Cyber-Extortionists-Beyond Cyber-Bullies

Those on Twitter may have noticed that there was an effort last week by  cyber- extortionist, David Piercy, to have Word Press take down Blackbutterfly7. They have shown concern (thank you) and this is to inform everyone what took place.

David Piercy filed for a restraining order against another person, and threatened to add me to it unless I became familiar with the Word Press delete feature. Those here who read comments and those on Twitter know that I’ve never engaged that person. Although a long time ago I blacklisted his IP address using the Word Press option, he continues sending vile and racially derogatory comments to this blog.

Several weeks ago, he hacked/trespassed by submitting comments here through the California State University at Fresno’s network. Those comments did not go into moderation but posted directly to the public board. I deleted them, and blacklisted the IP address.  Piercy then went on Twitter claiming that I deleted them because he proved me wrong about Lisa Bloom’s book. No – I deleted them because he trespassed. It’s not my position to ask or wonder why other bloggers allow him to come back and forth after banning him. As for me, once you come to my house throwing filth and calling me demeaning names, you’re not allowed back, PERIOD.

On May 4, 2014, I posted an article about the lawsuit filed by George Zimmerman against NBC. In that article, I expressed that it wasn’t because of the phone call that NBC edited that gave me the impression that Zimmerman killed Trayvon because of Trayvon’s race but rather, comments on social media by those supporting George Zimmerman. It is their comments that confirm that THEY believe George Zimmerman referred to Trayvon Martin as “coons.” It is by their comments that they confirm that George Zimmerman followed and subsequently killed Trayvon Martin because of his race. To support my position, I embedded photos, three of which were posted by David Piercy on his Twitter timeline.

Piercy used that post in effort to achieve what the extortionists have wanted since September 2012 when they first became aware of Blackbutterfly7.  Through threats of defamation, they warned that unless I deleted this blog, they would ruin me.

Last week, Piercy threatened to use copyright infringement complaints to have Word Press delete this blog. He then made his Twitter account protected so others cannot read his tweets.

Word Press’ Terms of Service include:

“Copyright Infringement and DMCA Policy. As Automattic asks others to respect its intellectual property rights, it respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that material located on or linked to by WordPress.com violates your copyright, you are encouraged to notify Automattic in accordance with Automattic’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) Policy. Automattic will respond to all such notices, including as required or appropriate by removing the infringing material or disabling all links to the infringing material. Automattic will terminate a visitor’s access to and use of the Website if, under appropriate circumstances, the visitor is determined to be a repeat infringer of the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of Automattic or others.”

Standard procedure is that when there is a complaint of copyright infringement, the alleged material is removed and the party who posted it is given opportunity to file a counter-notice.  Upon the counter-notice, Word Press may or may not restore the material.  If they do, then the party claiming copyright has the option of going to court for an injunction and suing the alleged offending party.

In other terms and conditions, Word Press indicates the proverbial three strikes and you’re out.  In other words, although there may be pending counter-notices, the blog is removed until that is resolved.  If Word Press finds that the copyright infringement notice was fraudulent, they restore the blog and might SUE THE LIAR for costs associated with restoring the blog and attorney fees.

In effort to have Word Press take Blackbutterfly7 down by making three strikes, Piercy reported one photo as one complaint of copyright infringement, then two other photos in another complaint. That amounted to 2 complaints. Note: All of the photos were on the same page.   In both complaints, he lied, saying the photos were located on his “personal network.” Word Press removed two photos and found that the third constitutes “fair use” and did not remove it.

On May 14, 2014, Piercy submitted a comment, saying “Two more DMCA take downs were filed today. Say goodbye to your racist hate blog piggy.”

He submitted the threatening comment by way of his Cricket phone, using a public Wi-Fi to make sure the comment came for moderation so I would see it. As evidenced by his comment above, his threats were not threats of reporting this blog for copyright infringement but rather, because his goal was to have Word Press suspend this blog.  Piercy is of the opinion that it’s a “racist hate” blog. If that were true, he should report it to Word Press as such rather than abusing copyright infringement procedures.  Piercy does not report this blog to Word Press as a “racist hate” blog because all evidence is to the contrary.

David Piercy uses numerous handles, one of which is “Sovereign Citizen of America” which conveys the ideology that only 14^th Amendment citizens can be “racist”.  I screenshot and embedded his threatening comment.  He then sent a third complaint to Word Press alleging copyright infringement of his gravatar Piercy then followed those complaints by filing a DCMA take down on his own gravatar that is automatically displayed with his comments, one of which I screenshot and placed in the comment section of this blog.

Word Press denied his copyright infringement claim on his gravatar.  It only appears on this blog in comments because he voluntarily submitted those comments.

Piercy then submitted a comment threatening that he was going to continue filing copyright infringement complaints until Word Press “permanently” deletes this blog. I had not filed a counter-notice challenging his copyright infringement claims until he made that threat. With that threat, I took action.

Why I screenshot rather than approve his comment for direct posting

Before I engaged the “My Community” widget, the extortionists alleged that this blog had 4 followers, all sock puppets. From the onset, this blog always showed the number of followers. We were elated when we obtained 6; overjoyed when we obtained 20; and were grateful to every good-faith subscriber.  As other bloggers reblogged, subscribers continued to grow. This is what the Word Press Community is about.

The Loving family.

After engaging the “My Community” widget, the extortionists became enraged. “My Community” works against the extortionists’ allegations that this is a “racist, hate blog.” The gravatars reflect a diversity of people. It demonstrates a community of bloggers with varying interests. For example, I don’t blog photographs, recipes, or poetry, but some of Blackbutterfly7’s subscribers do. I subscribe to their blogs. They don’t blog on court cases, or equality for all, but they like keeping up with the news and share that interest. For instance, before the NBC article, the article on the Loving Case held the record for the most “likes.”

