The Blackbox Debate

Strangejuice wrote:
> I highly doubt anyone is going to be "sued" here.

I've had two letters from law firms so far this year and have lost track of the number of people making threats based on "legal advice".

> It isn't easy to sue someone for defamation.

On the contrary, it is easy to sue for defamation. There are plenty of ambulance chasers that will gladly tell you that you've a strong case and will take your money to write threatening letters and mount a case.

It may not be easy to successfully sue for defamation. But you're never sure who they might pick a fight with. Invariably they seem to choose to go after anyone but the person who published the allegedly infringing information. It could be me, could be the ITA, could be individual committee members of that association, could be our hosts at Informed Technology, could be my ISP, or their ISP, the computer manufacturer... I've suggested they might want to go after the almighty for producing the electrons used in transmitting the allegedly infringing material.

I have a responsibility to act to protect the interest of others so that we're not sued for something that is nothing to do with us. 

> Let's everybody start getting a bit realistic here and a little less stuck in TV land.

The reality is that plenty of people do live in a TV land populated with american litigious trash.

Live and learn:

http://www.nswscl.org.au/journal/57/Potter.html

Cheers
Grant

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Director, actor and administrator of this website