Sources Shed Further Light on Gjoni Strike Out Application

The Witchfinder illuminates dark places!

I have now been able to ascertain the basis of Eron Gjoni’s motion to strike out Zoe Quinn’s response to his appeal. It is really pretty simple. Zoe Quinn is seeking to have his appeal dismissed as moot – because she has caved in by filing to vacate the order she does not want the constitutionality (or lack thereof) of the restraining order she obtained against him reviewed.

According to my shadowy sources, the problem with Quinn’s filings is that they are largely supported by impermissible material. The function of an appellate court is to determine whether a lower court has made a mistake and therefore it will only consider the material before that court. If a party to court proceedings wants an order changed on the basis of new information, the proper venue is the lower court (appellate judges are more expensive and in shorter supply).

Quinn has produced additional documents in support of her appellate response, however, in these documents she has also included fresh allegations that were not before the court of first instance. Allegations introduced in this manner are not normally permitted in an appellate forum where Gjoni would have no opportunity to rebut the veracity of Quinn’s claims nor to compel her to offer evidence in support of them. For good reason such filings are normally not permitted by the Massachussetts Rules of Appellate Procedure without prior permission by the court. Gjoni therefore seeks to strike out these questionable documents and the legal arguments based on them.

Looks like Gjoni’s lawyer is making good use of the crowdsourcing funds! Whatever happenes, Quinn is not going to have it easy.

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Eron Gjoni Moves to Strike!

The Witchfinder comments on recent developments in the Gjoni / Quinn case, which seems to be heating up. Eron Gjoni has filed a motion to strike out at least part of Zoe Quinn’s defence to his appeal. (Massachusetts court service page here and archive from today here).

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Screenshot from the Massachusetts court system. Motion to strike? The plot thickens.

Recent entries for the case make fascinating viewing. Zoe Quinn (real name Chelsea van Valkenburg / Valkerburg) filed a response, slightly late, to Gjoni’s appeal, shortly after a barrage of notices of appearance by her legal team.

The theoretical sanction for lateness is, as I previously reported, that the documents are not admissible and the appellee will not be allowed to make oral argument without the permission of the Court. In practice of course the Court may allow late documents especially if the deadline is only missed by hours.

Now Gjoni’s lawyers have had a chance to review the brief, looks like they are putting the funds he has raised to good use. Gjoni has filed two motions – firstly he is asking the Court to take note of fresh documents, and secondly he is asking that the Court strike out at least part of Quinn’s defence. Continue reading

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Looks Like Zoe Quinn Missed a Court Deadline – and the Penalty May be Deliciously Ironic

The Witchfinder has been keeping an eye on Gjoni’s appeal. The deadline for Zoe Quinn to file her response (the ‘red’ brief) has passed earlier this week. The Witchfinder explains what that means.

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Looks like Zoe Quinn has missed the deadline!

A while back your author reported that in response to Eron Gjoni’s appeal, Zoe Quinn had filed to discharge the injunction against him. The relevant court case page is here (today archive here). There is another page for the case here. Just a reminder that Zoe Quinn’s real name has been cited as Chelsea van Valkenburg or Valkerburg and that is the name for her on the case.

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Akismet Developer Brands KiA a ‘Hate Sub’ on ‘Free Reddit Checker’ Tool – Backs Down When Called on it

The Witchfinder encounters a supremely poorly coded, ‘comedy’ SJW tool for evaluating levels of Reddit ‘bigotry’. The tool, Free Reddit Check, is made by a developer at Akismet manufacturers Automattic and even labels the phrase, ‘sargon of akkad’ as ‘potentially offensive’.

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The Akismet official blog promotes their employee’s ‘hack’, saying “[…] being obsessed with content analysis, community moderation, and keeping the web’s underbelly in check, we can’t help but think it’s a nifty idea […]”.

Earlier today I was setting up Twitter preview cards for this site when I noticed a blog by Akismet (archive here). Akismet is the name of a commercial anti-spam tool. It can be used for excluding spam from WordPress blogs. I had evaluated it before but found it unsatisfactory.

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Epic Gjoni Win – Zoe Quinn Files to Vacate Restraining Order Against Gjoni

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Gjoni wins. Picture screenshot from Massachusetts public online Court docket system 18-08-2015.

From time to time, as a pro-bono McKenzie Friend here in the UK, I have helped appellants have restraining orders removed. In UK civil procedure, appeals require permission followed by a substantive hearing. Often, where a case is doomed, likely to be excessively costly or embarrassing, a party will cave in. It looks like Zoe Quinn (also known as Chelsea van Valkenburg) did just that on 07/08/2015.

I personally find this incredibly annoying, but when the other side caves in, I am usually forced to advise my client to sip it up because that is in their best interests. What we normally do is negotiate what we want in the form of a consent order in return for letting the other side off without applying for costs against them.

It is theoretically possible to proceed to a hearing for judgement anyway but normally the client is better off just taking the surrender, getting it worded the way they want and avoiding the aggravation and expense of going to a full hearing. It does sometimes happen especially when a public body wants the law clarified but with private clients it is incredibly rare. Continue reading

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Shoulda Listened, Nick! Here is Some More Advice: Time to Fire Sam Biddle

Gawker’s response to its scandalous outing of a corporate executive has been chaotic. It is unclear what strategy the leadership has in place to stop the ongoing haemorrhaging of advertisers. The Witchfinder says that if Gawker wants to clean up its act it is time for  Nick Denton to put Gawker’s house in order. That means reaching out to #GamerGate in a serious and sustained way, covering some socially useful stories and cutting out the cancer at the heart of Gawker Media – it is time for that epitomé of morally bankrupt journalist, Sam Biddle, to go.

