I posted about a product a while ago which has become a bit of a battle ground between customers and the supplier concerned (147 comments so far). I've now just got the following email from the company concerned and am after advice on how to proceed. The thread in question is this one about the M300.
If you didn't make any of the comments, you are generally afforded some protection in US (although libel laws are different in the UK). Of course that doesn't mean you couldn't be sued. In the US, posters can be held liable for their posts and the company could go to court to obtain a court order forcing you or your hosting company to turn over IP addresses and any other information that could be used to obtain the identity of the posters. Are the comments moderated? Do you have to approve them? There can be a grey area when you selectively choose which posts to allow (which is why Yahoo message boards are generally unmoderated other than for TOS violations like profanity). The other potential concern would be the images. Are they yours or did you have permission to use them? If the images were owned by the company, and you used them without permission, they could potentially come after you for copyright infringement. I wouldn't give this company anything or even correspond with them unless you do so on the advice of an attorney. This is most likely a scare tactic, but you never know how far a company is willing to go or spend on legal fees. As a pure business decision, if you removed the entire page and comments, it would likely end your dealings with them. If you want to fight it on principal, you should obtain an attorney.
Thanks for taking the time to respond mjewel. The comments are pretty much unmoderated, I delete spam and profanities and that's about it. As for the images, you are quite right they could get there. I also think they are doing this as a bit of a scare tactic. I do have high principles on freedom of speech so I would be prepared to invest money in defending a case, I also have a fair few friends in various blog circles who I'd hope would support me. At the very least it would be excellent link bait I know Shoemoney had a case about comments, I'll check his site out and see what else I can find.
I know about copyright but nothing about liabilities of allowing freedom of speech on your site. That’s a pain in the arse and quite a thread! Personally I’d just take the safe route which would be to let one of the complainers to take a copy of the thread so far and host and continue the discussion elsewhere which you would be entitled to link to from your blog for reference if you wished and remove the thread. Its long since gone past discussing the pros/cons of the product anyway so isn’t really applicable but you can link to the new thread which should be put on a website/host that doesn’t have to worry about such threats. I’d ignore the indemnity request that’s just trying to put the wind up you. More than likely your fine as it is but anyone telling you anything on forums is just more hearsay and paying for actual legal advice that’s guaranteed is an expense that’s you don’t need, some times it is just easier to back down even though your not in the wrong. That’s just my opinion though, can’t really advise in a legal capacity m’lud
To be honest, any company that gets involved in threads about their own products/services is asking for trouble! What you've got there is grade A linkbait. Most companies know nowadays not to get involved in these sorts of things as it just draws attention to it and it spirals out of control, not these guys though!
They have to prove loss of bussiness direclty because of you. Else they cant do much.... I would'nt remove it.
You do not need to prove monetary losses in libel per se cases. If a company sues you in the US, you will be out legal fees which will run thousands of dollars and you don't get that back even if you win.
That first line says that they think you (or your employees) are the one(s) posting. They should be told that the comments are part of an open forum. The big question here is, are the comments factual? If they are indeed true, they would have a tough time proving libel, because absolute truth is one of the main defenses.
Yeah, thats what I ws just about to say. I read the first 30 comments and non of them were even partially related to libel providing they are true but to be fair, it wont get that far. A review is a review, you can stop people from explaining their opinions. I dont think anything will result from this and if they do go to court, its quite frivilous.
Thanks for the advice and responses, I've decided to take professional legal advice and will report on what happens. I do have strong principles on freedom of speech and hate being told what to do so I will be investing a bit of money into this if required.
Guys, dct is British and the company is Australian. Have you talked to them on the phone? Nice blog with solid traffic
Oh drats, I'm too late to read the comments I'll have to keep checking back on this, as I am also an advocate of free speech
ya i would remove the topic to be safe everyone is either sueing some one for a lil $$ that can be earned if you work hard and put your mind to it