eli@spdcc.COM (Steve Elias) (02/25/90)
followups to misc.legal and news.admin. In article <537@kos.rci.dk> fk@kos.rci.dk (Fleming Kraglund) writes: |eli@spdcc.COM (Steve Elias) writes: | ||i find it ironic that a 3com employee would slam one company and ||recommend another, as Norman does below. i made a similar recommendation ||regarding 3com ethernet cards and those of its competitors, and ||was promptly threatened with legal action by one of 3com's whining | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ||marketing twits who reads the net. my recommendation may have been ||a bit cruder than Norman's, and was less detailed. oh well... | |Isn't that illegal. i don't think it's illegal to threaten legal action... after all, you can sue someone over just about anything in this great land of ours! |If I (and I mean me [or at least the write of the article]) thinks |that a certain product dosn't deserve recommendation, but rater a |warnning, ain't I free to say so?. (free speach and friends) you certainly are, as was i. of course, 3com's marketing twits are free to threaten me with legal action, as well. it's a free country for them, too. the bottom line is that they could bankrupt me without batting as much as a legal eyelash, even if i did win in court. i could countersue for damages, and i might get my legal fees returned in a few years, long after i'm financially hosed by all the court costs. |And if they really want to threaten you to shut up, there's something |wrong somewhere you got that right. and i think i know where! |Flemming Kraglund |-- | fk@rci.dk (I hate .sig files) how do you feel about disclaimers, Flemming and misc.legal.eagles??? i don't believe usenet disclaimers can actually indemnify anyone personally, or indemnify site administration from legal action. it might help in court, but how is it going to stop a lawsuit??? -- /* eli@spdcc.com ; 617-932-5598 */ /* Plan B from Outer Space */
davecb@yunexus.UUCP (David Collier-Brown) (02/25/90)
eli@spdcc.COM (Steve Elias) writes:
[in a discussion of threatened legal action for stating an opinion]
The term "vexatious litigation" comes to mind... somehow these
actions never seem to actually occur. I suspect they're urban legends.
I can't comment on U.S. law, but I do recollect a person backing out of
such an action with amazing aclarity when one of his colleagues mentioned
the law society...
--dave (no, I'm not a lawyer) c-b
--
David Collier-Brown, | davecb@yunexus, ...!yunexus!davecb or
72 Abitibi Ave., | {toronto area...}lethe!dave
Willowdale, Ontario, | Joyce C-B:
CANADA. 416-223-8968 | He's so smart he's dumb.fk@kos.rci.dk (Fleming Kraglund) (02/26/90)
eli@spdcc.COM (Steve Elias) writes: [stuff deleted] >how do you feel about disclaimers, Flemming and misc.legal.eagles??? >i don't believe usenet disclaimers can actually indemnify anyone personally, >or indemnify site administration from legal action. it might help in court, >but how is it going to stop a lawsuit??? [more stuff deleted] I don't think that it will stop a lawsuit. But i've understood that countersues has been done (and won), couldn't you just refer to those cases. I'm wondering, what if I make a 'bad' recommendation sometime, can the producer sue me here in Denmark?. Quite scary to think of!!!!!. Should I leave the net to set my mind at peace? Or just become a passive reader? Actually this here is quite new to me, and now i'm wondering: may i speak my mind here? -- This is my OWN opinion fk@rci.dk (I hate .sig files) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1/2 * PS = PS/2 (half a computer) | 1/2 * OS = OS/2 (half an operating system)
drd@siia.mv.com (David Dick) (03/01/90)
davecb@yunexus.UUCP (David Collier-Brown) writes: >eli@spdcc.COM (Steve Elias) writes: >[in a discussion of threatened legal action for stating an opinion] > The term "vexatious litigation" comes to mind... somehow these >actions never seem to actually occur. I suspect they're urban legends. > I can't comment on U.S. law, Strategic Litigation Against Protesting People (I think that's how it goes) or SLAPP suits are becoming very popular in the US. They're based on the idea that you can sue anyone who causes you financial damage. Most or all of them eventually get thrown out of court, that is, those that make it that far. Many, many of them get settled out of court because the "speaker of truth" can't afford the legal battle. An example I seem to remember is of a doctor in California talking about all the nasty diseases than can occur in raw milk; he was sued by an association of "natural" milk producers that sell unpasteurized milk. So, legal action for stating an opinion is not "urban legend", unfortunately. Another anomaly in US justice. David Dick Software Innovations, Inc. [the Software Moving Company(sm)]