Asia Economic Institute et al v. Xcentric Ventures LLC et al

Filing 150

DECLARATION of Ed Magedson In Support Of MOTION for Summary Judgment as to Entire Case 145 filed by Defendants Edward Magedson, Xcentric Ventures LLC. (Gingras, David)

Asia Economic Institute et al v. Xcentric Ventures LLC et al

Doc. 150

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David S. Gingras, CSB #218793 Gingras Law Office, PLLC 4072 E Mountain Vista Dr. Phoenix, AZ 85048 Tel.: [phone] Fax: [phone] [e-mail] Maria Crimi Speth, (Admitted Pro Hac Vice) Jaburg & Wilk, P.C. 3200 N. Central Ave., Suite 2000 Phoenix, AZ 85012 Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone] [e-mail] Attorneys for Defendants Xcentric Ventures, LLC and Edward Magedson UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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GINGRAS LAW OFFICE, PLLC 4072 EAST MOUNTAIN VISTA DRIVE PHOENIX, ARIZONA 85048

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CV10-01360 SVW
Dockets.Justia.com

ASIA ECONOMIC INSTITUTE, LLC, et al., Plaintiffs, vs. XCENTRIC VENTURES, LLC, et al., Defendants.

Case No: 2:10-cv-01360-SVW-PJW AFFIDAVIT OF ED MAGEDSON IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANTS' MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT Hearing Date: Nov. 1, 2010 Time: 1:30 PM Courtroom: 6 (Hon. Stephen Wilson)

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GINGRAS LAW OFFICE, PLLC 4072 EAST MOUNTAIN VISTA DRIVE PHOENIX, ARIZONA 85048

I, Edward Magedson, declare as follows: 1. My name is Ed Magedson. I am a resident of the State of Arizona, am over

the age of 18 years, and if called to testify in court or other proceeding I could and would give the following testimony which is based upon my own personal knowledge unless otherwise stated. 2. I am the manager of Xcentric Ventures, LLC ("Xcentric") and the founder

and "ED"itor of the website www.RipoffReport.com which I started in 1998. The Ripoff Report site is operated by Xcentric. Serving as a forum for speech concerning bad business practices among other things, the Ripoff Report is the leading complaint reporting website and is one of the most ardent supporters of free speech anywhere. 3. In my capacity as the Editor of the Ripoff Report I have worked closely

with all levels of federal, state, and local law enforcement, including, but not limited to, various state attorneys general, county attorneys, Homeland Security, the United States Justice Department, United States Secret Service, FBI, FTC, SEC, US Postal inspectors, and local police, providing them with information used to locate victims, detect patterns of deceptive business practices and to prosecute violations of consumer protection laws, among other things. 4. I have reviewed the First Amended Complaint filed in this matter by

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Plaintiffs Asia Economic Institute, LLC, Raymond Mobrez, and Iliana Llaneras, and the exhibits thereto. I am aware that there six reports on the Ripoff Report website which

Plaintiffs allege contain various false statements about them. 5. These six reports (as is true of all new submissions to our site) were

automatically assigned "report numbers" by our servers which are sequential numbers reflecting the order in which each report was received. In this case, I understand that the six postings at issue are as follows: Report #417493, #423987, #457433, #502429, #564331, and #571232. I understand screenshots of portions of the report as well as copies of the text of each of each report are attached to the Declaration of David Gingras submitted herewith as follows: 2 AFFIDAVIT OF ED MAGEDSON CV10-01360 SVW

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GINGRAS LAW OFFICE, PLLC 4072 EAST MOUNTAIN VISTA DRIVE PHOENIX, ARIZONA 85048

Exhibit 1A/B 2A/B 3A/B 4A/B 5A/B 6A/B

Report # 417493 423987 457433 502429 564331 571232

Submission Date January 28, 2009 February 13, 2009 June 1, 2009 September 30, 2009 February 3, 2010 February 19, 2010

6.

