This morning I narrated an account of how one of the Occupy London activists had come to warn me to “beware”. There wasn’t any logic to it. Briefly, he had begun by asking me if he could organise an idea to democratise the City of London, which I proposed on this blog. Cool. I’ve got no problem with that. Much later I discovered a particular website had scraped all my content from one of the two posts outlining my original idea. I sent a message to the website. Stephen R Moore turned out to be behind the website – the same man who had originally asked if I minded if I organise the plan. He sent me a Facebook message. I replied with a polite request that he take down my content (you can read the entire conversation at the link above, where there are also links to my copied blog post). Stephen R Moore replied with a warning that I should “beware”. He’s a big guy, by the way. I swiftly published this warning and the back story to it. I also sent him a link to it. This is his reply:
Charming. It is difficult to see how such comments, let alone the warning to “beware”, are justified by anything I have done. Here’s someone who has resorted very swiftly to an aggressive approach to a legitimate challenge. Here’s someone who was heavily involved in Occupy, serving on the night watch team. Here’s someone who is unlikely to name friends and influence people. Stephen R Moore, your conduct is unacceptable.
What’s the ethical response to this sort of thing? Should I feel threatened by his warning to “beware”? Luckily for Mr R Moore, I don’t on this occasion. Otherwise, I’d call the police without hesitation. That’s their job right? To gather evidence about thieves who warn people off. Let’s be clear about this, Mr R Moore, who says he us a pro-business Occupy activist, has knowingly stolen text written by someone else, invented the sham excuse that it was not publicly published (it was), warned me to “beware” and now described me as “evil”. Is he still active in Occupy? Does Occupy endorse his actions?