letter from a lawyer. The entire definition of my post has changed now and must have created the misunderstanding in point #2.
4. "You falsely state that the network suspects that PokerVIP facilitates traffic from banned territories."
I covered this in my OP but the above is word for word of #4 in the C&D. The email sent by iPoker to its skins clearly contradicts that.
Quote:
This is a formal letter of notice to take immediate effect:
In order to confirm that Poker accounts are not coming from any banned territory the following must be adhered to by all iPoker.Com Card rooms:
1. All iPokerVIP (affiliate) account KYC verification must be completed and communicated to iPoker as requested.
2. By end of Monday 20th 2013, any account that has not been confirmed will get frozen by iPoker security teams.
5. I cannot find their quote in Bing, Google, Two Plus Two or Yahoo. I even broke it up into sections. Again, they failed to include any links, sources or dates.
6. Goes back to #4 and claims that I misunderstood what the KYC letter and other evidence I gathered meant. He goes on to claim that I must have known other affiliates that were under investigation as well. Again, I think the email from iPoker's enforcement team clears up this statement.
He then goes on to state (this was bolded in the C&D):
Quote:
these are just a few of the many examples
Common sense would dictate that they picked their favorite ones in their top 6 countdown. Five were easily shot down above and the other quote is nowhere to be found in any search engine or in this forum.
The rest of the C&D rants about how my articles have damaged his business reputation etc. He claims that I publish false information in an attempt to destroy him. I can easily prove his accusations to be false. Since I can, the truth is the ultimate defense. Nothing else matters. The effects of a public discussion or publication about the truth is irrelevant in a defamation case.
He also alleges several private discussions in his C&D. Defamation cannot be claimed on private communications.
I also find it interesting that an article that even PokerVIP admits was truthful caused him to send the C&D.
By the way PokerVIP - consider that to be my response to your attorney. This way I do not have to waste $5 on certified mail.
Last edited by John Mehaffey; 07-20-2013 at 03:56 PM.