Status of Open Source Security Inc. / Bradley Spengler v. Bruce Perens lawsuit

Last year, Open Source Security and its CEO, Bradley Spengler, brought suit against me for defamation and related torts regarding this blog post and this Slashdot discussion. After the lower court ruled against themI asked for my defense costs and was awarded about $260K for them by the court. The plaintiffs brought two appeals, one on the merits of the lower court’s ruling and one on the fees charged to them for my defense. In order to bring these appeals without first paying for my defense, the plaintiffs purchased a supersedeas bond for $300,000, for the cost awarded to me plus possible interest, which will be paid to my attorneys if I win the appeals. The Electronic Frontier Foundation took on the merits appeal, pro-bono (for free, for the public good), with the pro-bono assistance of my attorneys at O’Melveny who handled the lower court case. EFF has now filed an answering brief and supplemental excerpts of the record in the merits appeal. Please join EFF and support them. You can follow the court proceedings here. I will continue to publish what’s happened in the court, but can’t comment upon the case at this time.