Pro Bono ?

I'd say it's self evident that Sanford Legal works pro bonobo Udo .
Sorry, that joke was in bad taste wasn't it ?

He's taking on a mighty bully but good on him. The original article was remarkable in its insensitivity and inherent racism and in my view Otis did the right thing bringing it to the public attention by going after them. He took the much more difficult road by doing that.

Taking on News Corp for reprinting the quote is a big call but who knows where the legality of that lies. No doubt we'll find out. And good for him too. News Corp makes such a song and dance about free speech, just think back to how much they all gathered around poor old Andrew Bolt when he lost his case under the racial discrimination act. The End of Free Speech, they all cried.

Yet when the ABC takes the piss out of one of their own with an obviously fabricated satirical image, they go after the public broadcaster relentlessly and even enlist the prime minister to the cause (he implied they ABC would lose funding if they fought News on the issue).

They are pathetic beyond words and I'm happy for anyone to take them on. I hope Otis is prepared for a fight though, because I reckon they'll fight dirty and do whatever it takes.

Surely intent has to factor in somewhere into it ? Surfing life may have left some ambiguity as to intent open to the most vapid minded out there but if the newspaper article was ragging Surfinglife about their indiscretion and championing Carey then common sense would allow that it wasn't defamatory.
But since when has common sense ever dictated to the legal world ?

I also haven't seen the news paper article. Was it in defence of Carey ?

Regardless of the legalities , is the driving force of the swing from Surfing Life to News corp either :

A - The newspaper has far deeper pockets to gouge for a windfall.

Or

B - Take out the biggest guy in the room first to let everyone know you're serious about regaining your slighted dignity.

Vasectomy … What the ABC did was a lot different to this case. No comparison. Regardless, I think we would need to know the details to make a better opinion. And thats all we can do - is make a opinion. Truthfully, the so called racial discrimination laws are a mess and certainly not clear. Even the Human Rights Commissioner failed to clarify a few recent issues - its not easy when its related to 'feeling'.

CoffsCoast Advocate had a story that Otis had acknowleged the written apology[s] and we could all move on for the greater good...[along those lines ]
link someone ?

Text removed following legal advice - Stu Nettle, website editor

Really? Someone wrote those words in this century?

Why is it surprising mundie, racism is part of our colonial dna. Same as Americans.

We all like to talk the good talk and mean well, but if we are somewhere we are outnumbered by people that are different we're uncomfortable.

Think about this one, on a thread recently on J/bay there was a member of the forum there posting about the contest. In one post he was answering questions about members on the safety of going to South Africa and he wrote :
"In SA you can't address the issues without segregation of communities. Ie being a racist and I'm not keen to do this. Shanty towns exist as Shaun said and then next block there's wealthy whites with their electric fence and BMWs. Then the coloureds are around the corner. It's a land of contrasts".
But in another earlier post the same bloke describes J/ bay as a town with a population of 1000, when I pointed out to him the population was 28000 and he may have overlooked 27000 coloured folk , he was quick to edit that bit out. By no means am I calling this young fella out as a racist, but he very easily fell into the trap over there where there is segregation controlled by poverty and being a white hipster surfer he got to hang out in the j/bay bubble of the elite and those coloured people were not worth mentioning as part of the population and he was quite comfortable with it, maybe if he hung around after the circus left town and the partys are over he may get more of an idea of what really goes on there.

My point is it will probably take another century before we are comfortable with all these different people. Possibly we will all come together fighting shoulder to shoulder against the aliens.

District 9...Great movie.

Stu, can you clarify something please?

In the above article you write:

"Nationwide News are arguing that the publication of Myers' quotes is defamatory."

I'm a little lost. Why would Nationwide want to argue the affirmative?

Perhaps there is a "not" missing before the defamatory?

I agree with Jeff Byrnes comment on The Inertia. [1 month ago]

I think he has a very strong case against News Ltd. Surfing Life presumably has a much smaller circulation than the Daily Telegraph and anyone believing that the Tellycrap was trying to do anything other than exploit the story for the benefit of their circulation is obviously unfamiliar with gutter journalism. The republication of the insult in a mass circulation daily is adding grievous insult to significant injury. Otis also deserves our respect for standing up for community standards against an orghanisation which, over many decades, around the world, has sought to exploit human misery, destroy our right to privacy and manipulate our governments for corpoarate profit.

"Myers was attempting to adopt another voice by assuming societal stereotypes of Aborigines ("I expect little more than Cro-Magnon grunts from his mouth'") "

Actually Stu, Myers claimed ignorance of the racist implications of calling an Aboriginal person "apelike". He said he had no idea.
So he can't use irony as his defence.

I don't think he was referring to his ancestry in any way with that description. It might have been offensive to many but I don't think anything was intended by it. Ignorance might not be a defence but that doesn't mean it doesn't occur.

No, he didn't realise calling an aboriginal person apelike was a racist perjorative term. He said he was ignorant of the context. that's what he said. Somewhere on the internets.

Hold up, doesn't defamation have to amount to more than hurt feelings? Doesn't it have to involve someone's reputation actually being damaged? How has Otis' reputation been damaged by the printed remarks? Nobody who read the article would've thought any less of him. None of his sponsors read the article and terminated his contract. Nobody at his local coffee shop refused to serve him the day after the article was printed. Nobody read the article then waxed his car or put dog-shit in his letter-box. Everybody who read it probably brushed over it without even considering any racist connotations, then flicked through the rest of the mag till they found a titty-pic to admire. Any damage to his reputation caused by the printed remarks is certainly minute compared to the damage to his reputation caused by his own reactions.