All of these reports and rebuttals were created by third parties, not by me or

Xcentric. I had nothing to do with the creation of the six reports at issue in this case, nor did I have anything to do with the comments/rebuttals to each report. I did not create these reports or rebuttals, nor did I alter them in any way. I did not "solicit" anyone else to write these reports or rebuttals. 7. In May 2009, I sent a lengthy email to Plaintiff Raymond Mobrez, a copy

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of which is attached as Exhibit 10 to the First Amended Complaint. I sent this email to Mr. Mobrez in response to an email from him asking for information about how he could deal with reports on our site. 8. The email I sent to Mr. Mobrez is a form response which I have used for

many years whenever people contact me and ask for information about dealing with reports on the Ripoff Report site. Among other things, this email contains my honest belief and opinion that one of the best ways to respond to a complaint (on our site or any other site) is to simply post a response explaining your side of the story. Ripoff Report charges nothing to post responses, and it is my belief that failing to respond to a complaint is a mistake because regardless of the merits of the original complaint, when a company or individual fails to respond, this sends a message to readers that the company at issue does not care about resolving complaints. For this reason, I always recommend that people file a free rebuttal so that readers will have both sides to the story. 3 AFFIDAVIT OF ED MAGEDSON CV10-01360 SVW

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9.

I understand that Plaintiffs allege that I have committed fraud by informing

them that "filing a rebuttal has only a positive effect ... ." At no time did I ever make such a statement to Plaintiffs. In my form email I did give Mr. Mobrez my opinion that it was "best to respond to the report," but this statement was clearly stated as my opinion, not a factual representation about rebuttals only having a positive effect. 10. I also understand that Plaintiffs allege that I have committed fraud by

failing to inform Mr. Mobrez that posting a rebuttal to a Ripoff Report can be harmful because it "refreshes" Google's index and makes the report to which the rebuttal was filed appear higher in Google's results than it would without the rebuttal. 11. Although I am aware of people making this sort of claim in the past (that

filing rebuttals automatically causes reports to appear higher in Google), I do not believe this to be a fact. Instead, I believe this sort of claim is pure speculation which is usually spread by people selling SEO (search engine optimization) services who have a direct financial interest in frightening anyone affected by a Ripoff Report. These individuals attempt to scare people into thinking that filing a rebuttal is a bad idea in the hopes that this will cause the victim to believe that they have no option other than paying for the SEO services offered by that person. 12. There are also several specific reasons supporting my belief that filing a

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rebuttal does not necessarily increase the ranking of a report on Google. Specifically, I am aware of reports on our site which contain one or more rebuttals but which are not ranked highly on Google. For instance, I am aware of a report (#423146;

http://www.ripoffreport.com/lawyers/herman-and-russo-mel/herman-and-russo-mellissaa-w776a.htm) about a Georgia law firm which contains a rebuttal but this report is not located anywhere in the first five pages of Google results when searching for the name of the firm involved. I do not know why this report is ranked so low on Google, nor have I done anything to make this report rank so low. 13. I am also aware of reports on our site which do not contain any rebuttals For example, report #618235

but which are ranked extremely highly on Google.

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GINGRAS LAW OFFICE, PLLC 4072 EAST MOUNTAIN VISTA DRIVE PHOENIX, ARIZONA 85048

(http://www.ripoffreport.com/adult-web-sites/jenrizol/jenrizol-glam-chicka-09-she-isce25e.htm) is a complaint which does not contain any rebuttals but which currently shows up on the first page of Google's search results. I do not know why this report is ranked so highly on Google, nor have I done anything to make this report rank so highly. 14. As these two examples illustrate, sometimes reports without rebuttals can

show up on the first page of Google and sometimes reports with rebuttals receive a much lower ranking. Decisions as to how such content is ranked are made solely and

exclusively by Google. I have no control over the decisions that Google makes, nor am I personally aware of the exact rules that Google uses to rank content. On the contrary, I believe that Google's algorithm for content ranking is a highly guarded trade secret which has never been publicly disclosed by Google. 15. I had never heard of Mr. Mobrez or AEI prior to his emails to me in early

2009, and at no time during any of my limited conversations with Mr. Mobrez did he mention anything about his employees, nor did he tell me that employees had quit because of anything posted on the Ripoff Report site. At no time was I aware that AEI had valuable contracts and business expectancies with its employees or anyone else.

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Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1746, I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that the foregoing is true and correct. EXECUTED ON: September 27, 2010.

______________________________________ Edward Magedson

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GINGRAS LAW OFFICE, PLLC 4072 EAST MOUNTAIN VISTA DRIVE PHOENIX, ARIZONA 85048

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that on September 27, 2010 I electronically transmitted the attached document to the Clerk's Office using the CM/ECF System for filing, and for transmittal of a Notice of Electronic Filing to the following CM/ECF registrants: Mr. Daniel F. Blackert, Esq. Ms. Lisa J. Borodkin, Esq. Asia Economic Institute 11766 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 260 Los Angeles, CA 90025 Attorneys for Plaintiffs

And a courtesy copy of the foregoing delivered to: Honorable Stephen V. Wilson U.S. District Judge

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/s/David S. Gingras

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