[thechat] Frivolous lawsuit

[Kath]

At 03:26 PM 4/5/02 +0530, Madhu wrote:
>Yet another lawsuit in USA, that litigious country.  :)
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/04/04/aquatic_plants/index.html

This is a very disturbing trend especially in a country (mine <g>) whose
First Amendment guarantees Free Speech

Granted you have to be responsible for how you use that privilege, we can't
allow businesses to sue their critics and get away with it.

The Church of Scientology is suing these people --> http://www.xenu.net/

I also read about a car dealership suing someone who criticized their
service on a bulletin board.  Don't have the details, but it was a
dealership down south in Georgia, I think.

On my local front, a reporter was fired from a very tiny shopper newspaper
because he refused to cease pursuing a story of corruption in a neighboring
town government.  The paper had been recently bought by a local media giant
and they decided (we can only guess why <g>) that the story shouldn't be
published.

A guy who runs a local news site - http://www.fairlawnnews.com - tried to
publish the reporters story.  He was told by the media giant's lawyers that
if he did, they would sue him.

I'm really getting tired of these big corporations throwing their weight
around.  They never go after the big guys only those who can ill afford to
defend such suits.  They see the internet as a threat because people all
over the world can communicate their dissatisfaction to so many others in
such a short time.  This is good IMO - we need to get the word about
dishonest and unethical business practices out.

 From Long Island Business News ..
"And what did Resler learn?

'I'm holding my tongue,' he said. 'All I need is for him to file another
lawsuit. The guy's using the courts to bully and he's willing to spend
money and we're not.

'Being naive, we figured we'd get justice from the courts. But the man with
the deepest pockets wins.'"

IMO - we have to do our best to reverse this trend.

Kath ...
Me --> www.cyber-kat.com
work --> www.winebow.com