Another strike against the Digital Millenium Copyright Act! The anonymous owner of a real estate gripe site had had the site’s page removed by his ISP when the subject of the gripes — the real estate agency — complained it violated the agency’s copyright. No so, says the judge. The Cleveland Plain Dealer‘s Patrick O’Donnell reports:
A Web site dedicated to criticizing a Lorain County home builder won a court battle last month to stay on the Internet. Just as significantly, the owner maintained his ability to run the Web site anonymously.
The home builder in question, Powermark Homes, Inc., took exception to the site Powermark Homes Alert and its url, www.powermarkhomessucks.com. Public Citizen attorney Greg Beck argued on behalf of the site’s owner (“John Doe” in court documents).
The article continues:
Greg Beck, a lawyer who backed the Web site through the public interest group Public Citizen, said that barring an appeal, the site will remain up. He said that preserving the right to anonymous speech — whether to avoid harassment or firing or retribution or simply by preference — was key.
“It shows that in Ohio, what you say anonymously online will stay, unless someone has a very good reason to take that anonymity away,” Beck said.
Read more of what Public Citizen attorney Greg Beck has to say on this case in the Consumer Law & Policy Blog (from 2007).
Cindy
If only corporations would recognize the fact that providing a quality product or service, and taking care of problems in a timely manner, was the real path to keeping internet grip sites offline. The amount of money corporations and whole industries seem to spend on spin, public relations, legal fees, lobbying, and attempts to hamstring unhappy customers is enormous in comparison to just doing things right in the first place. I can only guess that doing things wrong–mainly by taking shortcuts and not honoring agreements–is overall more profitable, especially when lobbying takes care of laws that would make it easier to hold corporations accountable. However, the court of public opinion is judging these business practices even when cases never see trial, and consumers are tired of shoddiness, corruption, deception, and sleaziness in American businesses. Maybe that is also part of why consumer spending is down, (in addition to the wreck that American corporate greed has left our economy in).
January 10, 2009 at 1:28 pm
daniel pavon
Murder Suspects; Joe D Milner. Jami Milner Turner. Scott Jevon Milner are also wanted for fraud .Evidence at http://WWW.INJUSTICEOFJUSTICE.NET
February 14, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Anonymous
Corporate greed caused the current economic situation.
In a nut shell, corporate greed caused the imbalance leading to the current economic situation. While corporations steadily decreased quality of products & services, to make higher and higher profits, they steadily increased prices until they priced themselves right out of the market of what the middle class income could afford or the price we were willing to pay for junk.
In the past, if you were able paid a little more, you usually got a better quality product but, NOT ANY MORE. Weather you pay a higher price or not, you still get junk. Say you decide to spend more on a shirt or dress thinking this time maybe I’ll get my moneys worth and it will last a little longer but, again NO SUCH LUCK. You take it home, wear it and the first time you launder it or send it to the cleaners, it either falls apart, shrivels up or all the buttons fall off. If you buy a vacuum cleaner or electronic device and it actually works when you get it home, with poor quality parts, it only lasts for half the life things use to or until right after the warranty runs out. Then if you are lucky enough to have purchased something that lasts that long and lucky enough to get a live person, who speaks some form of understandable English, to help you with parts or service, they tell you the product is obsolete and parts and service are no longer available. It’s all becoming disposable crap designed to make you have to purchase the same product again and again.
Service? Ha, that’s another joke I could fill a page with but, won’t as we all know how thetas been going. Besides what I mentioned above, we all know, you can always seem to find the person to take your money in a store or pay your bill in a restaurant but, have a question or need something and no-one can be found. If you are able to corner someone, they haven’t a clue or are just standing around on their cell phone waiting to collect their paycheck. It’s sad that we now have to pay that price, for the extra buck companies make by hiring new people at minimum wage rather than keeping the conscientious hard working employee that will get my return business or when they think eye candy rather than service, is more important.
One way the government may be able to help the economy might be for them to step in and put a cap on the percentage of profit companies can make on products and services according to a standard or on the actual cost of what it takes to produce a product, to restore a balance. Unless something is done or some sort of minimum standards are set, nothing will change. The average American citizen is a lot smarter than you give us credit for and we’re fed up with way things have gotten so, wise up.
We also need to oust the evil that has taken over our media and reinstall morals, ethics, honesty, pride and honor in a hard days work back into our children. Even if it takes a light flop on the butt now and then to get their attention. Yes, a flop on the butt. There is a big difference between abuse and discipline and a light pat on the hand or butt, done thru love, never hurt anyone. Children that grow up feeling unloved with no structure or discipline in their lives are usually the ones who grow up selfish and self centered with no respect for their elders, or anyone for that matter and are more likely to be the ones to kill policemen, their parents, fellow students or bully, berate and badger someone else into that state of mind. We are tired of people who were never around or have never raised a child telling us how to do it, when we already know mild punishment, now and then, for wrong doing or bad behavior, along with plenty of love is a lot better than raising children with no manors who grow up to be animals with no respect for themselves or live in general.
Most of us are not asking for a lot. We just want what greed and the selfish will of a few have taken away from us. We want our children, quality of life and value for our money returned to us. And, some of us would also appreciate a warm place to have a darn cigarette in peace if it makes us happy and we choose to. That’s all.
March 3, 2009 at 2:16 am