Warning! Michael Robertson Could Sue You For Your Blog!

This week, Michael Robertson took his next step in trying to suppress my blog and stifle my freedom of speech. Today I received his request for documents in his frivolous Freespire trademark lawsuit against me.

Robertson's case has absolutely no merit, yet he's spending thousands of dollars in attorney fees trying to shut down Freespire.com. There is no reasonable upside to Robertson in this lawsuit, other than to try and take Freespire.com down, a site which calls into question Robertson's business practices. The sites encourages would-be customers, partners, investors and employees to talk with others who have had prior dealings with Robertson BEFORE deciding if they want to be involved with him.

To see the frivolity in Robertson's attacks on me in this lawsuit, consider the following...

1. To this day, Linspire, Inc. has never even had a registered trademark for the term Freespire.

2. When I was CEO for Linspire, Inc., I filed for a trademark for the term Freespire in April of 2006. However, after I left Linspire (July 2007), the company discontinued pursuing the application and the application was abandoned on January 14, 2008.

3. In January 2008, Linspire was given the opportunity to acquire the Freespire.com domain name, but they declined.

4. AFTER their trademark had been abandoned and Linspire had declined to acquire the Freespire.com domain name, I THEN acquired the Freespire.com domain name. Since then, I have used the site for various things, but mostly to link to my blog about Michael Robertson's despicable behavior, particularly in two areas:

a. How he tried to have several former employees arrested by the San Diego Police Department. He told the police that funds these employees had been paid for severance had been "embezzled" by them. (Fortunately the police and the courts saw through the nonsense and tossed this out.) These were all very good, long-term employees who had served Linspire faithfully for many years, and this was the thanks they got from Robertson--threats, harassment, intimidation, and lawsuits. (Knowing this, why would anyone ever want to go to work for such a person?)

b. How Robertson refused to explain to the 100-some-odd Linspire shareholders what happened with the millions of dollars in cash that Linspire had. It's now been nearly a year since Robertson sold off the Linspire assets in a back-room deal and the shareholders have yet to be given ANY accounting of what happened. (Knowing this, why would anyone ever invest in Robertson?)

Would you want to work for Michael Robertson
and run the risk of being called an embezzler?

5. Only AFTER Robertson found out I was using Freespire to shed light on his greedy deeds, did Linspire THEN file again for a trademark for Freespire, which still has never been granted a registration.

6. Given the nature of the content I put on the site, obviously there was never any confusion that my site was affiliated with Linspire or the Freespire operating system.

7. Because Freespire never had much traffic, the Freespire.com site has had virtually NO traffic.


8. Robertson sold off Linspire, but he went out of his way to keep the right to sue me for the Freespire trademark (which they never even had).

9. As anyone can see, the site is noncommercial. I don't sell or advertise anything on the site.

10. Not one time did Linspire reach out with any sort of communication to me or the Freespire.com website. No letters, no email, just straight to the lawsuit.

11. To this day, no one at Xandros (the people who now own the Freespire OS and have the PENDING trademark application on file) has ever contacted me or the Freespire.com website, or complained in any way about the site. If having the Freespire.com website up is so damaging, why wouldn't XANDROS be suing me? (Perhaps Xandros understands the concept of Freedom of Speech better than Robertson.)

So, in considering all these things, it's pretty clear that there was no confusion, there were no damages, and there's no upside for Robertson in this, so it obvious to me that this is all about Robertson trying to keep me quiet.

If you want to see just how desperate Robertson is to stop Freespire.com, here's the stuff he's requesting as part of this "trademark" lawsuit. (You can also click here for the entire request in pdf format.) To me it's pretty obvious what he's after (besides his normal bury-them-in-discovery nonsense), and that's to make sure the world doesn't find out what he's really like. For example, be sure and check out #6.



I have no intention of ever keeping quiet. People should know the truth about Robertson. Work for him, and run the risk of being called an embezzler. Invest in him, and get left in the dark. Write a blog about him, and well, you just might get sued.

I rightfully acquired the Freespire.com domain name, and I have a right to express my feelings there. Last time I checked, freedom of speech was still part of America, as much as Robertson would apparently like to change that.

Kevin

Where Have You Gone, Milton Friedman?

http://www.newsmax.com/ruddy/milton_friedman/2009/03/19/193728.html

Kevin

Editorial Cartoons by Steve Sack

Editorial cartoons by Steve Sack...

My Second Annual American Idol Predictions - Season 8 - 2009

Each year I make my predictions for who I think will win American Idol and in what order I think the contestants will be voted off. (My predictions for last year.)

Here are my predictions for this year. As always, I'm not saying these are my PERSONAL favorites, but just how I think America will end up voting.

My predictions are:

#1...

#2...
#3...
#4...
#5...
#6...
#7...
#8...
#9...
#10...

Let me know your predictions, and come back and see how we did.

