Last year, in a so-far successful attempt to shut up one of their most vocal web-based critics, Amway filed suit against Sidney Schwartz, author of the Amway: The Untold Story website. The suit alleges that the Procter & Gamble Co., Schwartz, and the other defendant, Kenneth Lowndes, have conspired against Amway, and committed acts of tortious interference against the company.

Schwartz sin? He helped P&G's lawyers in their information-gathering for a trial, and was paid an extremely modest consulting fee. And his website drew a lot of visitors, some of whom decided either not to join Amway or not to renew their Amway distributorship as a result of information learned on his site.

The case is scheduled for trial in September, 2000.

But that's not good enough for Amway. Schwartz has removed his site from the internet, but a number of other people made mirror copies of his site available at other internet sites. So now Amway is attempting -- before the trial -- to intimidate all these site owners into removing their mirrors of Schwartz' site. I am aware of four such intimidation attempts to date, at least one of which succeeded.

Now Amway is threatening the MLM Survivors Homepage. In an e-mail received on October 15, this author was informed by an attorney at the firm of Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione in Chicago, that

"It has come to our attention that your web site, http://www.mlmsurvivor.com/survivor1.htm
currently contains a mirror of the "Amway: The Untold Story" homepage (http://www.teleport.com/~schwartz/)
operated by Sidney Schwartz. . ."

Now, first of all, let's get one thing straight here. I do not, nor have I ever had a mirror of Schwartz' -- or anyone else's -- website as a part of the MLM Survivors Homepage. I do have some links to other people's mirror sites, which is not the same thing at all.

The e-mail continues to threaten:

"Amway has directed me to put you on notice that your publication of Schwartz's site will subject you to suit following the successful resolution of the Schwartz/P&G lawsuit unless you immediately remove it."

Now, as stated above, I do not have a mirror of Schwartz' site on the MLM Survivors Homepage, so there is nothing for me to remove.

I also take serious umbrage at these intimidation attempts. Amway has not yet been successful in their suit against Schwartz. When and if they are -- which I do not believe is a foregone conclusion -- I will deal with the question of whether the content of my site is inappropriate. But I refuse to be intimidated or pilloried for the content of someone else's site which is outside of my control, or for providing informational links to my site visitors.

Amway's Vendetta Against Its Critics

Amway and Free Speech

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