Johnson, I had never heard of him before this, then went looking for him on the internet, what I found was well, ordinary, below average surfing, his quote, can't really do turns, just like to do airs, so I never would have bothered with looking at him again. Now for this he is in the spot light, money / fifteen minutes of fame grab,

So at a time when suicide rates amongst indigenous people are double that of the rest of the population and they are massively over represented in every measure of disadvantage, it's OK to publicly insult a young indigenous man on the basis that you don't like his surfing grom? What a sad, pathetic attitude! And zen you are a long way from home, maybe you think that the generations of insult , discrimination, exploitation and disadvantage have been miraculously reversed in your absence. Sorry, it isn't true. Stop, think, show respect!

Thanks blindboy for trying to keep some reality in this forum! Defamation has nothing to do with intent, it is about protecting people against attack to which they have no defense.

The Act's test for defamation is "Does the communication lower/harm the plaintiff's reputation, hold the plaintiff up to ridicule, or lead others to shun and avoid the plaintiff" among "ordinary reasonable people in the community in general". I think it is fair to say that describing someone as likely to be unable to speak because their appearance reflects certain well-worn associations with their ethnicity would qualify. And this also points at why this is not about the relation between Otis and the author or ASL (things that could be sorted out human-to-human), but with a Murdoch organ that is basically a factory for entertaining a mass audience with moral panics and outrage. The harm is much higher with the distribution of that rag, and I think Otis's representatives have rightly identified that while Myers might simply have been ignorant, he can change while the Tele will just move on to the next victim (Try the excerpt from Nick Davies' new book to see how the industry works: http://goo.gl/WS6Qic )

I think Myers learned the hard way that many of the things about others we simply think of as funny in our own environment might be received quite differently by the people themselves. I don't really blame him as we have all been ignorant. Almost everything I learned about Aboriginal people growing up was kind of a joke like Myers used, and it took a lot of travel and getting to know people and their history before I began to realise how little I really know about the original inhabitants of my own country.

That's the main problem with Myers' piece and more particularly the Tele pick-up: it does no good to anyone and further entrenches a feeling in white Australians that Aboriginal people are backward and their knowledge and way of life isn't worth anything. Most people with an ethical bone in their body would like to see those racist attitudes rolled back, and I'd personally like to see those who profit from it being held to account.

Go Otis!

Sad and pathetic blindboy, opinions are like arseholes, so you have one good for you

Thanks gromfull for your insightful contribution to the debate. Have you considered a twitter account so people can follow your 140 character opinions on other people's opinions?

Gromfull, you're way off base with that call on Blindboy. You might disagree with the substance of his opinion but playing the man like that says way more about you than him.

How fucking good would it be if Otis shook hands with Myers on the steps of the courthouse and accepted the written apologys and dropped this matter - what a great day that would be.
And what a BETTER man it would make Otis.

What do you blokes think of the pic and wording of the indigenous chap on Otis instagram page - April 2013 ?

That's the one.

Remember when ASL (I think ) did the profile on Chippa Wilson and the author took exactly the same approach saying he was fearful of him because of his appearance resembling a violent bogan with his Aussie pride tattoos ?

I am pretty sure whitefellas have made plenty of money out of court cases from Indigenous peoples for all sorts of unjustifiable reasons (not that I personally think Otis' case is unjustifiable even though others seem to).

Anyway, as a whitey I don't think my opinion matters here. I have heard mostly opinions from members of this group about this issue (although, I think discussion on race topics is important). Otis' silence speaks volumes ... a different cultural approach dealing with these matters (I don't know, sadly I am too ignorant of such things)? And then when he and his crew use some method put in place by a colonial power (which the dominant group in our society tend to be historically tied to) we get antsy. Huh?

Free, it's alright for him to make defamatory remarks about me then is it, I replied back in the way I was treated, in my original post a gave a opionin on his surfing and art he has put on the internet for all to see and judge, yet he labels me sad and pathetic, who was playing the man not the ball, was he not me

Stabmag seem to think that Otis could be chasing up to $750,000.
McIntosh he could be chasing you to soon.......
brave of you to leave the comment of "$750k buys a lot of petrol on your site " ?

Yep i just re read it.

Jeez the racist train episode result with nil penalty WTF happened there..pathetic !
that was extreme racism !

According to a new article in the SMH, Otis' case with Surfing Life has been "settled". 

I removed my previous post because of it's irrelevance.

Just hope Otis doesn't 'settle' the News case. I think it be very disappointing if he did and would only give ammo to his detractors.

So how is it that someone can write a possible 'racist' article then say sorry and not be liable in some way ?
NEWS only reprinted the article - they did not initiate it or create it. What does that imply when reprinting any article by anyone ?

tony Surfing Life appears to have reached an agreement with Otis to withdraw his action. The details have not been made public but would usually not involve them admitting liability. News Ltd are responsible for what they publish regardless of its source so it is no defence to claim that they were only repeating what had been said in Surfing Life, particularly given the difference in circulation.

Latest Surfing World did a great interview with Otis carey, and the introduction was a telling summary of racism in Australia as well.