April 20, 2007

Kentucky Bigfoot Video Lawsuit: The Aftermath

As I noted here yesterday, the Kentucky Bigfoot video, photo stills, posts and comments concerning them are no longer posted at Cryptomundo.

At the request of NewGrowth Capital Corp., a British Columbia corporation and owner of the alleged Kentucky Bigfoot Video, I removed the LINK to the Kentucky Bigfoot video.

Cryptomundo and I have no intention of violating the rights of others.

But the story doesn’t end there. Until now, I have remained tight-lipped regarding the lawsuits. The article from OnPoint Legal News has been reposted on various and sundry Bigfoot message forums, blogs and elsewhere on the internet.

There has been much speculation, as the parties involved have not commented publicly.

Some of this speculation has bordered on the ridiculous.

Case in point. The following was posted on the Bigfoot Discussions message forum by Jim Flowers.

Does it represent anything that has anything to do with anyone outside of the TBRC or BFRO? No.

Does it look like nothing more than free publicity of a sorts on both sides of the issue by generating a talking point that will be picked up by small town newspapers and maybe the UPI or AP ? Yes.

And that’s exactly what I think it is. Nothing less, nothing more than free publicity. Jim Flowers

I can assure Jim, and everyone else, that this was far from free publicity. I can assure you that hiring an intellectual property attorney is not free.

So far, the only publicity has been on the various venues mentioned above.

The only reason to even think that it had anything to do with the TBRC, was the fact that the opposing complaint tried to position the TBRC as some kind of competitive rival of the BFRO.

So, as I previously stated, I have not publicly commented about the case until now. There have been offers.

Bigfoot in the Legal World

Recently, Craig Woolheater was scheduled to be a guest on Squatchdetective Radio. Unfortunately a legal dispute came about, over the posting on Cryptomundo.com, of the “Kentucky Clip”, forcing him to keep his head low, a smartly so.

It is very interesting to see via some legal documents, the workings of how the BFRO’s Matt Moneymaker thinks and a company owened by a BFRO Investigator (Curator?) Adrian Erickson.

The lawsuit, and counterclaim are the classic battle of “Fair Use” vs. Copyright.Steve Kulls

Let’s back up a bit and recap.

You may remember that Matt Moneymaker posted a “bounty” for anyone with my address and Loren Coleman’s address so we could be served with a complaint for copyright infringement.

Moneymaker then boasted that he had found Hulse Stucki, PLLC, a Texas law firm, to sue me for copyright infringement.

Moneymaker threatened me with a litigation that he claimed would never be settled and would result in the loss of my house, my family and my job. He said the judgment would be $250,000 plus punitive damages.

Moneymaker claimed that I would be financially ruined for life. He claimed that the law firm said that I “…had made the biggest mistake of my life.”

Moneymaker also said that the reason he sought my personal destruction was that I was “not a very bright person” and that I “was taking advice from some not very bright people.”

These claims were posted publicly on internet message forums.

To bring you, the Cryptomundo reader up to speed, I offer the following:

I still have my same residence, family and job. No one sued me for copyright infringement, and the Texas court dismissed the complaint and transferred the case to a California court before we could even deny the allegations. I didn’t pay Moneymaker or NewGrowth Capital a nickel.

I dismissed my lawsuit in California against Moneymaker after learning that he didn’t even own the video of the alleged Kentucky Bigfoot. I also learned that he wasn’t speaking for NewGrowth Capital, Adrian Erickson or anyone but himself. It must be lonely.

Erickson said he paid Moneymaker $20,000 for the Kentucky Bigfoot Video.

What did Moneymaker know about that “Bigfoot” video when he sold it?

Does Erickson want his money back?

Are Moneymaker and Erickson embarrassed by this now public transaction?

Here at Cryptomundo, we will look objectively at the evidence and call them as we see them.

Where possible, we will also let you, the cryptozoologically curious reader of Cryptomundo, see for yourselves so that you can be the judge.

If you would like to contribute to the legal defense fund that exposed Moneymaker and his threats, feel free to click the BIG Support Cryptomundo with Paypal button to the right.

All proceeds will be used to protect your freedom to examine and learn from the results of Cryptomundo’s research and critical review of the evidence for the cryptozoological world.

Clarification

All suits have been settled or dismissed. The mention of legal defense fund assistance is for the fees that have already accrued.

Filed under Bigfoot, Bigfoot Report, Cryptozoologists, Cryptozoology, Evidence, Eyewitness Accounts, Media Appearances, Sasquatch, Videos