1998: Amway and Ken Lowndes
April 25, 1998. Amway Corporation sent a letter to GeoCities, a large web hosting service. One of the pages on that service is a political site for the campaign of Kenneth L. Lowndes for U.S. Congress. Lowndes has some very strong and very personal issues with Amway Corporation. His political campaign is intentionally and unabashedly designed to embarrass Amway in its home district. His language is inflammatory and belligerent, and often offensive in tone. None of this excuses Amway's actions, however.
Amway's letter to GeoCities begins:
April 24, 1998
Via Facsimile and Regular Mail
GeoCities
1918 Main Street
Third Floor
Santa Monica, CA 90405-1030
Re: Postings in Violation of Federal Law, State Law and GeoCities
Policies
Dear Sir or Madam:
My client Amway Corporation has asked me to notify you that the site at http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/9118 and several GeoCities pages within that site contain material that appears to violate federal and state law as well as GeoCitiesí [sic] Page Content Guidelines. . .
Much of the material on Mr. Lowndes' pages is obviously defamatory and libelous. In addition, Mr. Lowndes, a self-described resident of Oklahoma, falsely portrays himself as a candidate for U.S. Congress in Michigan, solicits phony "political contributions" that appear to be part of a fraudulent attempted blackmail scheme, and publishes copyrighted material without permission.
Amway Corporation and its Founders have championed American freedoms for more than 30 years, including freedom of speech. Amway respects Mr. Lowndes' right to differ and to speak his mind. We have no wish to stifle honest disagreement. However, the First Amendment confers no right to defame or libel, or to conduct a fraudulent political campaign, or to attempt blackmail, or to violate copyright law.
Do you suppose the victim of an armed robbery, on hearing his attacker assure him in a pleasant tone of voice, "I believe in your right to enjoy your own property, and I have have no desire to take anything from you that is yours" would believe he wasn't being held up at gunpoint? Would kind words make him forget that he'd been robbed?
I am not going to discuss here the substance of Mr. Lowndes' disagreements with Amway, which can be viewed on his web site; or the laws governing residency and candidacy. Suffice it to say that candidates for national office can legitimately maintain multiple residences and still be legal candidates. For example, when George Bush was President, he maintained residences in Washington, D.C., and Kennebunkport, ME, while his legal Domicile for purposes of the election was in Texas. (Many Amway Diamonds including Yager and Don Storms have adopted this ploy in order to avoid state income taxes. They have established their legal residence in New Hampshire or Florida, which have no state income taxes, while they actually live elsewhere.)
As a result of Amway's letter, Lowndes' site was shut down.
Mr. Lowndes had some correspondence of his own with GeoCities. Among other things, he stated:
I do not take this attempt to CENSOR and MANAGE my campaign by Amway corporation, or it's [sic] attorney, as listed below, lightly. I am forwarding this on to the United States Department of Justice in Washington, DC, as a wrongful attempt to improperly interfere with a legitimate and lawful politcial [sic] Campaign, within the United States of America.
By May 23, the web site was up and running again. GeoCities has so far given Mr. Lowndes no explanation for their actions. However, on June 4, Amway’s attorney sent another letter to GeoCities, and Lowndes’ site was shut down again.
In this letter, the attorney tells GeoCities: "My efforts to engage in rational discourse with this fellow have failed."
I sent an e-mail to Mr. Lowndes asking whether Amway’s attorney had made any attempts to contact him. He responded:
He has made no effort to engage in any conversation with me of any kind or type whatsoever. All I have received from him is this e-mailed letter. Last time, he also sent a letter that arrived several days later, by US Postal Mail.
My understanding of the word "discourse" is actual conversation. He has never made any attempt to engage in such with me. At the very least, if he wished to do so, he could have asked me to call, or to meet with him somewhere, but no such efforts have ever been communicated.
GeoCities’ Terms of Service clearly forbids publication of defamatory material on their site, or of infringing on anyone’s copyrights. A notice at the bottom of their page outlining terms of service states: "Members who are in violation of these policies may be deleted and their pages, or portions of their pages, removed without warning." They also specificy procedures they will follow if defamatory information, copyright infringements, or other material which violates their Terms of Service are used in a GeoCities web site. They do not appear to have followed these procedures in Mr. Lowndes’ case. This gives Amway an inordinate amount of power over somebody else’s freedom of speech, a fact which I find very disturbing.
The First Amendment gives no right to defame or libel. If libel and defamation are legitimate issues, the appropriate recourse is in the courts. While defamation, libel, and slander are illegal acts, truth is always a defense. In other words, if I accuse you of embezzling company funds, I am making defamatory remarks. If I make those remarks in writing, they can be considered libel, and if I make them verbally they can be considered slander. You are free to sue me, and if you can prove I indeed made those remarks, you will probably be awarded damages and I will be punished. However, if I can prove those accusations are true, you have lost your legal basis to accuse me, and I will win. Satire is also exempted, as it must be proven that people will take the remarks seriously in order to prove defamation.
While Lowndes' cause would certainly be better served if he toned down his rhetoric, it is still not up to Amway Corp. to determine what he is or is not allowed to post on his internet site.
It is not Amway's right to judge whether Lowndes, or anyone else, is conducting a fraudulent political campaign. If they believe he is, there are appropriate authorities to complain to. Attempted blackmail? Violation of copyright? Defamation? Again, these are legal issues.
Who appointed Amway the arbiter of what is permitted under the First Amendment of the U.S. Consitution?