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Dear Patrons,

George Fomitchev has certainly shown his true colours after I released the video. He has constantly been harassing me, including an attempted bribe and what I interpret as a threat. He has just tagged me in a post on his personal Facebook to say that he has visited court ready to prepare a statement of claim tomorrow.

I have prepared a response as follows:

 Hi George, I see your post on Facebook and I feel the need to give you another chance to diffuse the situation.  If I were to remove the video, in its place I would make a new video explaining why I have removed it. This video will go over all of our communication so far, including email and Facebook Messenger. I do not need to present any opinion on this, it will simply be a factual recount for viewers to make up their own mind on what has happened. I believe a reasonable person will agree that you have tried to bribe me and threaten me. The aim of this video would be to preserve my reputation and integrity within the community, which I have repeatedly told you is very important to me. I cannot anticipate how the public might perceive you and your business after this, so I urge you to think carefully about what you do next. I request that you delete your Facebook post and stop your harassment. Michael

 I certainly feel like I have done nothing wrong in my review, it compared the performance vs the claims in the most objective way possible. It is consistent with my other review videos.

 I believe very strong in the principle of not being bullied but I also have to factor in stress and my the potential impacts on my livelihood and family. 

Any legal people here? George being in Russia and myself in Australia it feels like a huge bluff from him. Any actual threat to me and any steps you would recommend from here on in?

Michael

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Quentin Casares

it. Would appear to me that there are no grounds where you are liable.

Quentin Casares

y strong and take comfort from the fact that the community will be behind you. I base a lot of my buying decisions on your reviews and ‘integrity’ is more

Quentin Casares

value to me than a compromise on content.

AVNSnax

My many years of experience dealing with bad seeds have taught me one thing—to be the bigger person and just let it go. You gave an honest review and have nothing to answer for, let alone someone like George. Your reputation will be better served by ignoring him and not fanning the flames. IMHO.

Patrick Gärtner

I don't believe there is anything like International laws and guidelines about making or publish "fair" or "unfair" Produkt reviews. Especially not in Russia. If he is not doing anything against your in your own country and law I believe he can doing shit. Maybe a YouTube strike but that's it. My advice: do not make any videos about it. In Germany would it be very critical if you publish private chat history. You're sure there's nothing in your country about it? About privacy and stuff. And there's the ICCPR article 19. Feel free to do nothing!

Richard Boyce

Stay strong, you have done nothing wrong other than report thee facts in your experience.. cheers,

Joerg Gebhard

I strongly agree on the part of do not share private chat history ! 1. ignore him in, stop any communication. 2. feel free to remove the video if you think the pressure on you is not worth it. 3. Russia -> Australia there won´t be any claims (just do not travel to russia). 4. If you get into a situation where you need an laywer i am sure you followers/patreons will support you. (i would)

Short Attention Span Hobbies

International laws, and jurisdictional complications make this a sticky wicket indeed. (Aside, is that a Cricket or a Croquet metaphor?) Anyway, since the chances of "libel" reciprocity between Australia and The Russia Federation are rather close to zero there's not much they can likely do. YouTube disputes are certainly possible, and how they would respond to a "take down request" is anyone's guess. What ever you do make sure you abide by your local laws and the YouTube terms of use. After that, I too, would recommend you let it go unless he tries to take further action. At that point maybe get a lawyer local to you to prepare a written response. Back down? No. Push further? Only if he tries to first.

Peter Richards

I spoke to our company lawyer and he advised that there is absolutely nothing Endurance can do from a legal perspective, the most they could do was a takedown request with YouTube. He advised that you offer to publish a letter of response from the vendor if you wished to do so, allowing him to address anything he saw as inaccurate in the video, but that regardless there was really nothing legal Endurance could do. However, with social media, there is also nothing you could do if Endurance decided to target you with harassment as they are based in Russia, again other than you asking for platforms to take down any harassing articles against you. I agree, it is tricky, legally there appears to be nothing to worry about, but the stress and potential harassment is something you have to consider, especially with your family and life as a teacher, a rogue actor could easily make your life a misery if they decided to. It may or may not be worth it to you, another option is to review the laser that the Endurance was *ahem* 'based on, that is less than half the price, and do a price comparison in the new video. That would be enough to steer people away from the Endurance. If worried, spend a little and get direct legal advice, I'm sure your patron supporters would help chip in. At the end of the day, it possibly isn't a fight worth potentially losing your job over, it's well worth thinking about. A social media campaign, or worse, against you can get toxic very quickly.

