Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Business Wire Falls for April Fools Prank, Sues FBNers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Howard C. who wrote (1424)	5/3/1999 12:47:00 AM
From: Graystone	Respond to of 3795

The Looking Glass or Suddenly, it dawned. A line of reasoning that can only be pursued as far as the actions warrant. It is conceivable that Business could have developed some concerns about the misuse of the service they offer. In such an event it would have been appropriate to modify the service agreement to reflect that new concern. They did not do this to the best of my knowledge. They have decided to pursue the Webnode3 for reasons outlined in the complaint. Those reasons, which may be enough to generate legitimate documents, do not explain why Business Wire decided to take action against someone not perpetrating a fraud upon the public, but actually educating a wide circle of readers to one of the primary tenets of smart investing on the OTC:BB (look an oxymoron) Don't call the company. Oh yes, that person you asked about Howard, off with his head

To: Howard C. who wrote (1424)	5/3/1999 1:25:00 AM
From: Level Head	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3795

Or could it be that they were sensitive to the fact that only a few days before, someone pilfered a financial web page and printed information about a stock that sent it soaring before the plot was uncovered. Howard, are you referring to the PAIR bogus press release? The Webnode press release was, of course, on April 1. Was not the PAIR fraud later, on April 7? (#reply-8754056) Should, or should not, have that person been arrested and fired from their job? Frankly, I'd like to see him have his PAIR removed. I understand that the FBI arrested someone for this stunt on April 15. The Business Wire suit was later yet, on April 26, and appears from statements quoted here to be more of a petulant reaction to the spoof rather than a case grounded in proper theory and based on real harm. I agree with your implication that the Webnode suit was at least partially motivated by an emotional backlash from the PAIR incident, since the suit came later. No matter whether anyone lost money on this, first, the timing after this incident just mentioned was incredibly ill considered and risky, and, second, people and organizations get equally or more upset when they are made to look like fools as compared to when they lose cash. Since WebNode.com came first, I agree that the PAIR timing was ill considered, although I think you honestly misremembered, or were not aware of, the actual sequence of events. But, the issue of lost money (more accurately, money gained fraudulently by Webnode) is indeed important to Business Wire's case and cause. And, in spite of the allegations, there was no money gained. I believe that all here are aware that the intent of the FBN folks is to educate investors, and potential investors, about stock frauds and scams. They are effective at this, and it would be a laudable goal of Business Wire to help propagate this message. Sometimes it helps to illustrate what not to do; I have a video tape given to me by one of my attorneys titled "Sexual Harassment: A How-To Manual". It contains role-playing of obvious harassment events -- in fact, it was determined that even showing this to employees might itself be considered harassment! Level Head