In what appears to have been an effort to have me disengage “My Community,” Annette Kelly, who uses the handle “Nettles18” on Twitter, subscribed to this blog. That placed her gravatar in “My Community.” Ahhh – the extortionists can then say, “See. She knows that Nettles disagrees with her, but refuses to take that feature down because she wants to give the impression that she has lots of non-Black subscribers and is not racist.”

This is not speculation because one of the harassers posted to that effect on his blog, and another harasser sent comments to other bloggers conveying that same idea. According to them, no one follows or participates here voluntarily because they want to.   Rather, according to the cyber-extortionists, I’m a “fraud” and if people would just read the links to what Zimmerman supporters have written about me, they will run from Blackbutterfly7.

Question: Would anyone have a good faith purpose to subscribe to a blog they disagree with only to show their gravatar as a subscriber?   I ask because that person lurked here for at least a year and did not subscribe until after one of the extortionists revealed they planned to use My Community on this blog to nefariously disparage me.

The My Community widget has options. It can show the gravatars of only those who post comments; or only those who click “like” or only those who subscribe; or a combination. I removed the option of showing the gravatars of subscribers, leaving that it shows the gravatars of those who click “like” and/or post comments. I apologize to subscribers who do visit often without leaving a comment or clicking “like” but hope you understand my reason.

To approve Piercy’s comments would have placed his gravatar under “My Community.” His position is contrary to everyone under “My Community.”  It would be the same as including a photo of Adolf Hitler beside the photo of Nelson Mandela. That is why I screenshot and embedded his comment rather than approving it outright for posting.

The effort to infiltrate and get evidence that conforms with their opinionated lies

Someone came to Twitter and asked to be an approved follower to my account. She wanted to know if I allowed others to write for this blog because she wrote a poem in honor of Renisha McBride. Others have written for this blog. Giving privilege to write for this blog does not necessarily give access to the entire administrative side of the blog. Word Press allows for privileges with limitations. Also, it requires a Word Press account. It is not wise to sign up for a Word Press account when motivated to infiltrate to sabotage a blog. Those efforts will not succeed.

The person then attempted to engage me into a racist rant about Black children denied justice; Black parents not really parenting, etc.   I responded that I advocate for justice for all children regardless of race, and sent the link to a video that I produced in December. She had nothing else to tweet to me thereafter.   She is welcomed to comment here and provide her poem.  If I’m correct, she can’t comment here neither be an author because her IP address has already been blacklisted.

Blackbutterfly7 informs and follows cases. Laws do not change because of the color of skin, the age or gender of the victims, nor what they may or may not have done before the event that took their life. Neither do we look into a crystal ball predicting a future of crime had victims not been killed.

Blackbutterfly7 does not limit stories to victims who have been killed.

This post is about an injustice.

 

 

This post is about an injustice.

This post is about an injustice.

This post is about an injustice.

I could go on and on.

There are those who lost their lives. Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis had just as much right to life as Kelly Thomas, Chad Oulson, Ethan Saylor, and “mouthy kids” Calyx and Beau Schenecker. Just because I do not name all victims does not mean that they are not as important – this is to prove a point. We all bleed red. Death does not discriminate.

Nothing can ever replace their lives, and the only option given to us by law is to see the killers stand trial and are found guilty. Trayvon Martin, Kelly Thomas, and Ethan Saylor did not receive justice.   If I write that a hundred times a day, I have the constitutional right of freedom of speech to do so.

It was Adolf Hitler who believed that some humans deserved to be used for experiments, and to be killed, because they were less than the Aryan race or less than perfect in mind and body.  That ideology is repeated in the arguments of the cyber-harassers and cyber-extortioners. They do not attack because they support George Zimmerman or any other individual.  They attack because of Trayvon Martin’s race.  After the verdict in the Zimmerman case, they threatened to continue their defamation attack upon myself and other bloggers unless I dedicated this blog to reporting black and black crime.

In other words, they could not threaten me enough to delete this blog, so wanted to control its content.  Sadly, I did see another blogger who has been under their attack since about April 2012, report on the cases they demanded and even change his position at times.  That didn’t stop the harassers and extortioners from demeaning him in comments on other blogs and on Twitter.

Trying to take Blackbutterfly7 down does not and will not increase followers to the cyber-extortionists’ blogs. It doesn’t give them a greater voice or greater persuasion.  They behave like a bunch of Neo-Nazis who threatened non-Jews if they associated with Jews. We have the right to associate with others regardless of race, gender, age, sexual preference, religion.

A Sincere Thank You To Subscribers

In spite of the cyber-extortionists’ efforts, Blackbutterfly7 now has 274 subscribers, only 2 of which I am able to identify as being bad-faith subscribers. This blog has been shared on Facebook and/or Twitter over 1,000 times. We have posted 381 posts, 7 pages, have over 15,000 comments and over 160,000 views. My sincere thanks to supporters.

For new subscribers and visitors, I’m catching up. Some older subscribers may have noticed that I just visited their blog posts from April. I’ve tried keeping up with recent posts while going back to catch-up on prior posts. The thing with me is that I don’t like making drive-by’s. I like reading what you post.

If I have not visited your blog yet, it’s not because I take you for granted but rather, because of time, which is something else that the cyber-extortionist would like to rob. The same is true for award acceptance. This week, I plan to dedicate time to that; not because I feel a need for recognition but because other bloggers deserve that recognition and nomination; thus, I pay it forward.