Ellora’s Cave v Dear Author Update
Today there was a temporary injunction hearing. During the hearing the judge did not grant the injunction, but did request that we come back for a more thorough hearing, where we would be able to provide evidence in our defense.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation.
Therefore, If you are willing, I need help with the following:
Individual authors, editors, cover artists willing to testify, either in person, via telephone or in an affidavit to payments made/not made.
It would be best if you could testify in person, but a sworn written statement will be adequate.
Additionally, if you have any Screenshots of any public statements regarding Ellora’s Cave, those would be helpful too.
You can reach me at [email protected].
Thank you in advance.
I hope everything ends well for you. Best of luck.
I hope you get so many responses it’ll take hours to go through them all in the hearing. Think the letters to Santa dumped on the judge’s desk in Miracle on 34th Street. :-)
I’ll share this on my loops. Good luck!!!
At work right now, but will spend a couple of hours after hunting down screen caps for you.
Good luck Jane! It’s just so ridiculous that you have to go through this
I doubt I’ll ever buy an EC book again – will buy from the authors when they either self publish or publish elsewhere!
Even outside the romance genre, we’re rooting for you.
Hey, Jane, The Passive Voice blog is a good place to start tracking down what you need. This link is to the search results for EC, and all of the posts will have links to the original material.
http://www.thepassivevoice.com/?s=cave
I hope that helps.
Dan
Wish I could contribute, but best of luck, Jane.
I’ve retweeted the link and will post it elsewhere on social media. May your inbox be flooded with useful responses!
While I think it sucks that you have to go through this, I can’t think of a better representative to fight this fight, Jane. I hope your courage trickles down to those authors (and others) who have been intimidated into keeping silent.
Wish there were something I could do to help contribute, but just here to show support. You got this.
That’s very good news that the temporary injunction wasn’t granted. Best wishes in getting the testimony/affidavits that you need.
I don’t have any evidence to help support your case, Jane, but if there’s any other way I can help, let me know. I can dig into my pockets.
Good luck!
I’m not a lawyer and know little about the law… so EC asked for an injunction against you to stop you from writing/posting about them at this time and the judge denied it? (Is that what that means?) If so, good.
Hope this all falls in your favor, Jane. Will also tweet/blog/FB about this.
Behind you all the way, Jane. Fight the good fight!
After all this trouble, I hope the unpaid people are willing to step up and testify.
Best of luck!
I just posted posted this to my Facebook Groups. There are a few EC authors there. Good Luck!
Best of luck, Jane! You’ve got my support (sending GOOD VIBES) and I’d love to contribute to a fund if that ever starts up!
Hoping you gather all the evidence you need. Best of luck, Jane!
@Lori: I think the injunction was supposed to get Jane to take down the previous post, and the judge wants more evidence before she decides whether to grant it.
All the best Jane. Delete this if it isn’t a good idea but I made up a badge if anyone want’s to use it on their blogs/facebook pages. You should be able to save the image by right clicking.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153600326473538&set=a.433071738537.219997.715143537&type=3&theater
For the benefit of any EC authors who are on the fence about whether to testify: Courtney Milan has posted an extremely useful offer to help you do so and still be protected. Please read what Courtney has to say.
When you’re done with that, also spend some time reading Courtney’s other blow-your-socks-off bit of analysis (with special secret ingredient ‘leadership’). Wow.
Rick Moen
[email protected]
Hi Jane
You have a lot of supporters here in Australia who love your blog and we want to wish you the best with this stupid lawsuit!!
I’m sorry this is happening to you. I bet there’s a ton of evidence flying your way right now. I hope everything works out in your favor quickly and easily.
Like Spaz, I’m also just posting to show my support. This is my community and one of our own is under attack. Whatever you need Jane. I hope a lot of people come forward.
