Klarinet Archive - Posting 000468.txt from 1997/10

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: censure
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 15:07:29 -0400

Sean's post is important to be aware of. However, stating an opinion
about a product on a listserv is an exercise of your right to free speech.
You are neither defaming a person nor an institution. Beyond that, any
good attorney would recognize immediately that such a potential lawsuit
could and probably would:
1. Be thrown out of court
2. Cause the party bringing the lawsuit to be liable for
bringing a "frivolous" lawsuit to court
3. Open the prosecuting attorney are represented party to a
countersuit that could but would not be limited to
punative damages - potentally a large amount.

Roger Garrett

On Sun, 12 Oct 1997, SEAN TALBOT wrote:

> A couple years back (1995 I think) I posted a criticism of a certain
> clarinet related product which will remain nameless. Suddenly I started
> getting rather threatening messages that smelled like a lawyer had written
> them being sent to me. I explained to them that I was stateing my opinion
> and nothing more, but this wasn't good enough for them so I just stopped
> sending anything to these people and to the list for awhile. Sometimes I
> worry about company reps. on this list because it gives the feal of Big Brother
> watching over everything. Not that they don't have a place on this list. . .
> they do and can offer useful information. I'm just a lowly college student
> here trying to learn what I can. I'm not sure this is directly related to
> topic at hand because I missed the first posts with "censure" in the subject:.
>
> Sean Talbot
> talbotse12@-----.edu
> Music Education Major
> University of Wisconsin - Whitewater
> http://www.geocities.com/vienna/strasse/2859
>