Highly public position allegedly caused confusion with readers who attributed his personal views to be Google’s opinions.
William Patry opted for the nuclear option with his blog, closing it down and annihilating his archive of posts about copyright law. However, the archive may return, even though Patry noted the difficulty in doing so.
The Patry Copyright Blog held forth on his views on the murky depths of copyright laws. He said in his closing post he started the blog because he “felt there was no blog devoted to the geekery of copyright; meaning a blog where people who loved copyright could come and discuss copyright issues in a non-partisan way.”
Patry gave two reasons for folding the blogging tent: he blamed readers for not accepting his blog as a personal blog, and he considered the current state of copyright law “too depressing.”
“It is profoundly depressing, after 26 years full-time in a field I love, to be a constant voice of dissent,” he wrote.
He was certainly in a high-profile position, one that he tried to balance by not commenting on Google’s cases or on companies with whom Google may have been in dispute, Patry said. But shifting to that position exposed him to “crazies,” ones who gave him a lot of grief.
One might think turning off comments would mitigate that, but Patry decided to eliminate a lot of well-respected work all at once. He’s certainly entitled to do what he likes with his property, but wiping out a repository of quality writing because of a few online nutjobs smacks of excessively thin skin.
Groklaw took the extra step of suggesting the harassment Patry endured came from those who opposed his views on copyright. “Part of the process is to try to damage your reputation; the rest is to discourage you to a degree that you give up,” Pamela Jones said.
