The latest developments concerning The High Road forum

I think it’s time those interested in the subject were told of the latest developments concerning The High Road (THR) firearms forum. I’ve posted about events there on September 25th, September 28th, October 3rd and October 17th last year. If this subject is new to you, please see those posts (and in that order) to get background information.

For a start, the illegal misappropriation of the domain name by Derek Zeanah has continued, despite a lawsuit filed by Oleg Volk, the rightful owner. That lawsuit is now in its preliminary phase, and will probably come to trial later this year. (The courts, like the mills of God, grind slowly, it seems.) Indeed, Mr. Zeanah seems intent on compounding his offense. He applied on December 8th, 2008, to the United States Patent and Trademark Office to register the name ‘The High Road’ as a trade mark (application serial number 77628267). He did so in his own name, acting as an individual, rather than in the name of any of the corporate entities he’s established so far. Needless to say, this application will be contested, and I’m certain it will never be approved. Mr. Zeanah has no exclusive rights whatsoever to that name, despite any delusions he may have to the contrary: and there’s abundant evidence to prove that.

What’s of great interest to me is the declaration that Mr. Zeanah signed in his application. It reads as follows:

The undersigned, being hereby warned that willful false statements and the like so made are punishable by fine or imprisonment, or both, under 18 U.S.C. Section 1001, and that such willful false statements, and the like, may jeopardize the validity of this application or any resulting registration, declares that he/she is properly authorized to execute this application on behalf of the applicant; he/she believes the applicant to be the owner of the trademark/service mark sought to be registered, or, if the application is being filed under 15 U.S.C. Section 1051(b), he/she believes applicant to be entitled to use such mark in commerce; to the best of his/her knowledge and belief no other person, firm, corporation, or association has the right to use the mark in commerce, either in the identical form thereof or in such near resemblance thereto as to be likely, when used on or in connection with the goods/services of such other person, to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive; and that all statements made of his/her own knowledge are true; and that all statements made on information and belief are believed to be true.

In the light of the facts discussed in previous posts, as linked above, Mr. Zeanah’s signature of that declaration is most interesting. It will, of course, be for a judge and jury to make findings of fact concerning truth or falsity, honesty or perjury.

Mr. Zeanah has also been active in the management of his corporate entities. He filed to create a ‘for profit’ corporation named ‘thehighroad.org Corporation’ on August 8th, 2008 (Georgia Secretary of State control number 08062930), but this was listed as ‘Flawed/Deficient’ in Georgia’s records as of January 5th, 2009. On September 8th, 2008, he filed to create a ‘for profit’ corporation called ‘Firearms Forum Incorporated’ (Georgia Secretary of State control number 08069528), which is currently listed as ‘Active/Compliance’. Mr. Zeanah is listed as CEO, CFO and Secretary of this company, which is registered at his home address. He has now transferred the registration of ‘thehighroad.org’ domain name (GoDaddy domain ID D93282167-LROR) to ‘Firearms Forum Incorporated’, listing himself under ‘Registrant Name’ and the company under ‘Registrant Organization’.

I’ve been barred from THR’s staff forum since October, as have all those moderators who openly objected to Mr. Zeanah’s theft of the domain name. Nevertheless, I still have my sources of information as to what’s going on there – and it’s very interesting. It appears that some other moderators of The High Road are trying to implement a different plan. On December 11th, 2008, a non-profit corporation was registered in Tennessee under the name of ‘The High Road Foundation, Inc.’ (Tennessee Secretary of State I.D. number 0592003). It seems that certain moderators want to form a sort of ‘supervisory’ or ‘governing’ council for THR, to run it in what they see as its best interests. I’m informed that Mr. Zeanah is allegedly willing to allow them to exercise day-to-day control over the forum, in return for a guarantee that he will have the perpetual right to host THR and charge for his services.