Peter Richards

Oh, and do not publish any of your facebook messenger or email accounts, that could have you fall afoul of privacy legislation.

Teaching Tech

Thanks so much for making that enquiry Peter. Thanks for everyone's feedback so far. I have not sent that reply to George and will not. I will definitely not post any of the private chat or email. I appreciate the clarity given to me as I was wondering if it would be appropriate. Please keep feedback coming, at this stage I've put messenger on ignore and will say nothing.

Teaching Tech

Meanwhile his public post on Facebook that he tagged me in is drawing a lot of criticism from people I don't know but am appreciative of.

Kelii Armstrong

You have broken no laws, and you have no prior agreements or contracts with that person. You have said nothing deflationary about the product, company, or the owner. From the guys over reaction, attempt to bribe, and also threaten/intimidate you using the bias laws of Russia, clearly shows he has no principles and possible has narcissist personality disorder. If he does have NPD he will twist fact, gas light you, and try to turn anyone you many know to turn against you if you keep engaging him (which he is attempting with his Facebook post). Best advice I can give you is completely block and ignore everything about that person and company.

Phil Maddox

He is obviously quite upset at your review but to suggest it is untrue and to threaten you is unacceptable. I wouldnt worry about legal action ...he knew and supported it being reviewed by you and will struggle to claim otherwise now the review is not in his favour. Its his own fault for presenting the product as something it clearly isnt. Regardless of the "level" of threat i recommend you lodge a complaint with your local police ( hopefully they have a internet/IT debt ) they should be able to advise on how to deal with this . At least have the complaint registered if nothing else. Other than that ignore him completely . Don't waste anymore of your time on him . CHeers

James White

Make sure you have 2fa turned on for all your social media accounts, just in case he employs someone on the darkweb to try and take over your accounts. You are absolutely in the right. If he could have done anything, the first you would have heard of it would have been a legal document. He can't, so he is just posturing with threats. Stick to your guns, the web needs more honest reviewers such as yourself!

Timm Gleason

It is a review, if producers cannot handle honest reviews then they should design products that work as advertised and not cheap out on build quality.

Jimmy Pedersen

Don't forget to take screenshots, or similar, if there are places he writes to you where he, at a later time,can edit/delete what he's written (fex. Facebook). Btw. I think you are completely in the right . Good luck, you have my support.

Teaching Tech

Fixing 2fa now, great advice. Yes I have been screen recording everything just in case.

Johnny Gardner

Keep up the good work. He doesnt have a leg to stand on.

John Strand

I can't add anything that anyone hasn't already stated. Keep up the good work, and as stated before, ignore him on all social platforms. The interweb is a tricky place, so watch your accounts. And stay honest with your reviews and you'll come out on top.

Eirik Haave-Johansen

From the looks of it he went to a court building and took some pictures and then claim this and that and hope you will compensate for not going forward with this. It was pretty clear he had no intensions to deliver a honest working product but sell on his claims until prople stoped buying it and just keep the money. He promote this product publically so he just have to live with being called out, nothing wrong with that, it's the good old rule of shit in shit out fair and square.

Phil Andrew

Block and ignore, leave your honest review up. You have not said anything in the review that wasn't honest. I have a friend who is also a reviewer and he, like you will always give an honest review on what he has in front of him. Also, like you have done, he will always give the manufacturer fair chance to rectify any problems before publishing any review. If, as in this case, the manufacturer comes back with threats etc he will go ahead and publish but he never says anything negative about the person, only the product.. Can't get much fairer than that.

