Adam Miller Says He'll Reopen Bogus Copyright Lawsuit Against Critic, Declares 'War' On 'Communists' Who Mock Faith Healing

from the good-luck-with-that-one,-adam dept

Remember Adam Miller? The so-called, self-professed “faith healer” sued an online critic, Stephanie Guttormson, earlier this year. It was a clear SLAPP lawsuit. Guttormson had taken one of Miller’s laughable promotional videos and added some commentary mocking it. You can see it here:

That video had less than 1,500 views at the time Guttormson was sued. It now has about 65,000. The main claim in the lawsuit was copyright infringement, which is laughable. It’s clearly fair use. The video was used in a non-commercial manner for commentary and criticism. It’s easily fair use, and the lawsuit was clearly designed to silence public comment. The lawsuit also made some ridiculous claims, such as claiming that calling Miller’s nonsense “faith-based bullshit” is “defamatory” because “Mr. Miller’s work does not require a client to hold any faith.” Yeah. Let that one sink in for a moment.

Either way, just days after this started getting attention, it appears that Miller and his lawyer realized that this was going to end badly and let the matter drop. As we noted at the time, he dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice, meaning that he could potentially file it again in the future. We wondered if that opened up an opportunity for Guttmorson to file for a declaratory judgment, but she announced that she was just going to let the matter drop.

Well… Adam Miller is back and he’s insisting that he’s going to reopen the lawsuit against Guttormson. Oh, and not only that, he’s also launched a new site, FaithWarrior.org where he insists that he’s declaring “war” on “anarchy” and a variety of other things, including communism (he insists his critics are all communists), “faith bashing,” “cyberbullying,” “online harassment” and more. I’m almost wondering if he’s signed up Charles Carreon as his lawyer. Carreon similarly declared war on his online critics, after they mocked him for his own SLAPP antics, and he shows up every once in a while to randomly attack those who called him out for his censorship attempts.

Miller’s own personal website has been redone — though parts of it mentioned in the article above appear to have been taken down and replaced with a “coming soon” promotion for a book (which makes it look like Miller thinks all this negative publicity may help him sell books) and the following almost incomprehensible text:

The truth always comes out. Regardless of how many idiotic minds shout in the streets. Faith will prevail and communism shall not rule. And you thought that this was about the healing work… this was just a bait and you have taken it. ” Hook. Line. And Sinker. ” Every one of you will be exposed. 🙂

Got that? He’s also started posting videos to a YouTube account, where he has one specifically for Guttormson:

For a “faith healer” he sure seems pretty angry. It starts out “Hey, Guttormson, ASSHOLE!” The rest of it is also somewhat incomprehensible. After some weird mention of Deepak Chopra (huh?), he says:

So here it is. Just because you have a computer, does not mean that you people are something new. Because 80 years ago, in Russia you same people took over the churches and killed all the priests. That’s who you people are and I’m going to take you all down.

I have no idea what he thinks he means by that, but then there’s his second video where he insists that he’s reopening the copyright case against Guttormson and explains how he’s going to war against his critics.

In it, he declares that athiests are “communists.” He claims “they’re backed by the Communist rule. They’re put as cells around the country in order to disrupt any kind of belief system.” Considering that Miller himself argued that anyone calling his nonsense “faith-based bullshit” was defamatory, you’d think he’d be more careful about making statements of facts about his critics that are laughable.

Then he insists that the lawsuit is back on, though it’s not clear he understands the lawsuit he himself is supposedly filing.

My lawsuit is for copyright infringement only…. I am suing Guttormson because he has made ridiculous statements that are completely untrue about a work he knows nothing about. I am now going to reopen that case. We’re going to drag this individual into Arizona because he is in Maryland, and we’re going to continue the lawsuit. It’s very important that everyone follows this lawsuit and understands what I’m going to do to this individual. Because this has everything to do with faith. You see these people are set in this country and they are completely brainwashed again as communist cells and they want to bring communism to America and make sure that we have no freedom of any kind of rights whatsoever.

So much to parse and so little time. If the lawsuit is for “copyright infringement only” as Miller claims, then why does he say it’s about “ridiculous statements that are completely untrue”? That’s not about copyright at all. That’s only true about defamation. And, again, nothing in the original appeared to be either defamatory or infringing. Also, directly saying that you intend to drag someone across the country, and saying it’s because you believe she made statements you don’t like kind of makes it that much more clear that this is nothing other than a clear SLAPP suit.

Unfortunately, while both Arizona and Maryland have anti-SLAPP laws, they are both super narrowly targeted, only focusing on lawsuits that are about speech regarding government efforts. Yet another reminder of why we need (desperately) a federal anti-SLAPP law.

Also, it seems ridiculous that Miller is claiming that it’s Guttormson and others critics wanting to make sure “we have no freedom of any kind of rights” (whatever that means), when it looks like he is seeking to suppress speech through questionable lawsuits. So, again, he’s claiming (maybe) defamation while defaming people, arguing that those he’s looking to silence are trying to take away all “freedom of rights.” So that’s two out of the three things that he’s claiming others are doing to him that it appears he may actually be trying to do to others. What about the third? Remember how he claimed this is “about copyright infringement only”? Well, the third video that Miller has uploaded to his new YouTube account is a clip from a documentary on the Soviet Union. That seems like it may be copyright infringement, no?

Again, it seems like there’s a decent chance Miller is trying to pull a reverse Streisand Effect here. Deliberately picking on those who mocked him in the past, thinking that it will apparently help promote his new book. And, as he says himself, “this was just bait and you have taken it.” I doubt it’s going to help sell many copies of the book though. Either way, people filing bullshit censorious lawsuits deserve to be called out for doing so.

Filed Under: adam miller, copyright, criticism, defamation, faith healer, free speech, slapp, stephanie guttormson