Ergun Caner was angry.

There he was, a successful man of God: a published author, Dean and President of the Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and Graduate School, a sought-after inspirational speaker. Suddenly, crass miscreants laid him low. Critics pointed out he told puzzlingly inconsistent stories about his background. Though public records and his own book suggested that he emigrated from Sweden to Ohio at the age of four, in his inspirational speeches he claimed he had been raised in Turkey, learned of America only through television, and trained as an Islamic jihadist.

Perhaps the story of a foreign jihadist converting to Christianity was more inspiring than the story of an Ohioan converting.

Liberty University conducted an investigation and removed him. But though he found new employment, Egun Caner did not view the matter as resolved. He hungered.

In 2013, he filed a federal complaint in Texas against Jason Smathers and Jonathan Autry, men who posted to YouTube two videos of Caner's . . . shall we say imaginative public presentations. Caner claimed violation of a purported copyright in the videos. He sought damages, attorney fees, and an injunction against posting of the videos.

In other words, Caner sued someone for posting proof that he had been telling inconsistent stories about his background — that he is a fabulist.

Jonathan Autry agreed to take the videos down — no doubt because of the ridiculous expense of a lawsuit. That wasn't good enough for Caner, who continued to demand more concessions. That, as it turned out, was a very poor decision. Autry and Smathers, very ably represented pro bono by Josh Autry and Kel McClanahan, filed a strong motion to dismiss, arguing that (1) Caner could not demonstrate that he had a copyright in the videos, and (2) the posting of them to prove Caner's mendacity was classic fair use.

Caner and his attorney did not take this motion very seriously, I think. I would call their opposition brief nasty, brutish, and short, but it's not substantive enough to be nasty or brutish. It's a feeble two-page gesture that ignores most of the motion's arguments.

United States District Judge Norman K. Moon was unimpressed. He granted the motion and dismissed Caner's case in an extremely thorough (and no doubt very embarrassing to Caner) written opinion.1 First the court noted that Caner had conceded that he never filed a copyright application for one of the videos; that's a prerequisite to maintaining a copyright suit. Second, the judge agreed that the posting of the video was classic fair use, because it was a critical non-commercial use designed to impact discussion of Caner's dishonesty. The court made short work of Caner's thoroughly ridiculous arguments: that the defendants were not protected by fair use because it was the work of a "vindictive" "cyber terrorist", that the defendants were "not qualified" to offer criticism of Caner, and that fair use only protects "appropriate criticism from people that are qualified to render those opinions i[n] the market place and exchange of ideas in academia and elsewhere.” This is too much whaarbaargl.

But we haven't even gotten to the good part yet.

Autry, as the prevailing party in a copyright litigation, filed for attorney fees. Last week, in a devastating opinion, Judge Moon granted $34,262.50 in attorney’s fees and $127.09 in costs to Autry's attorneys, agreeing that Caner's litigation conduct warranted it. The review of Caner's conduct is brutal. The court ruled that Caner (1) pursued the case after Autry took the videos down, (2) demanded, as a condition of settlement, that Autry's young children sign a non-disparagement agreement, (3) delayed the case, (4) failed to seek discovery, opposed the motion to dismiss on the grounds that he needed to take discovery, but could not articulate what discovery he needed, (5) contradicted himself, (6) made unreasonable legal arguments without any support (like the "you must be qualified to criticize" argument), and most importantly (7) filed the case to silence criticism:

In this case, Plaintiff filed a copyright infringement suit to stifle criticism, not to protect any legitimate interest in his work. He and his counsel prolonged this litigation, costing Defendant and his attorney valuable time and money. Defendant’s counsel has set aside other

profitable matters to attend to this meritless litigation, and deserves compensation for doing so. Likewise, Plaintiff should be deterred from seeking to use the Copyright Act to stifle criticism in

the future.

A-W-E-S-O-M-E, that spells Judge Moon.

Caner has failed utterly, has been exposed for his censoriousness, and has had his dishonestly much more thoroughly documented and widely publicized than it would have been if he had not been such a vindictive jackass.

This should happen more often. As I suggested yesterday, intellectual property claims are increasingly abused to silence criticism. Judges ought to avoid their normal squeamishness about attorney fee awards and hammer the plaintiffs in meritless and censorious cases.

Please join me in congratulating the victorious pro bono team.

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