I just did something I never thought I had to do: Delete a post. I got an email from my web host (Best1Hosting, cool guys and always very helpful.) indicating that they were served with a Cease and Desist from a Law firm regarding a post from this blog made in 2008.
Being that I am not with extensive cash reserves or even very little ones (Damned Florida Lotto still refuses to go my way) and the last thing I want is to harm in any way my webhost who have provided me with a great service for several years now, I took the “Offending” post out. It grates me the wrong way, but sometimes Discretion is the better part of valor.
In that now removed post (legal eagles pay attention, it is removed as per your threat), I describe my saga with a gun company located in the Lower 48 (I am afraid that if I am more specific, I might get sued) regarding a off spec part for one of the long guns they sell, what I considered poor customer support and how I refused to acquire their replacement because of its outrageous price.
Now here is the funny thing: I am (was) an overall defender of this particular company and this particular semi-imported long gun from a former Soviet country. Even though among aficionados the particular model this company sells is known for its rough finish, less than careful re-assembly and with the looks of a coyote ugly date, I thought that it was a great deal for the price it was sold and for people in search of that type of long gun but with restricted budget.
Unfortunately the company or its legal representatives decided that a complaint posted on my blog and documented with their emails was demeaning and hurtful to their business or whatever legal terms they used in their Cease and Desist. If you think about it, the solution is quite stupid, I am sure it is costing them more in legal fees to have my post removed than actually sending me the part I needed for half their quoted price (and that would have brought it about the same price of the on spec parts easily available at any retailer) and have a customer happy.
I am tempted to contact the lawyers and ask them if they are taking legal actions against some major newspapers and less known journalist (but paid in part by the Joyce Foundation and others) in obscure “News” websites that had been beating the crap out of their client in their publications. Apparently, the same long gun I own seems to be in favor by certain criminal enterprises south of the border and it is regularly bemoaned by the Brady Campaign, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, the Violence Policy Center and the rest of Anti Gun entities that would love to see them go under and in jail for providing a product protected by the Second Amendment.
I guess it is time for me to start saving for a Colt M4.
To my readers. If I can figure out how to, I’ll be blocking the comments for this particular post just to cover my butt and possibly yours. If I cannot figure it out, I’ll delete any post that guesses correctly the company, the product, the law firm and anything that can be used to identify any of them. It suck, I know.
Sorry about that.
yeah I had a similar problem recently. A blog post on my OTHER blog[IOW not 2×4] about an author who had a meltdown and went apeshit over a bad review and then proceeded to berate the reviewer and any one who came to their defense. In my post I had a note from the stupid twats PUBLIC [IOW not friends only] facebook wall, asking her fans to come to the seller site and defend her honor…a note which I copied and pasted with all do diligence and credit to the author. Along with my myriad thoughts on the matter and a link to the meltdown. I just recently had the host site for my blog block it. I told them to feel free to ask me to delete it. I don’t care…I’ll just repost it somewhere else. I’m nothing if not a vindictive prick when pushed. It should be noted that on the review thread that the author in question either came to her senses or her publisher caught wind of it and saw it, read her the riot act…because she deleted ALL her responses to the thread. Man it was freakin epic. Anyway my host site got a ‘copy right’ violation dealy bopper from either the stupid idiot in question or her lawyers. Can’t have evidence she’s a fucking fool out there for anyone to find, now can we? I wonder if the other blog pages on that host site that did posts with some of the actual copied and archived posts she made in her meltdown, got the same treatment?
I swear that the over use and abuse of lawyers anytime somebody feels slighted is pathetic.
The worst part is that this company is being targeted by the antis and the feds so, why the hell are you going after a gun blogger whose default position will be to support you ? Now and thanks to their own stupidity, I won’t be able to use my blog to defend them because I have been threatened with legal actions if I speak my mind.
Easy target? Pecking-order-establishment?
In any case, you know you are going to have to take this to email now, right…? 😉
I think Marketing was given a blank check on what to do to preserve the company’s honor and never talked to anyone in management or production.
Which means they are dumber than a bucket of bolts. I will assume I am not the only one targeted, people are gonna figure out who is doing this crap and their honor is gonna continue to get more hits. Gun Owners are a ornery bunch, if not ask Tomkins plc after they bought Smith & Wesson and signed the deal with the Clinton Administration.
If history is any guide (it is), often you find that this sort of thing tends to work about as well as removing a splinter with a chainsaw: one doesn’t just make the problem worse, one makes it waaaaaaaay worse. You can go from one guy posting “This company sucks” to a whole lot of people posting “This company sucks, and are mean stupid jerks to boot”.
People call this ‘bad word of mouth’. It is not a good thing.
Seems some of the famous Cracked Addled Monkeys have moved from QC into the Legal department.
I shall be truthful…..
These e-mails are often just paper tigers meant to scare people into avoiding legal fees. I’m not sure what laws they thought you broke, but it doesn’t sound to me like you did anything that wouldn’t be covered under free speech. If you aren’t content to let the matter drop, you may consider a consultation with an attorney just for advice. After my first demand letter I scheduled a meeting with an attorney, who listened to my story for about thirty minutes, offered some advice, and never even charged me. It might be worth your time to look into that, if you were so inclined.
I will abuse a friend of mine who is a good lawyer and ask his opinion for kicks’ sake.
But I am doing more for my webhost than anything else. The company has always been great to me and they do not deserve being involved in some legal BS because some idiots got butthurt about what I had to say.
I can understand your feelings to protect your host company. It is odd that they did not contact you directly regarding the post, but they probably felt your host was an easier target. That being said, I hope you don’t look back on this and regret taking down the post because you were bullied. If I recall correctly, if being sued for libel or slander the burden of proof is on the prosecution. Good luck with your attorney friend.
Theirs is the smart way to go. What are they going to get suing me? My mortgage & debts? A couple of guns? Going after the webhost even if they don’t get squat in the long end, puts pressure on them by having to go to the legal mattresses and spend monies they could be use to improve their equipment or even give themselves a well deserved Christmas Bonus on defending the actions of a single “unimportant” client. I am sure they were not happy when they notified me the post had to come down, but I cannot fault them. The fault lies on this unnamed gun company, plain and simple.
PS: The tag “unimportant” I give it to myself. Best1Hosting has always treated me like I generate them a million bucks a month instead of a couple of hundred a year. Tim and his cadre are people you want to do business with and I have been doing for 10 years.
And that just gives me more of an incentive to also go with a Colt 6920 instead of Brand X. Good job legal department!
You should have refused to remove the post. This is still a free country. We still have the right to call a company out for bad customer service.
I understand and agree with what you said. But there are more ways to skin a legal cat than just court challenges.
Like mirror sites…
Being a dealer, I have a pretty good idea who the company is. I have heard some horror stories from some of my customers. Especially about rifles manufactured with some American and some foreign parts. Mostly head space issues in rifles that have the barrel and the receiver welded. It’s a shame they resort to such things over bad customer service.
If you shop around, you can build a M4 for about 700 bucks. I just built myself a A2 for around 650. If your reasonably handy they are pretty easy to do.
Did you do what I did? save it to your hard drive? I fully intend to repost mine later with some fairly nasty additions about freedom of speech, fair use legalese and useless twats who don’t want people to know how STUPID they are, so either they or their lawyers file copyright infringement complaints against people who criticize them.
Please shoot me an email so I can give you a call. We have our own lawyers standing by.