More threats of legal action against me
Is it just the way I write?
Am I a grumpy old so-and-so?
I believe I write objectively about my experiences, both good and bad, and I believe I should be free to express my opinion. If I’ve had bad experience with a company, then I say so.
Anyway, for the second time in 2 years, I’ve been threatened with legal action.
Some guy calls me, saying he’s looking at my blog…
Me: “ok”
Guy: “i’m reading your post about Bxxxxxxx”
Me: “ok”
Guy: “guess where I’m from”
Me: “don’t know”
Guy: “Bxxxxxxx”
Me: “ok”
He then tells me he wants the post pulled immediately, or he will be talking to his legal representative.
I say I’ll look into it.
Anyway, I remove the references to Bxxxxxxx from the post (he didn’t say which post, so I made an educated guess).
The next day, I thought I’d better make sure the call wasn’t a crank call, and that it actually came from Bxxxxxxx.
So I email Bxxxxxxx, saying that the blog changes were only temporary until I get confirmation about who, what, etc.
Well, the reply was a legal ultimatum, saying things like: “posts regarding Bxxxxxxx in the blog section of your website amount to defamation” and “We are therefore giving you 24 hours to remove all posts relating to Bxxxxxxx”.
Um, the words don’t seem to make much sense to me… if I had a post that said nice things about Bxxxxxxx… then would that also be regarded as defamation? According to the wording of the email: yes!
And do the posts have to be removed? I don’t think so; so I decided to censor the relevant parts instead.
It seems like the email wording was composed by a lawyer who doesn’t know much about the internet… I was almost tempted to let the legal action proceed… just to see if the lawyer(s) behind this would shoot themselves in the foot. Unfortunately, I could not see my case as being as winnable as the 2clix/whirlpool case.
Well, as some of you already know, I believe that all litigious companies deserve the same fate: Bankruptcy. I think the time spent in obtaining legal advice would be much better spent improving the quality of a companies services and products. The word “microsoft” springs to mind with situations like this…
Its must be fair to say that business mentioned are not primarily a computer service business as they are a hardware clearinghouse, focused on moving high volumes of computer hardware bits & pieces with the customer service put there as only a fleeting afterthought.
Why should writing about that bad experience be litigious bait? If you had written about it on a blog without a business logo attached would you receive the same negative attention?
I think the “problem” with my blog, is that google now regards it as an “authority site”.
If I post something, it shows up quite high in the search results.
Google give the title of my post some extra importance.
To answer your question: it wouldn’t have mattered if the blog was personal or business…
Its the fact that a google search for “Xxxxxxxx” showed my “negative” blog post at number 7… thats what gets some people hot and bothered.
In the web world, the correct way to counter a negative article, is to generate twice as many positive articles/PR, so that the negative one “fades away”, without the need to spend money on
sharkslawyersIt is not defamation to post ANYTHING about a person or company if it is VERIFIABLE and TRUE. Do newspapers get done for defamation? I think not. What’s the difference?
Hi Anonymous,
yes its not defamation if its verifiable and true, but you can get into grey areas very quickly… just because “I” believe its true, it doesn’t make it true. If I’m expressing my opinion, then is it verifiable and true?
And: newspapers do get done for defamation… they obviously don’t report that they got sued in the newspapers do they? (it might affect the papers circulation)
Anyway, I might still republish the offending article at some point in the future… I can’t stand to let someone get away with being a corporate bully.
A very interesting post and yes I suppose there are some grey areas like you said, but if your offending article is true and can be backed up with evidence then I can’t see a problem posting it but I’ve never seen it so it’s hard to comment further on it.
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