In February this year I emailed Nick Denton and Max Read to complain about an article on Gawker.com. By Sam F Biddle, it had two major flaws. Firstly, the headling was wildly untrue, far from being a rump of psychopaths GamerGate has continued to grow in size and power. At the time of writing the major forum KotakuInAction now has over 47 thousand members.

Key figures in GamerGate have continued to grow in power, with the fair Shoe0nHead for example now at 77 thousand subscribers, despite her infrequent videos. If June produced say 1-2 videos a week she could monetise and live comfortably – perhaps wealthily – on the advertising revenues.

Secondly the article essentially amounted to picking an … eccentric … from the internet (who later turned out to be a hoaxer) and singling them out, bedlam style, for mockery. The article, like many before it from Sam Biddle, was a disgrace.

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Sam F Biddle makes use of stigmatising mental health tropes, singling out a vulnerable individual for ridicule.

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Left Wingers *Still* Determined to Destroy Wholly Imaginary Robot

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The left wing crusade against the Big Hat continues. The fearsome SJW armies are winning! The Big Hat has failed to block a single Twitter user!

Earlier this year the Witchfinder spent a little time on a parody project called the Big Hat (@BigFriendlyHat). Aside from the obviousness of the parody in the context of the Block Bot controversy, the description of the account begins … “This is a parody account[…]”. The statement was there from the date of its creation.

The extreme, SJW left are very upset about the mere concept of the Big Hat although most of them have been quiet since my article humiliating Randi Harper.

So … I was astonished to hear from a Twitter user called @IdleDilatente . Initially, looking down her timeline I was amused that she trashed the Atheism Plus Block Bot and preferred BlockTogether to GGAutoBlocker so I decided to be friendly.

Although she is a factually challenged member of the hard left, some of her gibes were amusing. Our unemployed dilettante apparently believes it was all real and has written an article about my evil plan. She saw some sample code I wrote and perhaps did not realise it was a parody of the Atheism Plus Block Bot, which was actually suspended for filing mass spam reports. As she has only 9 followers on KOS I was initially going to ignore it but I thought it might be worth reaching out.

A casual investigation reveals @IdleDilatente is a sweet, preppy looking college graduate (2012) with a specialist knowledge of German. She has been involved in a dispute with Mike Cernovitch, a New York First Amendment Lawyer.

In some ways, our heroine reminds me of me at that age. Many years ago I was a member of the Left – a fully paid up member of the UK Labour Party. I idolised some older lefties just as @IdleDilatente is clearly impressed by Zoe Quinn. I was also prone to taking things way too far. I wish her well and hope in time she will come to a different path – in her own way and her own time. I sent her a link to a book by Tammy Bruce I thought she might enjoy.

If nothing else, this leftist has picked a battle she might actually win. The Big Friendly Hat, despite being a GamerGate ploy so eeeevil it is actually in the shape of black hat, has failed to suspend a single user from Twitter! By that standard she is the left’s greatest champion and our most deadly opponent.

LOL.

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Working Together – How Conservatives and #GamerGate Can Find Common Ground With Some Feminists

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Academic Becca Reilly-Cooper comments on female reproductive biology being relevant to feminism. Via Twitter/BoodleOops.

All movements have their extremists and their moderates. In light of the ongoing Block Bot debacle, the Witchfinder identifies common ground with some feminists who have been subject to harassment by the same perpetrators.

Unsurprisingly, your author has spent considerable time recently searching online for credible individuals aggrieved with the Block Bot. Whilst trawling I encountered a public spat between a woman called @BoodleOops, (Academic Becca Reilly-Cooper) and some unsavoury SJW types loosely associated with The Block Bot. She was BLOCKED. BLOCKED I tell you. They were calling her a TERF. Your author had no idea what a TERF is but assumed from the lady’s enemies she was probably doing something virtuous. So he looked up the term ‘TERF’.

It is like this … As we all know, SJW (supposedly Social Justice Warrior) may as well stand for ‘Silencing Journalists and Women’. TERF is an acronym invented by SJWs for oppressing women. It stands for ‘Trans-Exclusionary-Radical-Feminists’ and is yet another example of prolixity by the hard left trying to label reasonable behaviour as in some way wrong. TERF is a slur.

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Depression Quest is Crass, Condescending Ignorance #Gamergate

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Depression quest – depressingly bad. Condescending to people with mental health problems but has escaped scrutiny due to its author’s PC credentials.

The Witchfinder reviews a truly appalling game called Depression Quest (DQ), written by Zoe Quinn from the #Gamergate controversy. DQ combines condescension with poor execution. Bizarrely, the supposedly ‘right on’ media has actually given this game a pass due to the author’s alleged PC credentials.

The Witchfinder says it is time game journalists stop defending Zoe Quinn and promoting her work – not for gender reasons but because of her comments on mental health issues.

For those of you new to this blog, the author is a law student. Your Inquisitor spends a lot of time helping vulnerable people and their families in Court, pro-bono, as a McKenzie Friend with a specialism in Mental Capacity (the Court of Protection). Since starting this blog some years ago, the Witchfinder has actually passed some exams and now holds a Graduate Diploma in Law. He has moved on to studying a Master’s Degree in Law combined with an LPC (British equivalent of a US attorney’s certificate).

This blog is mostly about politics, with law and the very occasional game review.

One of the first things you need to know about UK Equality Law, which is mostly codified in the Equality Act 2010, is that having the same characteristics does not get you off the hook (s24). So for example, a female boss who fires a worker for getting pregnant is not off the hook for being female. Similarly, having the same disability does not get you off the hook for discrimination. Actionable discrimination need also not be deliberate it could be by accident or even subconscious – see Swiggs and Others v. Nagarajan [1999] UKHL 36.

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