On August 9th, 2005, I replied to a post that Richard Scoville, of www.freespeechstore.com, made about a fellow Canadian, Marc Wigle, where Scoville had made some very serious and very unfounded allegations:

This was the beginning of Richard Scoville's attacks not only on me, but on absolutely anyone he could associate with me.

To date, his attacks have included unsolicited commercial email (i.e. spam) to people, attempting to lure them to his website where they can read a sentence or two of his false allegations, then pay US$4.00 to read the rest. This is known as a "pay-for-libel" website.

He has, so far, communicated with and made complaints to the following people and organizations - all for the simple reason that I asked him for proof about his allegations against another one of his targets:

• Each and every member of the town council of the village in which I live
• The fire chief (I am a firefighter in my village)
• The deputy fire chief
• The editor of the Cobden Sun
• The editor of the Pembroke Observer
• The editor of the Ottawa Citizen
• CBC radio and television
• The Ontario Provincial Police
• The Royal Canadian Mounted Police
• My web hosting provider
• My domain registrar
• My Internet Service provider
• Local businesses in the village in which I live
• My clients

So far, there have only been three of the above listed entities who have "called me on the carpet" about the Scoville allegations; The fire department, solely because an allegation was made about my professionalism on fire scenes, and two others, because they didn't know any better.
In all three cases, I have given the *identical* response:

"Go to Google and type in, without any spaces, the word "freespeechstore" and look at the results. You can then call me back and we will discuss just how serious you think these allegations are."

Two out of the three came back and apologized. The fire chief's response was "How the hell is someone in San Antonio, TEXAS, supposed to know if a firefighter in rural Ontario is professional on a fire scene or not ???"

What this comes down to is that this Richard Scoville person is disturbed. He has been asked many, many times to cease and desist his libellous behaviour or, failing to cease, to prove it in a court of law. Of course, he has attempted this before, where he not only lost badly, but was forced to pay over eight hundred thousand dollars in costs to the Wall Street Journal, when he attempted to sue them for libel.

He is basically what they call "judgement-proof" - in other words, he doesn't have any assets left to sue for, so he knows he's not worried about being held to task. Of course, it won't stop someone with the convictions and the money to sue for a restraining order, but I feel that is only a matter of time.

The one and only time he attempted to put his money where his mouth was was when he attempted to sue the AHBL when they blacklisted him as a spammer. (You can see all the legal documents from this case here). He represented himself and lost, with the case being thrown out, with predjudice, for lack of jurisdiction. This, of course, was in spite of dozens of people telling him over the internet ahead of time that the court lacked jurisdiction. Mr Scoville, of course, ignored them: It is my opinion that his sole purpose was that of vexatious litigation: He wanted his victim to spend as much money as possible defending against a frivolous lawsuit. In that vein, he succeeded in forcing the AHBL to spend US $11,000 on the suit.

If you see a "complaint" or an "investigation" from Richard Scoville or the freespeechstore, keep in mind what my mother always said:

Consider the source

Update: January 2008: Scoville / FreeSpeechStore was kicked off the 'net a few months ago, his hosting provider, xo.com, who was finally feeling a little heat from hosting such a despicable person. It took six months, but Scoville finally found someone else to host his site. Not in North America, of course (Ironically, where "Free Speech" is supposed to be most treasured) - But in Malaysia. Kind of ironic, isn't it ? The only place he can host his pay-for-libel site is in the third world.

If you find yourself the victim of a Richard Scoville / FreeSpeechStore attack, you might find this useful. ( "The step-by-step guide for those being attacked by FreeSpeechStore or Richard Scoville" )

Update: February 2008: FreeSpeechStore is down again - According to a few sources, not only was his site cancelled for voluminous abuse, but PayPal took issue with his credit card practices. (Frankly, if you paid FreeSpeechStore for any of his libel, you deserve whatever you get, but if you did, make sure to check your CC statement for discrepancies.)