OT Speaking your mind can be costly

Posting Critical Comments Can Land You in Court Mercury News July 17, 2006 By Elise Ackerman When an eBay seller threatened to sue Bruce Ingrassia for leaving negative feedback, Ingrassia thought he was bluffing. Two months later a warrant arrived at his Santa Clara home from a small-claims court in a tiny town in a remote corner of Virginia. The seller accused Ingrassia of defamation of character and asked for a judgment of $1,945. All over the country, Internet users are discovering they can be sued for what they say online, as they vent their spleen on message boards, blogs and Web sites. Like Ingrassia, they are faced with the choice of hiring a lawyer to defend themselves in a distant courtroom or not showing up and risking an unfavorable judgment by default. ``EBay is supposed to be fun, not lawsuit city,'' Ingrassia said. In the past year, other companies such as Yahoo, Google and Microsoft have started asking users to rate, rank and review everything from local restaurants to the behavior of their last boyfriend, mostly in return for the thrill of seeing their comments published and sometimes for a small payment or other compensation. But as the Internet becomes an integral part of people's daily lives, it increasingly reflects social and business behavior common to the offline world, including lawsuits over real or perceived defamation. While the number of defamation lawsuits sparked by online comments is not known, legal experts say they appear to be growing as Internet use expands. According to investment bank SG Cowen, 67 percent of U.S. households will have residential access to the Internet this year. ``I don't think that people generally understand all the legal risks associated with disseminating their thoughts online,'' said Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University and former legal counsel of Epinions.com, a publisher of reviews and rankings that was acquired by eBay. Companies such as eBay typically don't emphasize the risks run by users with little legal knowledge -- in part because courts have not held providers of interactive computer services to be liable for information provided by their users. The Communications Decency Act states, ``No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.'' `Nasty letters' ``We got lots of nasty letters,'' Goldman said of repeated lawsuit threats Epinions.com received over negative reviews. ``My answer to all those people was the same, take it up with the person who wrote what you object to.'' Information on ``defamation'' is not highlighted anywhere in eBay's online forum devoted to feedback, even though eBay's user policy specifically forbids it. In contrast, traditional publishers, such as newspaper companies, school their writers in the nuances of defamation, which is defined as a false statement to a third party that hurts someone's reputation. Libel is publishing that statement. Buried deep in eBay's site there is a note informing users that negative feedback will not be removed and that the user -- not eBay -- will be held responsible if it is found to constitute libel or defamation. Users disregard such caveats at their peril. ``There are gobs of lawsuits around defamation online,'' said John Palfry, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. ``Increasingly it matters what people say about you online.'' Late last month, Pittsburgh attorney Todd Hollis sued a Miami dating Web site, DontDateHimGirl, after anonymous postings accused him of dating multiple women at a time and made other accusations about his personal life. John Orie, an attorney representing Hollis, said he has since received calls ``from all over the country,'' from other men who also want to file lawsuits. ``Lots of those claims didn't have merit and lots of the individuals receiving them didn't have resources to figure out what their rights were and how to respond,'' said Wendy Seltzer, an assistant professor at the Brooklyn Law School. ``There are a lot of empty threats.'' Hani Durzy, an eBay spokesman, said the online marketplace occasionally hears about users who take each other to court, usually over unsatisfactory transactions. The San Jose company does not intervene in such cases, he said, and so far has not been held liable. Ingrassia, 56, was surprised to learn of eBay's hands-off policy after he e-mailed the company asking for help. He said he feels betrayed. A member of eBay for almost seven years, Ingrassia sells custom-made dog car seats that he crafts himself. This spring, Ingrassia ordered a nutritional gel from Michael Kalmus, an eBay vendor with the screen name ``Carrymore.'' Ingrassia said he and his wife had been drinking Mona Vie juice, a nutritional supplement featured on the Oprah Winfrey show, and were interested in a gel that they could take with them on trips. Kalmus did not return phone calls and e-mails from the Mercury News asking about the dispute. Ingrassia said the gel sold by Kalmus tasted terrible. He said he asked Kalmus to give him a refund and offered to ship back the unopened gel packets at his own cost. Ingrassia also did some research and said he found out that the manufacturer had discontinued the purple gel packets that tasted badly and was selling reformulated green packets. Angry exchange When Kalmus refused to grant a refund, Ingrassia posted the following feedback: ``BEWARE! -- Don't buy Purple Monavie Gel Packs -- they taste awful -- buy the New Green 1s.'' Kalmus, replied: ``We Shipped Factory-Sealed Product FAST. We Are Not Responsible for YOUR Taste.'' Kalmus also threatened to sue for defamation. ``I said, `Ha, ha, how can you sue someone for leaving negative feedback on eBay?' '' Ingrassia said. ``Go ahead.'' Ingrassia also added a final comment: ``Your (sic) selling old product -- 5 people tasted it & all reacted the same way -- gagging.'' Because of a post office snafu, the notice from the Virginia court did not arrive at Ingrassia's home in Santa Clara until two days after the hearing had been scheduled. Case dismissed Ingrassia talked to a lawyer and tried for nearly a month to reach the court. On Tuesday, he learned that the case had been dismissed. ``This lawsuit has caused me a lot of grief and time,'' Ingrassia said. ``The bottom line is, I was sued in small-claims court for leaving bad feedback on eBay, which proves anybody can be sued on eBay for doing the same, but no one knows that.''

Silly people with silly little problems in their heads.

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Bob (aka bobporsche996): Wherever you are I apologize for the things I posted here on Rennlist about the P-car you bought at a Ford dealership, and I do believe it caught fire as many times you said... Best!