Masad “Max” Baba, Roni Buff Greenberg, and Other Thieving Swine

 Posted on August 13, 2012 in Uncategorized

[J]ust about anything you can imagine someone being accused of, we've defended it.

–Me.

[J]ust about anything you can imagine someone being accused of, we've defended it.

-Lawyer Masad "Max" Baba, here.

It seems every year penalties for driving while intoxicated in Texas are becoming more severe.

Max Baba. And me.

Misdemeanor cases are often given little attention because there is not as much jail time attached as for felonies.

Me. And Max.

Max Baba stole his criminal-law-related content wholesale from me.

I filed a DMCA takedown notice on him; that page doesn't turn up in Google results, but the takedown didn't get Max Baba's attention. That's a shame, really.

Max isn't the only one appropriating others' content for self-promotion without its creators' permission. Today I got a pingback on this post from the blog of Roni Buff Greenberg, who claims to be a divorce lawyer...somewhere. The pingback went back to this post:

That's right: "if this content is not in your news reader, the page you are viewing infringes the copyright." Greenberg's theft of my writing for her own promotional purposes goes back to May. I'm not the only one whose content Greenberg is using, though. She republishes as her own articles from Legal Insurrection and Avvo's Lawyernomics, among others; her site does not appear to have any original content.

(The manner of my discovery of Roni Greenberg's arrogation of my words gave me an idea: I'm changing my ©Feed notice to include a link to this post. That way, if the infringer has pingbacks turned on I'll get an email every time one of my posts is republished without permission.)

Greenberg probably thinks it's okay-©Feed footer notwithstanding-to use my content to promote her website. Max Baba may have thought so too, before he got a takedown letter.

I got an email this weekend regarding Sparta Townson from Cathleen Lockhart, a lawyer in San Antonio:

I am considering hiring her to direct more traffic to my web-site. I share an office with an attorney that uses her and has had a lot of business from the web. However, I came across your information and was a little concerned. I am not very web smart, and need someone to educate me. I am w/ Lexis-Nexis and they really do not produce much other than hosting. Any information regarding Sparta, I would appreciate. She is not cheap. Or, if you can recommend someone. Thank you for your professional courtesies.

If what has been written about Sparta Townson on the web (including this appellate opinion upholding a temporary injunction preventing her from committing further defamation against a doctor) doesn't dissuade a lawyer from putting her reputation in Townson's hands, it's only because that lawyer wants desperately to believe in the charlatans who promise the fame and fortune to be found on the Internet.

It will be interesting to see whether Lockhart hires Townson, and whether Townson makes as much of Lockhart's reputation as she has of her own. While I write from time to time about web marketing-and have written about Sparta-it's not my job to educate lawyers about the subject. The subject is, in truth, not complicated: Be honest. Don't steal. Cherish your reputation. Be the kind of lawyer now that you want to be in fifteen years.

There is no magic pixie dust, on the web or off it.