Re: Autism Speaks silences autistic child

[Guest guest]

Once again they show their true colors

_http://autisticbfh.blogspot.com/2008/01/autism-speaks-silences-autistic-child

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[Guest guest]

I briefly read this and I don't fault Autism Speaks. I realize that AS may

not be pursuing the biomedical research that is needed. However, I still

think that they are helping the Autism community through their awareness

campaign as a minimum.

My son is not an " aspie " , but he does have Autism which has deprived him

from his childhood and has turned our lives upside down. Therefore, I can

not sympathize with the blogger nor with the parity website. Furthermore, I

don't care for the crude language and the tone of the blog either.

Re: Autism Speaks silences autistic child

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> Once again they show their true colors

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> _http://autisticbfh.blogspot.com/2008/01/autism-speaks-silences-autistic-child

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(http://autisticbfh.blogspot.com/2008/01/autism-speaks-silences-autistic-child.h\

tml)

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> **************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape.

> http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489

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[Guest guest]

Monday, January 21, 2008

Autism Speaks Silences Autistic Child

Quite often, Autism Speaks claims that it just wants to help autistic

children overcome communication problems and become independent. So what

really happens when an autistic child speaks up, and the organization

doesn't happen to like the content of the child's independent thought? Well,

in at least one case I know about, Autism Speaks proceeded to sic their

lawyers on the kid.

This happened last week to a member of the Aspies for Freedom forum, who

goes by the net nickname (among other nicknames) and is 14 years old.

Autism Speaks got pissed off because built a parody website, NTSpeaks,

which humorously suggested that interventions for certain annoying and

intolerant behaviors of the non-autistic population might be in order. The

site was designed to resemble Autism Speaks' website.

Building such a site was, of course, completely legal. American copyright

law specifically states that a parody is not a copyright violation.

Additionally, the First Amendment protects parodies along with other forms

of free speech. The parody is a time-honored genre in American public

discourse; concerned citizens have been expressing their political opinions

by way of parody ever since rebellious colonists in the 1700s plastered

their cities with handbills lampooning King .

Apparently Autism Speaks' lawyers decided, however, that it would be very

easy to intimidate an autistic child who did not have the means to fight

back. They sent a letter containing a ridiculous demand for $90,000

for " funds lost. " Then they followed that up by claiming that they were

willing to settle the matter without receiving any payment because of

's age, provided the website was taken down. They also browbeat

into destroying the source code and giving the domain name to Autism Speaks.

I don't fault in any way for giving in to the pressure; a young kid

can't reasonably be expected to have the means to stand up to a corporate

bully like Autism Speaks, after all. But if I ever get a letter from Autism

Speaks' lawyers threatening to sue me about something on my website, I'm

going to print it on my blog in its entirety, along with a response telling

them to kiss my autistic ass. If they really want it all over the

blogosphere (and, quite likely, the mainstream news) that they have a

practice of filing frivolous lawsuits to intimidate autistic self-advocates,

they deserve the consequences of that arrogance, and this is the only

response they should get from any of us: " Go ahead, make my day. "

Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.

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AM

[Guest guest]

Last I heard freedom of speech was a Constitutional right in this country. This

is a 14yr old kid who has the right to express himself and if it's via the

internet then good for him! AS holds $$ Star studded fundraising events and

secures $$highly paid$$ executives and top shelf marketing firms to make sure

that their version of " awareness " is heard so why would they feel so threatened

by a child?

If they have the time and money to target a child who has Aspergers,the very

condition they claim to advocate for, simply because he's exercising the same

right as AS then I'd say it's pretty pathetic that they would flex their

" muscle " by resorting to legal intervention (which is paid for by dollars

from.....) in an attempt to silence this child's message to the world.

Trust and believe there is a large community of auties/aspies that don't care

for the tactics used by AS and other Orgs.

How it must feel when the shoe is on the other foot.

stacey

Date: 2008/01/22 Tue AM 07:28:50 CST

To: Texas-Autism-Advocacy

Subject: Re: Re: Autism Speaks silences autistic child

I briefly read this and I don't fault Autism Speaks. I realize that AS may

not be pursuing the biomedical research that is needed. However, I still

think that they are helping the Autism community through their awareness

campaign as a minimum.

My son is not an " aspie " , but he does have Autism which has deprived him

from his childhood and has turned our lives upside down. Therefore, I can

not sympathize with the blogger nor with the parity website. Furthermore, I

don't care for the crude language and the tone of the blog either.

Re: Autism Speaks silences autistic child

>

> Once again they show their true colors

>

> _http://autisticbfh.blogspot.com/2008/01/autism-speaks-silences-autistic-child

> .html_

>

(http://autisticbfh.blogspot.com/2008/01/autism-speaks-silences-autistic-child.h\

tml)

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> **************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape.

> http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489

>

>

>