Clearly, his minions out there are rallying behind him [...] They are trying to live off the company and raise their blog ranking. It’s really disgusting.

Mr Cook, what is really disgusting is that a failed startup, ePerks, is now trying to somehow recover some or all of their initial investment by taking an innocent blogger to court.

The article also elaborates not only on the legal threat to Vlad, but also to Trace at Broker Science, who has already made his response.

He suggested that those taking part might be doing this for some alternative motive, purely for links.

Whilst I appreciate links, I could honestly have knocked out at least 5, possibly 10 solid pieces of “linkbait” or topical commentary in the 60+ hours I have already devoted to helping Vlad, most of which was in the last week, though it is hard to count time accurately when you have a 1 year old.

Next I am sure they will start suggesting that Vlad is in some way offering some form of monetary compensation for help. Nothing is further from the truth. I made a significant donation to Vlad’s legal fund.

Vlad is one of my most regular readers, and a good “online” friend – at no time has he ever asked me to write about his problems with ePerks. I am extremely loyal to friends.

I am also passionate about disclosure, and the type of shilling I have seen from what appears to be “minions of ePerks” have me reaching for napalm – the best cure for ridding the world of disease infested insects.

ePerks Real Estate on Blogging Zoom
ePerks on Real Estate on Propeller
ePerks Real Estate on Digg
ePerks Real Estate on Mixx – that one is currently popular on the front page

Special mention for ePerks Real Estate on Reddit – Mary’s blog isn’t ideal for Reddit, after all it has more than 2 colours and include graphic elements.
Then again, the only advertising like content on the blog is for products actually sold by Mary and her team. On Reddit any progression will be a running battle of those that read the post vs those that take 1 second hit back and then down vote. Every vote counts, at least for 30 seconds.

Social Media Tip

A great way of monitoring lots of discussion around a particular story is to monitor a search on Friendfeed.

You can either use a standard search for ePerks Real Estate on Friendfeed or you can use an advanced search using &public=1 to get content from the whole of Friendfeed.

An easy way to bookmark discussion threads for a later date is to then “like” them

I do expect Mr Cook to publish a retraction on the blog he doesn’t have – he has a website, but the designer still offers “doorway pages” as part of their service. I hope he hasn’t been asking his web designer for SEO advice regarding this case.
Mr Cooks website ranks 5th when searching for it with very specific search terms including full company name and location – I won’t bother linking to it.

Most of the links above are to promote a story on Mary’s website, not my own. Most of my readers will know Mary as REBlogGirl

Mary has written a really good overview of the ePerks story that anyone can digest

Mary and her company specialise in custom blogs for real estate with hosting and they are offering a semi-custom blog plus a year’s hosting to anyone who blogs about the ePerks scandal – this doesn’t include their custom lead generation system or domain registration.
It is a very generous offer, and I hope lots of bloggers take her up on it.

Place yourself in Vlad’s position – what would it do to your life? Yeah… exactly – Digg Stumble Propeller Mixx Zoom Tweet the hell out of Mary’s post – it is your freedom at risk

Remember I am not a lawyer, and this is a stong opinion piece.

I am trying extremely hard to create an assertion of fact dressed up as an opinion

ePerks Are Suing Vlad

I found out on Saturday from Vlad that he is being sued by ePerks.

Here are the documents served on Vlad.

Just a quick note for anyone who shares this document, it would be well worth modifying it to include some keywords in the links that Scribd inject. I should have also suggested to Vlad that it be prefaced with some links to relevant discussions.

<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/3271851/Barabus-vs-Zablotskyy">ePerks - Brabus vs Zablotskyy</a> - <a href="http://www.scribd.com/upload">Upload a doc</a></div><div style="display:none"> Read this doc on Scribd: <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/3271851/Barabus-vs-Zablotskyy">ePerks - Brabus vs Zablotskyy</a>

It is interesting to note that for some reason Brabus are looking for punitive damages and claiming malice, and they have confined the case to the way Vlad defended his family name when he was attacked quite viciously on multiple websites suggesting he is/was a paedophile which as far as I know is untrue – Vlad has always come across as a kind and generous person.

This was particularly damaging for Vlad, he writes a pro-life blog, and is in the process of filing for adoption.

