Not long ago Cory Doctorow blogged of a saga involving a stolen camera and the unwillingness of the thief to send it back to it’s rightful owner:

On Monday the plot thickened, as Doctorow points out:

Shortly after that post, I got an email from someone who claimed his name was “Don Deveny,” purportedly a Canadian Barrister of a sort called “Queen’s Counsel.” “Deveny” implied that the post was illegal and that I was liable for making it.

However, I don’t believe that “Deveny” is a lawyer. For one thing, he can’t spell “lawyer.” For another, he doesn’t know the difference between “libel” and “slander.” He can’t even spell “counsel.”

I have contacted all of the law societies in Canada that license barristers to practice. None of them have any record of “Deveny,” nor does the Canadian Law List. No one under that name is listed in any Canadian phone directory as a practicing attorney.

Be sure to read all the drama on Boing-Boing.