This is interesting, and also very unfortunate. Because of this, I will not purchase one or more Pomas for the work I'm doing. I will likely never purchase a Xybernaut product at all, and I ask you all to consider this situation. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,50548,00.html "Dan Whatley has a few words of advice for those inclined to flame the CEO of an unpopular company. Whatley learned last week he had lost a $450,000 defamation lawsuit for statements he had made about a company called Xybernaut on an Internet message board. He said he didn't even know the suit existed." Xybernaut sued him for defamation over message board postings where he criticizes the CEO and vice-chairman of Xybernaut. From the article: '"I have been dealing with the Newmans and XYBR and they are the most incompetent management I have ever seen," the suit quoted Whatley writing in one post, under his handle, dan7. "If Steve Newman was not a relative his job would consist of ... 'Would you like fries with that?'" Whatley also called the Newmans "liars" in several different posts.' These types of lawsuits are called SLAPPs, Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation; essentially corporate quelling of free speech. The claims, to qualify as defamation, have to appear as statements of fact, not just as opinion. Dan Whatley likely lost simply because he didn't appear in court, and I believe the claims that he was never notified of the suit to begin with: In May of 2001, I was sued by American Express, and lost. I found out about it in January of 2002. When suits are delivered to your door, at least in New York State, they're hand-delivered by courier to *your address*. The courier certifies that it was delivered, and that's good enough. If you're not home, and it blows away because it was just tossed on your front porch, tough luck; the only person you can sue is the courier. If you don't even live at the address they decided to deliver to, also tough luck. Sue the courier, because you can't take back the lawsuit that you lost eight months ago. If Xybernaut and its management are petty and invective enough to frivolously sue over message board posts that they simply don't like, then I will not do business with them. SLAPPs are unacceptable corporate practices in my book. I urge you all to reconsider your relationships with them as well. Thanks, --Vito -- Subscription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with subject of "subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" toWear-Hard Mailing List Archive (searchable): http://wearables.blu.org Please, *PLEASE* don't subscribe through a forward/expander/false domain
From Wear-Hard Mailing list Archive (WH)
Maintained by R. Paul McCarty
Archive created with babymail