Recently, Dennis Hackethal wrote five blog posts and some tweets disparaging me. Last year, his lawyers threatened me with a defamation lawsuit. They wanted me to take down everything I ever said about Hackethal, most of which is old (2018-2020). He'd never before said he wanted anything removed. They refused my offer to discuss or negotiate, ignored my offer to make corrections if they pointed out any mistakes in specific statements, and sent an all-or-nothing ultimatum with 20 demands (many unreasonable). I declined.
I wrote a long letter to Hackethal's lawyers which explained my position, reiterated my offer to negotiate, and pointed out some of their errors. I received no response. Then Hackethal started publicly attacking me eight months later (and attacking multiple other people who've had online discussions with me). Although the issues are mostly around five years old, the attacks contain a lot of new information that he didn't say before. He says that he won't discuss or negotiate and the only way he'll stop attacking me is if I unilaterally give in to all of his demands. He's rejected diplomacy, and barely communicated, for five years now.
It's legal to make true statements (or to express opinions). I've given reasoning and evidence for my statements. I've offered to correct errors but Hackethal hasn't told me errors with specific statements. Hackethal is also accusing me of saying things that I don't think I said. I'm willing to make clarifications but he hasn't asked for any. He wants me to take down statements without him ever having to give specific reasons that they're false. He's attacking my free speech rights.
Hackethal's Complaints
One of Hackethal's main complaints is that, in 2020, I wrote a negative review of his book, which I said plagiarized me. I emailed him about my concerns before publishing them. Regarding an example I thought was plagiarism, he replied: "So yes, it looks like you did tell me that, in which case the right thing to do is to credit you." He asked me to send him the rest of my issues with his book as one long email, so I sent many issues at once (5,000 words), but he said he didn't have time to read my email. Then he stopped answering my emails and didn't communicate with me again for four years. He offered no objection or criticism about my claims, he didn't ask me not to post them, he didn't say he thought they were false or illegal, and he didn't want to discuss them, so I published them. I thought he believed in free speech and critical discussion. I didn't know that he wanted my post taken down until I received a letter from his lawyers four years later. I still haven't received specific information pointing out a false statement in my post.
Hackethal's lengthy blog posts (over 36,000 words, around 100 pages) bring up many other complaints of varying relevance. Some were already covered in my main letter to his lawyers, which he hasn't answered. Some have little to do with his legal rights. For example, he accuses me of making mistakes with 15 quotations (but he's wrong 15 times).
I addressed more of Hackethal's complaints here. I'm not trying to respond to everything he said (I only skimmed most of it). I'm focusing on issues I think are important.
20 Demands
In my letters to Hackethal's lawyers, I offered to negotiate and separately offered to correct errors in my posts without asking for anything in return. I also said I was open to rewording my claims to be gentler. They said they wouldn't discuss it, never tried to tell me errors in specific statements, and gave me an ultimatum: accept their list of 20 demands (with no option to change any of them or add any demands of my own) or they might sue me. I declined.
Some of the 20 terms are unreasonable. For example, they demand that I remove "each and every published statement that Temple has made about Hackethal" including "both public and private publication". That includes removing statements which aren't even alleged to be defamatory.
Another term demands that I publish a retraction, exactly as they wrote it, while presenting it as my own words and keeping the terms confidential. Putting a post on my blog that I didn't write, and pretending I did write it, would be plagiarism. Ironically, Dennis Hackethal demanded that I plagiarize the words "[...] Dennis is not a plagiarist [...]". I don't think he understands what plagiarism is.
Another term said the terms would be treated as though I had equal 50% participation in writing them. But they didn't let me participate in writing the terms.
Another term demanded that I waive my legal rights regarding anything Hackethal's done in the past, including any illegal actions he's done that I don't know about.
Here's how Hackethal presents this in his primary blog post:
Next, my lawyers had to send Temple a cease and desist for defamation (then he suddenly wanted mediation). When they offered him a mutual non-disparagement agreement, he declined.
