Well, this is certainly one way to take James Woods down a notch. In a letter from their attorneys, Twitter issued a sharp response to Woods’ $10 million defamation lawsuit against an anonymous user who called him a “notorious coke fiend and registered sex offender.” Woods is suing a user who called himself “Abe List” and also issued a subpoena to the social media site to reveal his true identity. But Twitter isn’t having it. Not even a little bit. Not even for James Woods.
A letter dated August 21 from Twitter’s legal representation said that in addition for there being no technical legal merit to Woods’ “investigation” into who “Abe List” is (proper documentation, etc.), there was no violation of the First Amendment and therefore no defamation of character. But like the fed-up parent of a teenager who will not stop whining about a fake teenage persecution complex, Twitter’s lawyers dismissed Woods’ case using some pretty scathing language:
“The speech at issue appears to be opinion and hyperbole rather than a statement of fact. Further, the target of the speech is a public figure who purposefully injects himself into public controversies, and there has been no showing of actual malice. Attempts to unmask anonymous online speakers in the absence of a prima facie defamation claim are improper and would chill the First Amendment rights of speakers who use Twitter’s platform to express their thoughts and ideas instantly and publicly, without barriers.”
Further, Twitter called Woods’ demands “vague, overbroad, and unduly burdensome.” For his part, the lawyer representing “Abe List,” who is on Twitter as “Popehat” but is actually named Kenneth White, cited Woods’ own Twitter activity to call him a hypocrite:
“Plaintiff James Woods is abusing the court system to lash out at a constitutionally protected political insult — the very sort of insult he routinely uses himself.”
White is referring to Woods making several references to other Twitter users having “crack pipes” and “crack allowances,” but as we all know “crack is wack” and Woods is — allegedly — purely a cocaine man. That gives him the right to tell people they are on crack while others are not allowed to say he’s on cocaine… oh wait, it totally doesn’t.
So basically, calm down, James Woods.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