Martin Pirringer Old Dude with a Pulse

IDK what russian court would I think you are in Australia here in the US you might already have a case for all kind of things from making threats, possibly cyberstalkng etc. Not that it would do you much good as he sits in russia. I think you are on the right track - I would not take down the video.

Bassclarinetl2

I'm trying to remember (I may have been in one of his live streams, but Tim at TH3D may also have dealt with George and might be a resource.

Ron Floyd

Just do what you need to protect yourself Michael - 2FA, blocking, etc. We're all standing behind you.

morningreis

Document absolutely everything. Screenshots of everything, log dates/times of every event or interaction. Reviewing 2FA on any/all of your accounts is a very good idea. That goes for your emails, YouTube, Patreon, any social media accounts. I don't think you have much to worry about, but it's always good practice to protect yourself as much as possible.

Derek Murray

As others have said, "Block and Ignore". I would cease from posting / responding to the matter, for the time being.

Brandon Wolfe

As plenty have said. Block and ignore. Nothing he can do, and no one outside of Russia/Russia controlled territory are going to give a hoot what Russian courts have to say. I seriously doubt YouTube will do a take down request with all the nonsense Russia has pulled the last few years. Block and ignore is the best approach. On a side not I thought it was a great review. Nothing in your video said not to buy it, just didn’t live up to the claims. I liked the video.

Teaching Tech

Hi everyone, thanks so much for all of the support. Unfortunately this is causing my wife a stupid amount of stress. She was up late last night stuck on his Facebook post refreshing. I'm going to pull the video for now at least, and issue a community post explaining why.

Aaron Nance

Not a lawyer, but he's full of sh**. I say everyone who follows you should make a point on boycotting this liar. Your review was fair and honest. His claims for his product are absurd. Out of curiosity I did a search for 10W laser diode on Amazon. Sooo many of them for >$300US. George is a con man and a bully.

Peter Richards

Having been through something similar, I think this is a good choice. Anyone that hasn't been through it, the stress is *immense* on a family. Rest assured there is no legal action he can take, and as mentioned, if you want to not have people that follow your channel buy a potentially dodgy product, a review of the better, cheaper alternative would achieve the same aim.

Colin Davidson

This is crazy. I'm sorry see this happen to you when you really gave the product the best opturtunity and it didn't not perform as it was advertised.

Alex Anderson

I became a patreon just because of this joker. As far as you've said, you've adhered to normal review practices even better than some major tech sites. Don't let him curtail your review videos; They are great content as-is and how I found your channel in the first place.

KnowBuddiesLP

The right thing to do would be to fight everything and not let him bully you. But totally understand taking down the video especially if it's causing the family stress. Anyone who has watched any of your videos knows about your integrity and I don't think would be deterred by this and would totally understand. It's awful that it's come to this but whatever you decide to do for your family should be first and foremost. I'm sure everyone else who already supports you will continue to do so even if it means taking down the video permanently. <3

Teaching Tech

I just wanted to thank everyone once again for your advice and support. My legal guy confirmed today that he had no leg to stand on and that I was in no danger of litigation. He seems to really have put his foot in it and drawn a lot of bad will from the community. Onwards and upwards.

James White

Glad you cleared it up Michael, will you be reposting the review?

Teaching Tech

Some people made copies and have re-uploaded to their own channels. If someone searches for Endurance Laser review the video will still come up. Needless to say I will not be filing a copyright claim on the copies :)

Teaching Tech

Yes we are, thanks for checking it. The nature of George's complete capitulation was actually a source of great pride for Mrs Teaching Tech.

Damon Rolls

Hi Michael. I just wanted to let you know how inspiring your videos are, and that I'm happy you're standing up for your integrity. Thanks for being here, sorry to hear this happened to you.

Pierre Martel

releasing a communication as a third party is not ok. releasing a conversation as one of the 2 party engaged in it is ok.

Kumra

Are you having any luck in regards to fighting this?

Teaching Tech

George ended up completely backing down and issuing a truthful public apology.