What is "too much?"
This whole Varian case still really bugs me. When is someone expressing their opinion too much? Is it just how many times they say the same thing? Does it matter if it's a negative or positive opinion? What if it's a parody, sarcasm, joke?
There's a guy who pickets in front of the whitehouse every day almost all day long. He's done it for I think 20 years plus. He's against something, I actually forget what, maybe just the government. He wears a sign and yells all day long and even hands out flyers. Has he crossed the line? Is that similar to 14,000 posts? Should he be sued? I don't think so.
I will agree that 14,000 posts is a lot though on a couple of boards that I cover that have tons of lying stock promoters that post misleading dd, I post the same honest dd post once a day, cut and paste, just so newbies will know what's up. It's not like Day and Delfino followed them around town and yelled these things at people around them. They also didn't call up all their business associates and friends and tell them things, as far as I know. They posted it on their website and on public message boards. People had to go there to read it. Maybe a disclaimer on their site would have been a good way to avoid this. The Yahoo tos states don't believe what you read. I would think that someone putting up a personal website about their opinions about a public company would be pretty similar. A normal person would realize it's just someone's opinion. It's not like they wrote newspaper articles or rented time on TV to air their opinions. When people post that I'm a child porn star, I doubt there's anyone that believes it as it's not coming from a credible source, just some person on the internet.
I really hope they appeal though don't know how they can considering their financial situation. Not only is this situation bad for them, but it's bad for the rest of us. I still believe the judge and his jury instructions were wrong. I think Day and Delfino did voice their personal opinions loudly, often and perhaps sometimes in poor taste, but I still don't think it was wrong. I have a guy who's been following me online for four years saying that I'm a two bagger slut with boobs like fried eggs hanging on a nail and I'm not suing him, even if he had some money.
I think the Varian people should have ignored Day and Delfino and they might have stopped eventually when they were done venting. |
