http://www.msnbc.com/news/734035.asp#BODY

 

Perhaps this would be better suited for Off Topic?

 

 

Not neccessarily; I can see where he is coming from. We are often enough complaining about various dealers, sales people, service we received, etc. How long until one of them sues one of us for the opinion we express here?

A frivolous lawsuit IMNSHO, but who knows...

 

Geeze... let it be known that if anyone here gets sued for expressing an bad experience as a consumer, I will be the first to hold up my long, bony, middle finger to the company that is suing.

 

Freedom of speech is one thing, but hacking in is another. Security hole or not what he did was wrong. If you were walking down the street and saw someone's door open would you go in uninvited? I don't agree with the decision for the other people - that's just nuts. But if this guy had problems with shipping charges why not have the credit card company dispute the charges instead of infiltrating the vendor's computer systems?

 

The hacking issue is completely beside the point - the issue is the guy suing handfulls of people for expressing their dissatisfaction with his business. Remember the VW guy who was sued by a dealership because he posted his bad service experience? Same thing. He's even claimed he does lawsuits as a hobby. Personally, I find this sort of behavior entirely criminal, reprehensible, cruel and evil.

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/04/...ants/index.html
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/04/0...=thread&tid=153

From Slashdot conversations:
[QUOTE]by cameroncase on Thursday April 04, @12:29PM (#3285126)
Actually, that isn't exactly what happened. On that list there is a long time trend of getting advice on where to shop (think about it, there aren't that many places to buy aquatic plants...tiny hobbie). One guy offered his opinion. Dozens more chimed in with similar stories (not just "me too"). One guy's complaint was overcharged shipping, but there were many others (including delayed shipping running into the multiple weeks, dead plants upon arrival, etc). There are just too many people that agreed for me to think he made it up. Plus, check the history of the case. The plaintiff continuously adds people each time someone says something negative about this their experiences, or even about the suit. My favorite part? Two of the defendants are John Doe and Mary Roe (in essence anyone else from the APD that he decides to add). More confusion is that he has claimed, in another article [libn.com] that filing suits is his "hobby." He also admits that the court is five miles from him, so it is a short drive, while each defendant has to pay for a plane ticket and motel to appear in court. The guy enjoys this. Read some of the amended complaints he has written, some are funny, most are sad, and generally all are poorly written. Why? Oh, he's representing himself. Wait, you say, how can a non-lawyer represent a corporation (Pets Warehouse Inc.)? Well, it can't, but he is doing it anyway. As soon as they sort out whether or not his company is incorporated or a sole-proprietorship maybe this will go away (if is is INC as he says, he can't represent it). For more information (and trust me, this is more about free speech and the internet than it is about plants or aquariums) here are some sites: Forum for the suits discussion (generally pro defendants) [compuserve.com]

 

I am no lawyer myself, so I can't tell what constitute as sharing an experience and discussion and what as defamation. Just be careful what you say here.

 

are you referring to my story of my sales experience entitled 'bit the bullet in so cal'?

 

That's messed up. If I were going to buy a fishtank, I doubt I'd buy it from these guys. Customer service is important to most of us, and these fish tank guys just don't get it.