It appears that the moderators involved in this new approach intend to offer a fee-based voluntary membership scheme, whereby THR members can contribute at different levels and, in return, will receive differing levels of ‘privileges’ on the site. Free, non-fee-paying membership will apparently remain available. A proportion of the monies thus collected will go to Mr. Zeanah to pay for hosting THR, although the actual cost of doing so, or the amount to be paid, are not specified. The balance will be used in unspecified ways to cover expenses. This puzzles me, as there never were any expenses other than servers and hosting in all my years as a moderator on THR. One does wonder what these ‘expenses’ may entail.

I understand that there have also been discussions concerning the possibility of hosting advertisements on THR. This would, of course, produce a revenue stream, the precise amount of which is as yet unknown, but which may come to five or even six figures annually. The potential disposition or distribution of that revenue stream may offer further insight into the reasons for the misappropriation of the domain name in the first place, and for the continued refusal to even consider returning it to its rightful owner.

What’s surprised – and gravely disappointed – me is the level of vitriol expressed by certain moderators against Oleg Volk and others. They appear to regard Mr. Volk’s going public about the theft of his property (the domain name) as some sort of betrayal, having wanted instead to resolve the matter by ‘negotiation’ or ‘mediation’. This is, of course, laughable. When a criminal act (theft) is involved, what’s to negotiate or mediate? The stolen property must be returned, and the situation resolved to the status quo ante the crime. Nothing else is reasonable or acceptable. Criminal and civil law tend to agree very strongly with that position.

They also appear outraged that Mr. Volk has established TheHighRoad.us as a separate and independent forum, having succeeded in obtaining copies of the THR database. Many honest members of THR, who object to criminal conduct on principle, have now moved to the new forum. Mr. Volk intends to merge the two into a single unit once his court case has been won, and he has regained control of the domain name and original database. However, some moderators have described his action as ‘a stab in the back’ (and in other, less polite terms). Indeed, some of their language has been so intemperate and ill-advised that they may one day wish their comments had never been made.

I’m not highly regarded by some moderators either, as you may imagine. The fact that I’m publishing the truth about what’s going on is extremely distasteful to certain individuals. Some of them have been discussing ways and means to either threaten me into silence, or ‘dig up dirt’ on me in an attempt to portray me as a less than honest or honorable participant in the debate. Regrettably for those involved, there’s no ammunition for them to find. I have no material stake in THR whatsoever, or in this dispute, financial or otherwise, and don’t expect to have any in future. The only things that matter to me, as one of THR’s founding moderators, are that this once-great firearms forum should be restored to its lawful, rightful owner; that the theft of its domain name should be nullified, and the guilty punished; and that the right be upheld. However, such sentiments are clearly less than acceptable to some of those involved.

It’s illegal to traffic in stolen property. That the THR domain name has been stolen appears to be beyond reasonable doubt. To maintain otherwise is to call both Mr. Rich Lucibella, the original owner of the domain name, and Mr. Oleg Volk, liars, solely on the basis of Mr. Zeanah’s assertions, and in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary in Staff Forum threads over many years. Knowing all three persons to the extent that I do, there’s no doubt whatsoever in my mind about who’s telling the truth: and I daresay others with similar (or better) knowledge will be of like mind. I believe Mr. Volk’s lawsuit will succeed in restoring the domain name to him in due course, because I can’t see how any court of law in the world will find otherwise on the basis of the available evidence.

On this basis, both Mr. Zeanah’s attempts to form a new corporate entity and trade-mark the identity of The High Road, and some other moderators’ attempts to form a non-profit corporation to manage it, appear doomed to failure. Indeed, such attempts may possibly be both criminally and civilly actionable as well, since they appear to be attempting to build upon the foundation of (i.e. ‘traffic in’) the stolen domain name to pursue their activities. I presume that any further attempts by either of these parties to put their plans into action will elicit a prompt application for a court injunction blocking them.

