Several years ago we had an employee in the Landscape Department at Ambassador College in Pasadena who went off the deep end. So much so he was quickly terminated. Once that happened he started weekly protests with his van parked Green Street, St. John Ave and on Del Mar by the tennis courts. He drug his wife and kids out to protest with him for many months carrying picket signs. Later he just resorted to parking the van plastered with magnetic signs. He became the laughing stock of the church and neighborhood.
Later his wife left because of his weird actions. He rambled on in a house close by Orange Grove and Fair Oaks where he start growing food in his backyard. All of this was a result of the aberrant teachings of Armstrongism that the world was coming to and end and that members needed lower their standard of living and to become self sufficient because they were going to be persecuted for being Sabbath keepers.
Jules Dervaes actually became quite good at being self sufficient, so much so that he started getting recognized in papers and the news. Restaurants started buying his organic greens. Groups toured his gardens and his home. He would use bicycles to make power, tried to use as little electricity as possible and so on.
As he became more popular the bigger his head got until early last year he filed for copyright over the words "urban homesteaders." He claimed that he and his family had originated the concept and that those who used the words were taking the spotlight and income away from hm. The crap quickly hit the fan. He sent letters of "cease and desist" to everyone they could find across the country that used "urban homestead" in their blogs, web sites, books, movies, etc. He contacted Facebook and caused hundreds of Facebook pages to be shut down because of those two words. The Dervaes went into combat mode and bucked down for a fight.
People hit back fast at them. New Facebook pages were set up. Internet sites went after them. See
Dervaes Family "Urban Homestead" Trademark Debacle and
The Journey: Homesteading Forums.
The "Debacle" blog has this:
UPDATED, 3:39 P.M.: The Dervaeses
have responded by saying this controversy is really just a conspiracy by
critics. "It's a false, made up claim that people are jumping over
themselves to make us look bad," blogs Anais Dervaes, before giving
everyone the courtesy of publishing the cease-and-desist letter they're
sending around to bloggers and libraries. The letter actually has
suggestions for people to stop using the terms "urban homestead" and
"urban homesteading"!
"If your use of one of these phrases is
not to specifically identify products or services from the Dervaes
Institute, then it would be proper to use generic terms to replace the
registered trademark you are using," the letter states. "For example,
when discussing general homesteading or other people's projects, they
should be referred to using terms such as 'modern homesteading,' 'urban
sustainability projects,' or similar descriptions."
Nice--not only are they faux hippies, but now they want to play the Though Police. WEAK SAUCE.
UPDATED,
2:15 P.M.: Harriet Ells, producer for KCRW-FM 89.9's Good Food With
Evan Kleiman (for which I contribute) just tweeted that the Dervaeses
sent them a cease-and-desist letter because they used the term in a blog
post. The irony of this, of course, is that Kleiman joined the family
for a meal last summer as part of an episode for Private Chefs of
Beverly Hills. They also sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Santa
Monica Public Library because the library hosted a free event on urban
homesteading. What douches!
Then to make things more interesting one of Dervaes girls plagiarized another web site using that information as their own. See:
How the Dervaes Family Stole My Victory Garden
As a writer I value my work even when others do not. A
few years ago I wrote an impassioned plea to “Bring Back Victory
Gardens”. Because my website did not receive a great deal of traffic at
the time (I wasn’t yet the amazing rockstar garden author that I am
today) and I believed that plea worthy of more exposure, I created this page
on HubPages in the hope that it would draw more attention. Little did I
know until this morning that it drew more than just attention, it drew a
thief in urban homesteader’s clothing.
While being directly quoted is flattering as all hell,
being stolen from is not. When your words are stolen by a member of the
Dervaes Family and used as their own, it is even more flattering in a
roundabout way. How is it that the family who are the self-proclaimed
founders of the urban homestead movement couldn’t even find the original
words to describe what they do?
Michael Nolan concludes with this:
Listen Up, Dervaes Family
You have bullied the gardening and urban homesteading community long
enough. I’m not bothering with a cease and desist letter because it is
far more satisfying to expose you for the unoriginal frauds that you are
and let the people decide who they want to believe. Thankfully I have
been a part of this community long enough to know that its members are
not the sheep you take them for and your time of pulling the wool over
their eyes has come and gone.
Sincerely,
Michael Nolan
EDITED TO ADD: In an ironic twist, Dervaes Family Member Justin (do I need a trademark symbol here?) wrote this blog post on plagiarism somehow preaching about it and its impact just a few days ago. Maybe he should converse with his sister…
An attorney weighs in on the Dervaes actions in August of last year:
Urban Homestead as a Trademark & Cancellations
Being ethical in Armstrongism has never been a strong point. Its leaders have been some of the most unethical men men ever. They have lied, they have manipulated, they have connived and they blackmailed people for decades. Is it any wonder that we see this kind of stuff carrying over into the membership? Armstrongism has had legal counsel that made mincemeat of anyone that tried to sue the church or it's leaders. People were defamed and ripped to shreds by these men. Now we see how it all trickled down to the membership. Just further proof that Armstrongism is rotten to the core.
In case any of you want to buy the Dervaes Homesteading calendar please note the following stipulation:
A day of rest, a Sabbath request. We ask that wherever you may live to
refrain from purchasing from this website between Friday sunset and
Saturday sunset. Little Homestead in the City® 2012 Calendar
.I can be guaranteed that they will NOT refund your money and will gladly take it. Just more hypocrisy from the cult of Armstrongism