I’m not in the class of authors/employees you’re seeking and I know you cannot provide legal advice in this instance, but is there an online article you can point to on confidentiality agreements and how anyone willing to provide evidence but subject to a confidentiality agreement with EC is relieved from liability on said agreement in terms of providing sworn testimony? I am confident you’ll have helpful volunteers with information regardless, but if the worry of being sued in turn by EC is alleviated for other individuals with information, you likely will get more volunteers.
@anonymous: Indeed there is: http://www.courtneymilan.com/ramblings/2014/09/30/a-note-about-confidentiality-clauses-notchilled/
@anonymous: Courtney Milan’s offer is aimed to help specifically people in the position you describe deal with the confidentiality-clause problem. Please do have a look, and consider her offer.
Speaking personally and in only the general case (because IANAL, among other reasons), if I had a business contract containing a confidentiality clause, with a company that the company was comprehensively violating (e.g., not making required payments), I would (a) no longer consider myself bound by an agreement the other person broke, and (b) estimate that no judge on the planet would ever enforce that clause to silence parties being cheated from testifying in court about that wrongful deed.
Rick Moen
[email protected]
Another note to all writers / editors / cover artists who may be wary of helping Jane with supporting testimony: Please remember that the judge won’t see the Internet ruckus. None. At. All. All the #notchilled tweets and blog comments, valuable and kindly intended, not only have zero weight in court but won’t even show up.
Helping Jane with a brief statement about payments not made, that matters. And how often in life do you have an opportunity to do something that really matters, hmm?
Rick Moen
[email protected]
@Rick Moen:
Rick, it’s really not that easy. I would not advise anyone to breach a contract just because the other side did it first. It can get really, really messy, really, really fast. PLEASE do not breach a contract without talking to a lawyer first, even if you think the other guys were in breach first.
There ARE ways to get the evidence into testimony without creating legal risk to the author. If anyone is on the fence, wants to testify, but is afraid, PLEASE contact me.
I just took a quick look at the list of books available from authors striking out from EC, and I will happily purchase several.
However, as a reader watching the debacle unfold, I can’t help but be aware that there are several EC authors being held hostage in painful financial straits. Is there some way that a fund can be set up for readers to make contributions that could offer more immediate relief? I think a number of us who are voracious romance readers would be glad to participate. I realize that overseeing anything like what I’m suggesting is not as easy as snapping one’s fingers, but surely there is some professional writers association that could help.
Be sure to utilize groups like Absolute Write’s Watercooler forums. They have everything on there!
@Courtney Milan: This is absolutely within Courtney’s field of expertise, folks. As a reminder, I was carefully saying only what I would do in a hypothetical situation, and not advising others. But I’ll explain (after double-checking my dusty books on business law):
One party can always rescind any contract if there has been substantial nonperformance or breach by the other party, but the breach must be so substantial and fundamental that it defeats the objective of the parties in making the agreement, and must pertain to the essence of the contract. And obviously you would ask a competent attorney’s advice before doing that. That’s really the situation I was thinking of.
Courtney’s absolutely right that breach of contract by both parties is not a rescission of contract, but is rather in the general case just breach by both sides, creating as Courtney says a messy situation where each party has committed a tort against the other. In the pragmatic business world, it’s been my experience that contracts are often dropped when one side has flaked out and the other side treats the contract as if it were rescinded, without anyone seeking damages, but this is of course not always a safe bet.
(Some contracts include a clause a party can invoke to cancel the contract for cause. Such a clause is looking like a wiser inclusion all the time.)
Rick Moen
[email protected]
Jane, I’m sorry you’re going through this. I don’t like how defamation and libel suits in general makes a lot of us self-censor out of fear.
If you’re looking for screen shots or authors to contact, there’s a list going on here: http://deirdre.net/elloras-cave-author-exodus-support-thread/
Suggestion for those who are writing up affidavits for Jane: be sure to note in your affidavit if you received a check in an envelope with no date on the machine-stamped postage. Blanking the date on a postage meter when metering First Class mail is a no-no, and at the very least EC can lose their postage meter over it. It might even be considered postal fraud, but I’m not a lawyer, so you’d have to investigate that yourselves.