Video Professor, a company that uses infomercials to sell computer-training lessons, sued 100 anonymous "John Doe" posters who expressed their opinions about the company on various online forums, including http://www.infomercialratings.com. The company's lawsuit claims that the griping posters violated federal trademark laws by saying negative things about the company, and committed defamation and several violations of state law. After filing suit, the company sent subpoenas to the operator of the websites, demanding the release of the posters' identifying information and the IP addresses from which they made the posts. Here's the complaint and the company's motion to subpoena the anonymous posters' identity. The challenged posts are here and here. The Internet has become the preeminent forum for consumers to share information about products and services online. Courts have recognized that the First Amendment protects the right to post criticism anonymously, noting the risk that critical opinions would be chilled if the identity of anonymous critics could too easily be revealed. Indeed, Video Professor's own website advises consumers to search for customer reviews online:
[I]f you decide to use a lesser-known merchant, there are a few things you can do to check out the seller and make sure he’s legit. For one, you can visit the Federal Trade Commission’s Web site for links to consumer protection resources, including lists of complaints lodged against businesses. You also have the option of searching the business section of a major search engine, where you can view company profiles and customer reviews of that company’s products and services. Last but not least, you can request that a seller send you a catalog or other information about his or her company.
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My colleague Paul Levy sent a letter to Video Professor today objecting to the subpoena.
Posted by Greg Beck on Friday, September 21, 2007 at 02:44 PM in Free Speech, Intellectual Property & Consumer Issues, Internet Issues, Privacy | Permalink TrackBack
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Comments
I would be happy to provide my full name, address, and phone to Videoprofessor so they can serve me with a subpeona because I just sent truthful facts to http://informercialratings.com. I did not express my opinion, only the facts. Futher, I read some of the comments by others and I they were far more explicit and open than the videoprofessor commercials. I certainly that hope that video professor does pursue civil litigation and those named as defendants file a countersuit and produce their own infomercials to educate others and attract other plaintiffs in a class action suit.
Posted by: Ron K | Monday, September 24, 2007 at 01:06 PM
This issue is important to consumers! This is a draconian attack on the very foundation of the First Amendment Speech. An entity or a person with 'deep' pockets believes he can suppress Free Speech through financial intimidation is no different than a foreign junta or a dictatorial regime arresting their opponents for their expression of free speech through military or police action.
Can you imagine where this would lead? Let's warp this ahead in time and say that Video Professor is successful in his suit against the defendants in this case. According to an article in the Denver Post, he promises to take this all the way up to the Supreme Court. Would this not have a chilling effect on every negative review of a product, movie, politician, corporate business practice, restaurant, movie etc.? Could not this open the legal floodgates for anyone who has received a negative review claiming the same cause for libel and defamation? I would lead you to another similar celebrated cases being fought against a book review at various places on the web.
http://richarddawkins.net/articl...n-a-blog-post,Boing-Boing or
Here:
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/0...writer-sued-for-a-ne.html.
Here:
http://www.angiegotsued.com/
Would this not suppress every critic out there or limit their comments in a fog of possible litigation?
The bottom line is this. Can a person or a corporate entity who has unlimited financial and legal resources be able to use the judicial system to suppress the Free Speech of outspoken critics who he KNOWS does not have access to those same resources? Litigation in the court system is expensive.
A lawyer can bury the other side in paperwork with legal tactics and strategies using depositions, interrogatories, subpoenas, delays, appeals etc. There is no way that the average consumer has the economic resources to legally fight such a strategy and they knows this. So in effect, they are able silence their critics by De Facto litigation. However, the chilling aftermath of all this is a suppression of the basic First Amendment Rights and Consumer Advocacy.
More comments at URL, if interested.
Posting this because I am sick of his ad, and the glassy eyed 'adult woman' (whose 3 year old daughter is smarter than she is half of the time, carry the one), who 'really lernd-a-lot frum the excel,guhaa haa..dohdeedohdoh