Should have waited until sunrise
A Sydney
movie maker says that he is millions of dollars out of pocket after he was
defamed on the forums of Australian community website zGeek.com.
Smith
had been contracted by a group of Eastern European investors to produce a
film called Merchant Of Death, a documentary about the life and times of
alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is being held in Thailand
waiting for the outcome of an extradition request from the US.
The deal was
axed after the overseas party that contracted Smith to make the film
allegedly stumbled across the comments on the zGeek forum and decided
Smith's reputation was too damaged. Smith is suing Tony Brisciani, owner of
zGeek, in the Supreme Court for $42.5 million plus an amount for damage to
his reputation. He is also suing the Filmnet message board over similar
defamation claims, while Smith's partner, Jonathan Nolan, is also separately
suing both zGeek and Filmnet.
Bout was the inspiration behind Nicolas
Cage's character in the 2005 film Lord of War. He stands accused of
supplying weapons to several nations, rebel groups, the Taliban in
Afghanistan and al-Qaeda. The film Smith was making was basically saying
that Bout was arrested on trumped up charges.
Smith was targeted by
trolls when he entered into a discussion on the zGeek site about the book
The Third Truth, which claims the destruction of the World Trade Centre
towers in New York was the result of nuclear weapons installed by Israeli
intelligence service Mossad. The forum went for him claiming he was connected
with a book publisher.
One user said Smith's company, Myrmidon Enterprises,
and his film, Merchant Of Death, did not exist and that Smith was a "nutcase
scam artist" who has made "false job postings".
Smith requested an
apology and asked that the defamatory material be removed. Brisciani claimed
that he was not liable because he was only asked to remove the material once
legal action had commenced. He did remove the posts when asked.