This is misleading. He doesn't say that I declined an all-or-nothing list of 20 demands. He doesn't say that I offered to negotiate but they declined. It's factually false that I "wanted mediation". Considering that Hackethal hadn’t tried asking me for any removals, I disagree that his lawyers "had to" send me a letter. And he doesn't say that the agreement contained no terms to prevent plagiarism. Criticizing plagiarism is disparagement but plagiarizing me isn't disparagement. Plagiarism is generally legal, so my main defensive option is to write about it, but the agreement would silence me while allowing Hackethal to plagiarize me. So I advise against trusting what Hackethal says about me and these events.
Defamation
Hackethal threatened to sue me for defamation. To win that lawsuit, he'd have to show multiple things including that my statements are false, are damaging, and aren't matters of opinion.
Are my statements false? When I first published my statements about plagiarism, I included details, quotes, evidence and arguments. Hackethal hasn't tried to tell me refutations of my statements. He seems to think I should withdraw my statements without ever seeing evidence or arguments showing that they're false. Laws have been written to protect the free speech of critics. Law professor David Hudson's article Defamation and the First Amendment says "Generally, the plaintiff [which would be Hackethal] bears the burden of proof of establishing falsity."
Are some of my statements about matters of opinion? You can imagine a hypothetical scenario where potential plagiarism is in a borderline gray area where reasonable people could disagree about whether it is or isn't plagiarism. For reasonably debatable issues and open controversies where there's no definitively correct answer, people are free to form their own opinions about the correct conclusion, since their opinion can't be proven false. For Hackethal to win in court, Hudson says "The statements in question must be objectively verifiable as false statements of fact. This means the statements must be provable as false."
Rejecting Diplomacy
Hackethal's blog says he will keep taking actions against me until I unilaterally agree to his 20 demands. He says he won't talk with me or negotiate.
He also offered to give other people money to pursue legal complaints against me. If anyone has a complaint, please email me instead of escalating to lawyers before attempting conflict resolution.
Hackethal issued a no contact request to me and anyone associated with me. He says "Don’t cause third parties to talk to me." which suggests that no one may attempt diplomacy with anyone he knows, and suggests none of us may write blog posts related to this conflict because those could lead to someone saying something to him. His broad wording also implies that I'm unwelcome to contact his lawyers, who ghosted me anyway.
Was Hackethal ever willing to have a diplomatic discussion? In 2024, he emailed me saying he wanted conflict resolution. I sent him six emails in that conversation but couldn't get him to summarize his side of the story. He refused to respond to my blog posts from 2020 explaining my side of the story. He told me for the first time that he was unhappy with my book review but I couldn't get useful details. He said that "irrespective of what has happened" he hoped "we can move on, get the acrimony behind us" – so I was surprised when, a month later, his lawyers contacted me. It turns out he was already researching lawsuits a month before that conversation, so I'm skeptical that the conversation was in good faith.
Error Correction
I've always been willing to discuss complaints and correct errors on my websites. People can just email me. Hackethal hired lawyers instead of telling me what he wanted, and now he's trying to harm my reputation rather than discuss our conflict.
It seems unfair for him to try to pressure me into taking down claims while he's refusing to discuss whether they're true. If my claims are true (or are reasonable opinions), then I should be allowed to say them. If someone did plagiarize me, then I should be able to explain my side of the story. If I think someone is a jerk to me, I should be able to complain (using truths and reasonable opinions).
I'm also reluctant to edit old posts without Hackethal's consent because I don't know what wordings he'd prefer and he's shown no interest in wording changes (instead demanding full removal). He's actually complained about a "softer", less opinionated wording.
Hackethal doesn't have an error correction policy like mine, stopped responding to me when I tried to tell him errors in 2020, and now has told me not to contact him (which includes not reporting errors to him). This post pointed out a few of his errors, and I'd be willing to point out more errors if he were open to discussion and error correction. I believe his posts are defamatory and I request they be taken down (or thoroughly corrected).
Call For Help
If anyone wants to help me deal with Hackethal, contribute to my legal defense fund, or provide relevant information, please email me at [email protected]
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