Craig to fight court rulings over poem
Former Conservative Party leader Colin Craig has served notice of his intent to appeal a judge’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit he took against a blogger for publishing a poem he wrote to his former secretary.
At a December hearing at the Auckland District Court, Judge Mary Beth Sharp threw out Craig’s efforts to seek damages for ‘‘unauthorised infringement’’ of alleged copyright interests in a poem he wrote entitled Two of Me.
It was said to be part of an 11-page letter he wrote to ex-secretary Rachel MacGregor, containing several poems.
Judge Sharp made an oral judgment at the December hearing and has now released a formal decision, canvassing her reasons for the dismissal. That included her ruling that Craig’s proceeding was ‘‘vexatious’’ and that he had an ‘‘ulterior purpose’’.
Craig sought $5000 in damages plus $3000 for every month Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater had a copy of the poem on his blog, and also sought damages from Taxpayers Union director Jordan Williams for giving a copy of the poem to Slater in the first place.
Craig also asked for an injunction preventing further publication of the ode. He represented himself in the proceeding.
Last year, Williams and Craig were embroiled in a lawsuit of their own, after Williams successfully sued Craig for defamation. Craig is also appealing that decision.
At the hearing about the poem in December, both Williams and Slater asked Judge Sharp to strike out Craig’s claims, saying the lawsuit was an abuse of process.
In other applications, they argued that publication of the poem was in the public interest and fell under a ‘‘fair dealing’’ provision of copyright law which allows media outlets to produce other people’s work for the purpose of reporting news.
Craig argued the publication was not fair dealing and said it removed his right to earn money from its publication, Judge Sharp said in her judgment.