It appears to me that Mr. Zeanah and others involved may think that they can somehow differentiate the forum and its members from the domain name, treating them as separate entities. This is, of course, ludicrous. The domain name was – and remains – the foundation for all entities built upon it. To remove those entities and transfer them to another corporate structure, or even to another domain name in due course, is impossible if the legal entity on which they were built – the domain name – has been misappropriated in the first place. The latter’s restoration to its rightful owner must inevitably include the restoration of all entities originally associated with it. Anything less would be a travesty of justice, and I’m sure the courts won’t permit or tolerate it.

Let me illustrate this by means of an analogy. Let’s say John owns a house situated at 1 Smith Road. Bill comes along, decides he wants it, and finagles a way to put the title deeds to 1 Smith Road into his name, making the residence his property in the eyes of the law. He then evicts John, who sues to recover the title to his property. However, while his lawsuit is in progress, Bill removes the house from the property and has it taken to another piece of land that he owns, some distance away. When John wins the lawsuit, Bill hands over the title deeds to the property at 1 Smith Road, and insists that he’s done all that’s required of him. In reality, of course, he hasn’t. The title to the land has been returned, but what was on the land has been stolen as well. John has every right to pursue further action to recover his house, plus the cost of getting it back there, plus all related expenses, plus damages. For Bill to expect anything else would be stupid beyond belief.

Extending this analogy, Bill might try to argue that he donated or otherwise provided many of the materials used to build the house, or helped in its construction, and that he was therefore entitled to a share in its ownership and/or value. If so, his legitimate, legal recourse would have been to provide a fair, detailed and independently verifiable accounting of what he supplied and/or did. That might have established grounds for shared ownership, and/or financial recompense, and/or restitution. However, he didn’t bother with the legalities – he simply stole the land and the house. This served only to make him a de facto criminal, and effectively destroyed his credibility. To present such an accounting after the crime, and try to insinuate that it somehow justified what he’d done, would be pointless, given the illegality of his actions. His trustworthiness and his good name (and those of all who supported, or sought to build upon, or even tolerated, his criminal actions) have been utterly and forever discredited.

I remain astonished that Mr. Zeanah is still acting as if he believes he can get away with this. I’m even more astonished at the actions, attitude and language of some other moderators, all of whom I thought I knew as honorable, honest and upright persons. How they can associate themselves with plans to make use of and/or profit from a blatantly stolen asset, and try to find reasons to argue that it’s not so, or that their actions are somehow justifiable despite that reality, is completely beyond me.

There are other aspects of their discussions and tactics that I find even more distasteful, but these will doubtless come out in future proceedings. One that bears closer examination is to insinuate that THR wasn’t Oleg Volk’s idea in the beginning, but came from someone else. Fortunately, I’m in a position to bear first-hand witness to the truth of this matter.

When Rich Lucibella announced that The Firing Line forum (TFL) was to close, I’m sure many people (including myself) thought of starting a new forum to take its place. I posted a thread there on December 18th, 2002, titled ‘Can We Save TFL Together?‘ In it, I suggested that interested parties should form a new forum to continue TFL’s mission. I was immediately contacted by Oleg (his reply is the third entry in that thread). He informed me that he and Rich had already discussed this, and he was moving ahead with that idea – and would I like to join him as one of the first moderators? Rich subsequently confirmed that this was Oleg’s initiative, and he made the THR domain name available to him. So, while many of us may have had similar ideas, the one that took root and grew was Oleg’s. Any suggestion that Oleg wasn’t the ‘founding father’ of THR is completely false, and I can – and will – testify to that if necessary. I know others who can do the same.

Perhaps the actions and attitudes of Mr. Zeanah and his supporters were best summed up long ago by the ancient Romans:

I can only repeat my call for all members of The High Road who value honesty, and honorable and upright conduct, to shun the forum at the old domain name, www.thehighroad.org, until this matter is resolved. I invite them to join others of like mind at the new forum, hosted at www.thehighroad.us, where the legitimacy of the forum, and the honesty of its owner, administrators and moderators, are not in doubt.

Peter