Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

After getting no satisfaction in my effort to get a Blogger.com website taken down which assumes my identity in order to savage my beliefs, I have consulted an intellectual property attorney and plan to send this letter to Google CEO Eric Schmidt outlining my case against the site:

Dr. Eric Schmidt
CEO
Google
1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy
Mountain View, CA 94043

Dear Dr. Schmidt,

I have unsuccessfully appealed to Blogger Help regarding a fraudulent Blogger website, Little Dickie’s Diaper Droppings, which impersonates and defames me using pornographic and hateful language (complaint #129709468). Initially, the site also displayed images of me in violation of my copyright rights. Though Blogger has removed those images, the site is deeply invasive of my privacy and defames me by assuming my identity.

Here are some representative samples of its egregious nature:

1. the blog URL is ‘richardsilversteins.blogspot.com,’ which is my name.
2. the contact e mail address provided is a fake address also using my name richardsilverstein@yahoo.com
3. Here’s a pornographic quotation placed into my mouth: “When I get “religious” then I just stroke my penis to see what comes out.”
4. More quotations from the About Me page:

“I am a third-rate subliterate pretending to be an intellectual
Why am I so stupid?
Interests:
Destroying Israel
Favorite Books:
Mein Kampf”

As a Jewish blogger, I hope you can understand how deeply hurtful it is to have a fraudulent website proclaim in my name that my favorite book is one of the most anti-Semitic books ever written: Mein Kampf. And as a Jew who supports Israel, you can also imagine the pain caused by someone writing in my own voice that I wish to “destroy Israel.” There are visitors to this blog who will actually think that the disgusting words and ideas put into my mouth are things I believe.

This website violates the following Blogspot.com terms of service:

“You agree to not use the Service to: (a) upload, post or otherwise transmit any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;…(c) impersonate any person or entity… (e) upload, post or otherwise transmit any Content that infringes any…copyright or other proprietary rights of any party…”

I have asked my blog readers to flag this site for objectionable content and a number have. I have also asked them to register a complaint with Blogger over the site. I have written about this matter at my own blog and not had very kind things to say about Blogger.

I have already made one good-faith effort to get Blogger to take down this site and failed. This is my second attempt. If this fails, then I will consult with my attorney about my legal remedies including suing both the creator of this blog and Blogger.com for infliction of great emotional pain and distress on me and my family.

Please ask the senior staff at Blogger to remove this site. It not only defames me, it does Blogger’s reputation a great disservice. I will be posting this letter at my blog and whatever response you should choose to provide. I hope it will be a positive one so I can inform my readers of how decent and responsive a company both Blogger and Google are.

People often come to me as an experienced blogger and ask about which platforms they should choose. Should anyone ask me about Blogger and the company continues to refuse to take down this site, I will have an excellent and very personal reason for turning them away from using Blogger.

Hoping for redress,
Richard Silverstein