GORILLA PRODUCTIONS VS. GIRL TROUBLE UPDATE >>>
As we have been since the very beginning, the Weekly Volcano is continuing to follow the ongoing court battle between Ohio-based Gorilla Productions and local rock heroes Girl Trouble. If you've been following along with us, you already know Girl Trouble, and most specifically drummer Bon Von Wheelie, has been sued for damages in excess of $25,000 because of a Web site she owns and maintains, neverpaytoplay.com.
It's a very interesting case, even if you're not a longtime fan of Tacoma's most quintessential band of the last 25 years. At its base, it revolves around what a person can post on the Internet, what an aging garage band from Tacoma can say about a production company like Gorilla, and what's free speech.
Turns out, if Gorilla's assessment of the law is correct, you may not be able to say as much as you think - at least if its critical of the way the company does business.
For background information, check out the Volcano's original story on the lawsuit here. For links to all of our coverage, scroll to the bottom of this post.
After catching up with Girl Trouble's lawyer, Wade Neal of Seaweed fame, late last week, today I caught up with Von Wheelie to get her take on the lawsuit - which has been extremely stressful for her, not to mention financially costly. However, in the end it has only seemed to strengthen her resolve about what things in life are worth fighting for.
For Von Wheelie, and all of Girl Trouble, opinions and the freedom to let them be known are two of those things.
"This experience has been tough but we are determined not to back down. Since (neverpaytoplay.com) is my Web site, I'm trying to take most of the responsibility on the lawsuit. But the guys are backing me up every step of the way," says Von Wheelie. "I didn't realize how many friends we really have! Having the support of so many really helps in this process, believe me.
"Right now the other side is throwing even more charges at us, trying to add a second Plaintiff, costing us more. Lawsuits are not over in a small amount of time. They take months, years. Our attorney, Wade, has been fantastic. When I personally want to freak out about some aspect of this lawsuit, he's been calm, clear and specific. I can always depend on him to sort everything out - especially all that lawyer talk - in a rational way. I don't know what we would have done without him!"
Von Wheelie continues:
"As far as the outcome, I never count my chickens before they're hatched. We are confident that we have answered all the charges and that Wade has submitted some very professional and thorough replies," she says. " Now we'll be in wait and cross our fingers mode.
"Personally, I've been thinking more about freedom of speech than anything. We might be arguing about the term ‘pay-to-play,' but what's really at stake here is my right to have an opinion. I believe in that. Now I realize how much I believe in it. When your freedom of speech is challenged, when you are in jeopardy of losing it, you find out how important it really is. I think it's so important that I'll do as much as I possibly can to hold on to it. It just happens to be Girl Trouble at the moment, but this could happen to anybody who has an opinion and voices it over the Internet. And that's pretty much all of us!"
LINK: Girl Trouble vs. Gorilla Productions July 2 update (with bitchin' RR Anderson photo)