fk@kos.rci.dk (Fleming Kraglund) (02/24/90)
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. 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) And if they really want to threaten you to shut up, there's something roung somewhere Flemming Kraglund -- fk@rci.dk (I hate .sig files)
jrg@Apple.COM (John R. Galloway Jr.) (02/24/90)
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. > [lines deleted] Whether it is illegal or not MAY not matter to the party bringing the suit. They call them SLAP suits (which stand for something I recal) and the intent is to intimidate the entity being sued (I AM NOT SAYING THAT THIS IS WHAT 3COM WAS DOING, I HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF THAT CASE). I recently saw an "article" on McNeil/Leher about a study showing that this type of case is definetly on the rise. The reported study indicated that it is the hassle and expense of going to court that is being used as a weapon, not the results of the case. Most such cases that DO go to court are won by the defendent (the entity being sued), some have even won large countersuits showing that their constitutional rights were violated but, most SLAP cases do NOT go to trial (again from the M/L report). -- internet jrg@apple.com John R. Galloway, Jr. applelink d3413 CEO..receptionist human (408) 259-2490 Galloway Research These are my views, NOT Apple's, I am a GUEST here, not an employee!!
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (02/25/90)
In article <537@kos.rci.dk> fk@kos.rci.dk (Fleming Kraglund) writes: >Isn't that illegal. > >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) In a word, no, not necessarily. The freedom-of-speech amendment just prohibits laws infringing on freedom of speech (and even that prohibition has been eaten away a bit in obscenity cases and such), i.e. it prohibits the *government* from objecting when you say something. There is no rule stopping somebody else, e.g. your employer, from taking offence and doing something legal but unfriendly, e.g. assigning you to cleaning toilets. More specifically, you can be sued by anybody over anything. They are unlikely to win unless they're suing over some realistic harm done to them, but in this case even that might be present -- that's what libel laws are about. There are limited exemptions for certain situations (e.g. if you were telling the truth and can prove it), but that doesn't stop them from suing you, it just makes it difficult for them to win. People who are in the business of criticizing products (e.g. Consumer Reports) or making fun of people (e.g. Mad magazine) have lawyers on hand at all times. (Mad gets sued so often that their lawyer is listed on their masthead with the rest of the staff!) -- "The N in NFS stands for Not, | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology or Need, or perhaps Nightmare"| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
fk@kos.rci.dk (Fleming Kraglund) (02/26/90)
Followups to misc.legal, news.admin (as sugested by Steve Elias) You are probably right, it's all the trouble of going through a court that should 'scare' you to shut your mouth. Let's hope that we don't see any of those here. And if we do, we could always flood their mailbox though..... Anyway I hope to see both good things and bad things about different products (have you ever heard of a product without faults?) -- 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)