Vlad’s post in my opinion, and I have read it at least 20 times, doesn’t seem to directly accuse ePerks of anything, and would only suggest suspicion, but certainly not direct accusation, if the whole situation up until that point was taken into account.

At that time the suspicion was warranted, “Jaffar S” was using the same IP address in comments as people claiming to be ePerks employees, and others posting multiple positive comments, the same IP address range as I previously highlighted being used for ePerks shilling.

76.206.0.160 to 76.206.0.167 – I suggest anyon who has come into contact with ePerks in any way search their databases and email accounts for every IP address in that range – it may be vital evidence.

Ben Behrouzi claimed his company ePerks had nothing to do with the address range, and Vlad posted that information very clearly on his blog.
There was a little confusion though of which Ben might not be aware – though Vlad originally mentioned Texas, the IP range is actually tied to San Francisco and San Jose, where ePerks is located, and that is the area that lots of shill comments originated from as well.

As Trace points out about ePerks

Vlad made no accusations but simply presented anecdotal evidence indicating that ePerks was possibly linked to the false charges

Trace also goes into detail that the papers served on Vlad have no relationship with the previously sent Cease and Desist.

All of this is important, lets take a look at what I didn’t (deliberately) quote from the chilling effects article.

Question: If I write something defamatory, will a retraction help?

Answer: Some jurisdictions have retraction statutes that provide protection from defamation lawsuits if the publisher retracts the allegedly defamatory statement. For example, in California, a plaintiff who fails to demand a retraction of a statement made in a newspaper or radio or television broadcast, or who demands and receives a retraction, is limited to getting “special damages” — the specific monetary losses caused by the libelous speech. While few courts have addressed retraction statutes with regard to online publications, a Georgia court denied punitive damages based on the plaintiff’s failure to request a retraction for something posted on an Internet bulletin board. (See Mathis v. Cannon)

If you get a reasonable retraction request, it may help you to comply. The retraction must be “substantially as conspicuous” as the original alleged defamation.

Vlad very clearly posted the statement on his blog that Ben Behrouzi claimed the attack on Vlad’s character was nothing to do with ePerks.

ePerks – Brabus Ventures are suing Vlad under California law, and my reading of Vlad’s article on IP addresses is that that could be looked on as a very fair statement given equal weight in the public eye, even though (as far as I am aware) no request for a retraction was ever received from ePerks / Brabus Ventures.

In a similar light, ePerks at least on Vlad’s blog might be looked upon as a public figure – they paid him to write about them – one article opened Pandora’s box.

From Chilling effects

A public figure must show “actual malice” — that you published with either knowledge of falsity or in reckless disregard for the truth. This is a difficult standard for a plaintiff to meet.

How Can We Help Vlad?

Spreading the news – this affects all bloggers free speech.

Donations – Greg Swann has set up a donation fund for Vlad

Greg has created some logos / banners / badges along with donation buttons that can be easily syndicated and posted on your blog.

Support Vlad Zablotskyy’s Defense Fund
Defend your own right to free speech!

I might have arranged things and orchestrated things differently, using a dedicated site for the donations, and coordinated the release of information, but nothing can quell the desire to help Vlad in any way people can.

If you have come into contact with Vlad in the blogosphere, or support free speech, or are a parent disgusted at the way false claims can be made against people anonymously, or someone who understands how important a clean reputation is for adoption, you might want to consider a donation.

For bloggers out there, remember to use descriptive anchor text for every link

Blog Posts

I am going to start compiling blog posts of people writing about this horrible situation, especially where they add something significant to the conversation (lawyers, want a link? SEO help?)

Aaron Wall went through this in the past, and has noted that ePerks is going viral (the negative point of view)

Are eperks spammers?, by Lord Matt takes a look at “piles of poo” about ePerks, and a very clear statement of personal opinion from Matt – “I fully believe that Ben Behrouzi of Brabus Ventures (eperks) is both a spammer and an unpleasant human being”- the type of vernacular he normally reserves for the local council and utility companies.

Joe from Sellsius Real Estate is the first lawyer that I am aware to blog about this, and whilst of course this can’t be looked on as legal advice the discussion regarding the long arm of the law and personal jurisdiction in libel cases is extremely interesting.

I never thought I would see the day I would link to Ripoff Report, but someone seems to have listed a complaint about ePerks there. Please don’t add to the report unless your have a genuine complaint about their service.