Media General v bookofjoe — Episode 3: Attorney Andrew C. Carington throws down the gauntlet

Above and below, the letter he sent to me yesterday via email attachment, as noted earlier today.

A few thoughts from the peanut gallery (and crack research team) on the correspondence above:

1) Mr. Carington (how often do you think his name is misspelled "Carrington"?) couldn't even take the time not to mess up my name on page 2 ("Stir"). I guess when you're dealing with important things like this, stuff get can get overlooked, what with the major stakes in play. I understand and forgive him.

2) I looked all over the PDF file containing his letter but I'll be darned if I can find the "copy of attached letter" he sent to TypePad. Huh. Maybe it'll be in the certified letter (!) that should be arriving today. I'll look for it.

3) While we're on the subject, that's pretty harsh, sending a letter to my parents (TypePad) about my bad behavior. I mean, jeez, here I am already in the principal's office and I haven't even had a chance to give my side. Oh well, no one ever said life was fair.

4) I am here to tell you (trust me...) that Mr. Carington's letter is a total of 17 pages long, including copies of each of the bookofjoe posts he objects to. I wonder how many hours that took to put together. Well, like I said in today's first post, I guess there's not a whole lot going on at Media General....

5) I sure hope it's okay to have published the correspondence I've received to date. I didn't see anywhere where it said it was confidential or top secret or eyes only or anything, so I'm going to assume I have a right to reproduce it. I know I have a number of lawyers among my readers and I'm especially interested in your thoughts on how I should proceed. It appears Mr. Carington's 5-day deadline clock for me to do as he ordered or face an unspeakable fate started at 5:24:20 p.m. ET yesterday, so (let me get out my calculator, hold on a sec) that means I have until that time on Monday, February 4.

6) I wonder how the reporters who wrote the Daily Progress stories and got worldwide exposure as a result of my posts citing their names — along with links to their articles on the Daily Progress website — feel about Mr. Carington's stuffing them back into their hideyhole here in Charlottesville. I know how I'd feel.

And I don't think it's just me; witness the email I received last evening from New York Times columnist J.D. Biersdorfer in response to my using her work verbatim and in its entirety in a post that appeared here yesterday: "Joe, you're making my day!"

You have to wonder why a Podunk town's daily newspaper's counsel is so put out by having its product displayed on a global stage — as he so piquantly describes it, my "Internet website" — as opposed to remaining provincial and buried.

Ya think it might be part of the reason the company is about to be in play?

Seems to me that instead of complaining about my reposting the Progress articles — with direct links in every case to the Daily Progress website — Mr. Carington and Mr. Rosenberg should be working up a proposal whereby they could feature bookofjoe on their site.

They wouldn't be the first — nor would they be the last.