The Climatati just keep getting nuttier, and more petulant. But this is batshit crazy approaching LGF batshit crazy.
On March 8, Michael Mann’s lawyers, Cozen O’Connor, sent a legal letter to Minnesotans for Global Warming (of the famous Hide the Decline video) threatening them, ironically, with misappropriating Mann’s likeness and, almost as an afterthought, defaming him “by leaving viewers with the incorrect impression that he falsified data to generate desired results in connection with his research activities”:
We are writing to demand that you cease and desist any and all use of Dr Mann’s likeness, which you have misappropriated in various videos posted on your webpage www.minnesotansforglobalwarming.com, including the video Hide the Decline –Climategate. You are hereby advised that the use of Dr Mann’s likeness, which you clearly misappropriated from PSU’s webpage, www.meteo,psu.edu/~mann/MRG/index.html, is not authorized and infringes on various copyrights. Such use also improperly misappropriates Professor Mann’s likeness for commercial exploitation, given that the video clearly supports Minnesotans for Global Warming’s efforts to sell various products and merchandize. Finally, the referenced video clearly defames Professor Mann by leaving viewers with the incorrect impression that he falsified data to generate desired results in connection with his research activities. This false impression irreparably harms Dr Mann’s personal and professional reputation.
For these reasons, we demand that you immediately cease and desist using Dr Mann’s likeness and that you immediately remove the defamatory video from your webpage (including cashed [sic] versions.) If you persist with this defamatory activity, please be advised that we will be compelled to enforce Dr Mann’s rights, which may include the recovery of damages from you. Please contact me to confirm your intentions or if you wish to discuss this matter further.
This is his mug shot taken off of the Penn State webpage.
Needless to say, youtube yanked it. However, a little bird told me that you can still peep at it (for the time being) here.
Legally, I’ll let Buzzsaw comment if he choses, but leaving that aside, this is just chickenshit. Thin skin is a little too abundant these days. Jeez, Louise; it’s a spoof. It’s satire. Lighten up, Mike. I mean WTF, Mike? You sore about something? Did some kid steal your lab money when you were in Junior High? You wanted some super nifty microscope, and some punk took your paper route money and spent it on beer at that one store in town everybody knows about that will sell beer to 14 year olds? Well, you got the last laugh on him, didn’t you, Mike? You’re a big climate science star, aren’t you, Mike? You’re not going to let some Canadian wankers steal your paper route money this time, are you, Mike? Nosiree, Willard! You’re going to do what you should have done when you were in Junior High, and fight back, aren’t you Mike?
You’re going to go get a lawyer to write a chickenshit letter. You get to be the big, tough, bullshitter this time, ain’t it so, Mike?
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Heh™. It looks like Mann’s got other problems.
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And speaking of WTF, The Profit Al-Gore is back. And this time he has a new klimatjungen group. Sit down before you read anything more. It’s called:
An Inconvenient Youth
Seriously. Is he talking about John Edwards’ kid?
Creepy. Typical, but creepy.