Careful what you blog...
A blogger in Maine gets slapped with a lawsuit because he didn't like the ad campaign and basically posted it for the world to see. Wow, this is really sad. Last time I checked, we lived in the United States of America and as a citizen of this great nation, I was under the assumption that I was entitled to our constitutionally protected right to freedom of speech. Apparently that doesn't apply if you piss off a big corporation with more money than you and a legal team.
What I find even more disturbing is the ease in which such groundless lawsuits can be filed in todays legal system. When are we going to enact penalties against parties who file groundless lawsuits for their personal gain? When is enough enough? It isn't a crime to lawfully state your opinion in public. If big companies with teams of attorneys use this tactic to silence bloggers, what comes next? I am utterly sick to my stomach and cannot believe what this country has come to. This kind of retaliation against free speech is despicable, incomprehensible and legal action against the ad agency should be taken with extreme prejudice for wasting tax payers money and the courts time on such rubbish. Be sure to follwo the links in the story below and read the full scoop.
[ via Recently ]
Lance Dutson was just doing what bloggers do: reporting when they see something stupid. In this case, he thought his home state of Maine was flushing his tax money down the drain with a poor PR campaign for the state's tourism. Tourism is the number one money maker for the state.
But apparently that's not OK with Warren Kremer Paino Advertising , a New York-based ad agency who the State was hired to draft the campaign.
When Dutson reposted images that were currently viewable for public inspection on the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development website, and critiqued them... that was the final straw, and he was sued by Warren Kremer Paino Advertising claiming defamation, libel, and copyright infringement. To the tune of more than a million dollars.
Lance is a man who is a web designer and who has a family, and is a self-described "middle of the road" Maine citizen. But if he's looses, they'll be in the poor house.
All because Warren Kremer Paino Advertising is miffed that Lance didn't like their work.
I'm going out on a limb here... I don't like it either .
Comments
This type of suit is called a Slapp suit, which stands for strategic litigation against public participation, is an easy and often relatively inexpensive device available for shutting up members of the public who voice opposition to a proposed project. Most companies see this as a normal tool to be used in cases like this.
Posted by: Timbo | May 4, 2006 7:54 PM