That appears to be the attitude of Melaleuca CEO, Frank Vandersloot, in response to a post by MLM watcher, Ted Nuyten (left) of http://BusinessForHome.org, about Melaleuca’s vendetta against Canadian distributor Terry Dorfman, who is suing Melaleuca for wrongful termination.

It wasn’t enough to demand removal of the copyrighted image: Melaleuca’s legal department demanded removal of the entire site! (Unfortunately for them, copyright in the site rests with Ted and others, not Melaleuca. But what’s the use of paying lawyers if they don’t push the envelope to the limits for you?)

I created this image (right) and sent it to Ted as a suggested replacement for the offending photo. (Click here to view Google search results for images of Frank Vandersloot, including some that are surely a lot more offensive to him than the one Ted displayed. I have to say that I’m beginning to find photos of Frank offensive, too.)

But overstretching of this kind isn’t new to Vandersloot or Melaleuca. In a pre-litigation action against Idaho-based 43rdStateBlues blog, Melaleuca served a letter of demand on the site’s owners, demanding that they remove an article and identify the author, who used an established pseudonym — common practice in professional journalism. 43rdStateBlues responded by publishing the “take-down” letter, which is also common practice online. If an article is removed under threat of legal action, the letter of demand is published in the public interest. It usually speaks for itself.

Such letters of demand and subpoenas issued under the DMCA are now being questioned and challenged as abuses of constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of information and due process. Nothing new here about laws and orders enacted under the Bush administration, which gave the world such enlightened concepts as Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, Military Tribunals and Extraordinary Rendition (“spook-speak” for torture-by-proxy).

Read more about it here:

http://www.businessforhome.org/2011/01/melaleuca-versus-ted-nuyten-lawsuit/