Whirlpool Owner Sued Over Forum Comments
Whirlpool Owner Sued Over Forum Comments
September 12, 2007: Simon Wright, the owner of popular Australian Broadband forum Whirlpool has been sued by accounting firm 2Clix for lost sales resulting from negative feedback in two online forum threads.
The company has lodged a statement of claim with the Queensland Supreme cost for $150,000 damages resulting from lost revenue and to have the forum threads “2Clix or not 2Clix?” and “Anyone used 2Clix?” permanently removed from the website.
2Clix’s legal action has already begun to do more harm then good for the company as the backlash from internet users begins to take shape. Since word of the case broke out, Whirlpool has had an explosion of interest in the matter with over 120 pages of discussion and climbing. People who had no idea who 2Clix were before are now being alerted to the events, and thus far reactions are have been far from positive.
Whirlpool has been careful to try and avoid further problems with all the interest being generated asking users to “respect Simon's right to a fair trial and not prejudice his case. Users should refrain from doing anything that might expose Simon to contempt of court such as making statements that prejudge the outcome of the case” written in a statement on the Whirlpool main page.
A guilty verdict would result in a tremendous blow for online forum communities as it would force owners to moderate content more so then they do now. Modern forum moderation is usually concerned with removing inappropriate content such as swearing and individual harassment, not the policing of free speech. Online forums are currently considered to be a haven for open discussion and the exchanging of ideas, which would be under threat if more cases like the Whirlpool one eventuate.
Dale Clapperton, chairman of the online users lobby group Electronic Frontiers Australia, told SMH that 2Clix was using the law to silence its critics. "It might mean the end of criticising companies' products and services online", as "any company will be able to demand that people's criticisms of them be deleted off websites, and if they don't comply they'll sue" Roberts said.
Legal action over forum posts are actually not an entirely new thing, back in 2001 the major Australian Overclocking & Hardware website, Overclockers Australia (OCAU) ran into legal strife when hardware reseller Sunlit sued OCAU over comments made in its ‘vendor verdicts’ forum. That case was ended before reaching a judgement, but still saw quite high legal bills for the sites owner, James Rolfe. Interestingly OCAU implemented a strict Defamation policy and removed all references to sunlit from its website when the case shut down.
Legal action over forum posts are actually not an entirely new thing, back in 2001 the major Australian Overclocking & Hardware website, Overclockers Australia (OCAU) ran into legal strife when hardware reseller, Sunlit sued OCAU over comments made in its ‘vendor verdicts’ forum. That case was ended before reaching a judgement, but still saw quite high legal bills for the sites owner, James Rolfe. Interestingly OCAU implemented a strict Defamation policy, shut down its ‘vendor verdicts’ forum and removed all references to sunlit from its website when the case shut down.
For a company who were so concerned with their online reputation that they launched legal action over the matter, it makes no sense that they wouldn’t consider the possibility that they were actually making it far worse. A plethora of users from the website have come out in sympathy with Whirlpool’s plight, along with pledges of support from other online forums and websites.
The public support for Whirlpool has been so strong that a string of donations towards legal fee’s have been sent through to Mr Wright without any call for them. News travels fast on the internet, and to openly attack a popular and well respected Australian broadband website seems to have only invited far worse levels of ill will then the original two forum threads ever did. Blog posts, forum threads, chat rooms and other social networking discussion is lighting up over the topic with none of it favourable towards 2Clix, a trend that looks set to continue