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March 29, 2004
"Amway really doesn't want anyone to read this"
By QBlog in
The saga of The Blakey Report continues.
Dave Touretzky is a Research Professor at the esteemed Carnegie Mellon University. However, in addition to being an internationally respected Research Scientist, Touretzky is also a prolific author, a "fierce advocate of the First Amendment," a pilot, a Scientology critic and the author of the Amway/Alticor/Quixtar Sucks! Web site.
It is at Touretzky's A/A/Q Sucks site where we learn the latest developments in the ongoing saga of The Blakey Report. Touretzky posted a copy of the report on the site last month and now he's received a letter (pdf) from Amway lawyer Richard E. Griffin demanding that he remove the report from his servers, citing a 1998 Protective Order. However, Touretzky responded with his own letter (pdf) telling Griffin that the order doesn't apply to him. Touretzky's letter makes two points about the report citing specific language in the Protective Order:
1. Paragraph 16 says that the terms of the order shall remain in force "to the extent that the information in such material is not or does not become known to the public..." Since I obtained my copy of the Blakey Report from a publicly accessible web page, the information clearly has become known to the public. The order therefore no longer applies to this document.I still don't know why this report is such a big deal to Amway. I can't find anything in it that hasn't already been published elsewhere -- either in books, periodicals, on Web sites or message boards. Makes one wonder.2. Paragraph 16 also says that the protective order is "binding upon all persons to whom confidential information is disclosed hereunder." The information was not disclosed to me under the terms of this order. I was never a party to this litigation, nor do I have any relationship of any kind with Amway, or Proctor & Gamble, or their respective attorneys, agents or consultants. The protective order was never intended to apply to totally unrelated parties like me, or the news media, and it is not binding upon me now.
Personally, I agree with Touretzky. I've read and re-read the Protective Order and can't see how The Blakey Report is covered by it. However, as I previously stated, I spoke to all parties involved with the report and became convinced that they believed the report was under a Protective Order. The reason I pulled the report from this site was because if had I known that it was considered "CONFIDENTIAL" by the respective parties I never would have posted it in the first place. The only reason I put the report on my site is because I believed it to be a public court document and because it wasn't clearly marked as "CONFIDENTIAL."
No matter what ultimately happens with The Blakey Report there is one question that remains -- Why Is Amway So Concerned With This Report?
Comments
I love you Don. You just don't even no how much I love you. (in the most non homosexual way possible, of course)
Don't shoot that wad off yet, Dwighty (or is it too late yet?).
That's just in reference to the Mafia quote, and only if I were to say it, not just my referring to saying it. And it don't refer to anything else I might say about Amway, as I base that on reading and experience.
(As a wise man said, a smart man learns from his mistakes, a wise man learns from others' mistakes)
My guess:
Most of what has been said has been said either in scattered documents or unofficially. I'm sure that if I were to say that "Quixtar is run like the Mafia," Dwighty and many others would accuse me of libel -- and they would be right. I don't have the wherewithal to say the above without making it hypothetical, and even the above is shaky.
What The Blakey Report does is state what I put in quotes in a serious, nonironic way -- and with references to serious sources. That's why Amway doesn't want us to read that report -- it's serious and thus believable.
Posted by: Don | March 29, 2004 9:41 PM