Alan, I just had a return call from Mr. Peter Southward of Antares. He is their investor relations representative.
He did confirm that the Antares post of last evening was indeed posted by a company representative. They are pursuing the defamation charges against john at this time.
I asked him why they did not contact the webmistress instead of pursuing a legal course of action which will be costly for all parties involved , lawyers being the main and possibly only beneficiaries of such action, imo.
He replied that there had been complaints against John before and that the SI webmistress did little or nothing to remedy the situation. Therefore, they feel that they need to pursue this legal course of action.
He stated that the accusations of off shore accounts, etc, were not true and were damaging to the company, in his opinion. They have been monitoring the situation for a while and have decided that action against a slanderous, in their opinion, SI poster is in their best interest at this time.
I expressed my concern that a lowly SI poster will appear an opinionated, albeit angry, underdog and that perhaps legal action was taking this a bit far. A David and Goliath scenario will be started, imo.
I also mentioned that lawsuits are costly remedies, monetarily and from a public relations standpoint.
Mr. Southward was resolute that Antares needed to respond to the SI poster in a meaningful way, that people need to be held accountable for their statements and that recent court cases have helped them come to this decision.
I regret that a lawsuit is the only way that Antares thinks this issue can be resolved. I see it as a Lose/Lose. I guess they see it as a Win/Lose. It is all a matter of interpretation as far as I am concerned.
I told Mr. Southward that there are a lot of angry posters on a lot of threads, that we tend to ignore them. He responded that people need to be accountable for their actions.
Mr. Southward was informative, forthright and polite.
Good luck to all parties concerned, I personally regret that legal action is required to resolve this situation, I hope there is minimal blood spilled in this matter.
Regards, Cytotekk, a first amendment fan. |