Kevin

PS: Here are the contestant's names in text form, so you can easily cut, paste and move them around in the order you predict, if you want to post or email me with your predictions.

Adam Lambert
Allison Iraheta
Anoop Desai
Danny Gokey
Kris Allen
Lil Rounds
Matt Giraud
Megan Joy
Michael Sarver
Scott MacIntyre

John Stossel's "Bailouts and Bull" on 20/20

John Stossel gets it.

John Stossel has once again gotten it right. He's one of the only reporters in the mainstream media who will tell you the truth. If you missed his special last night, here it is. You may also want to watch his previous special, which I blogged about and posted here.

You can watch the six different segments below, or you can also watch this episode in its entirety here at ABC.

Everyone in America should watch this and John's previous reports. Pass it around!

Fed. Government's Failed Bailouts


Fed. Government Scares the Middle Class


Fed. Government's Failure to Control Traffic and at Building Roads


Fed. Government Wants to Controll Pre-School


Fed. Government Spends Billions and Fails to Control Border


Fed. Government's Control Over State Rights


Kevin

Tips from Michael Robertson On Stealing Copyrighted Material

In his most recent Michael's Minute ("A Tivo for YouTube"), Michael Robertson has tips on how you can make sure and get copies of the illegally uploaded content from YouTube before it's taken down by the rightful copyright holder.

Robertson explains how "Sophisticated users have always been able to do this, but now for the first time it's point and click easy with a menu of choices next to the video that you can choose from." Gee, what a guy, helping make theft point and click easy.

Michael Robertson is ready to be your accomplice.

It seems to me that Robertson is making a career (all be it a not very successful one) out of helping you steal copyrighted material and then letting you pay him to store your stolen goods for you.

I don't think Robertson knows how to find a legit way to make money. Heck, he can't even seem to find an illegitimate way.

Kevin

Obama Makes the Big-Spender Bush Look Thrifty

If Obama gets his way, by his own admission, the deficit will be above $1 TRILLION over the next THREE YEARS, for a total of around $3.7 T. That's nearly what the big spender Bush II took EIGHT years to do ($4.3 T). And all this put into motion in Obama's first couple of months. Eeegads. Spending under Bush was terrible, but apparently it's going to be even worse under Obama and the D-controlled congress.

Big spender Obama. So much for change.

Obama's $3.6 trillion spending and tax plan is the biggest effort to shift the federal government's role in the economy since Reagan's in 1981. But instead of rolling back government, Obama advocates growing it. ....Shudder.... If Congress declines to raise taxes on carbon emissions, or other areas, it will force the deficit even higher. Likewise, should all his tax increases pass, that could slow the economy even more, and the deficit goes higher still.

I might be for raising taxes if I thought for one minute the Gov would use it to pay down the deficit like Bush I and Clinton did, but I don't trust Obama to do that. He's got way to big of a social agenda and seems to lack a basic understanding of economics. (Clinton also did not control federal spending, considering it increased by almost 30% during his tenure. What saved him was the dramatic increase in tax revenues from a healthy economy created in the tech and other sectors during that time.)

Want to see just how much Obama want's to borrow from your children, watch this:

Glenn Beck graphically depicts our Federal Government's out of control spending.

Politicians, R's and D's alike, just can't resist spending your money, and mortgaging your children's future. The national debt is already nearly $11 TRILLION, that's $35,000 for every person living in America, and this all BEFORE Obama starts with his crazy spending!

The stock market clearly isn't liking what they are hearing from Obama. It's down 20% in the short time since Obama's inauguration and down nearly 40% from the time it was evident that Obama was going to become President. Ouch!

The Stock Market Isn't Buying Obama's Tax and Spend Plan

Look at what CNN's Mad Money host Jim Cramer has to say about Obama's policies.

According to a recent poll, over a quarter of those who voted FOR Obama now regret it.

26% of those who voted for Obama wish they hadn't.

Obama's DISapproval rating has increased from 10% to 26% in just over a month as more people, like me, who had hoped that Obama would be different, have learned about his same-old higher taxes and bigger government programs.

Obama's Disapproval rating goes up from 10% to 26% in just over a month.

So, what's to be done? How do we get our economy back on it's feet?

I would encourage everyone to read Free to Choose by Milton and Rose Friedman. (A 10-part TV series was also made along with this book.) If ever there was a time for people to understand how our economy works, it's now, while Obama and the Democratic-controlled congress try to reshape our country into the great society.


Milton Friedman, he was was an American economist, statistician and public intellectual, and a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Even though this book and his ideas are from a few decades ago, they remain true principles that seem to have been lost.

If you're not familiar with Milton Friedman or his beliefs, you can find several good video interviews with him on YouTube. Here is one small sample of him being interviewed by Phil Donahu.



Get this book, read it, and see if it doesn't make a lot of sense, and if it does, is Obama putting us on the right track?

Kevin