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Remove Defamation on Money Saving Expert. Defamation Lawyer Yair Cohen wins court order against Money Saving Expert
By Kit Chellel – Bloomberg News
Sep 30, 2011 12:00 AM GMT+0100
People who use fake names to post critical comments about companies on websites may not be as anonymous as they think, as firms use the courts to unmask online accusers.
MoneySavingExpert, a British personal finance site with 5 million readers, was forced to hand over personal details about three users calling themselves Againstjpc, GomerPyle and Ladybirds, following a London court ruling in August. The three wrote comments on the website accusing JPC Group Sales Ltd., an affiliate of a U.K. publishing company, of being a “criminal enterprise” and “a scam,” the company said in court filings.
Similar orders have been granted in the U.K. over comments posted on Google Inc. (GOOG) blogs and comment boards at its YouTube unit’s website, said Yair Cohen, a lawyer for JPC. Louise Rutter, spokeswoman for Mountain View, California-based Google, declined to comment.
“There have been a few of these cases and they are becoming more common,” said Korieh Duodu, a media law specialist at London firm Addleshaw Goddard LLP. “It is clear there is a significant footprint left by Web users, who are not always aware of how much information can be revealed about their identities when they publish material online.”
While Internet users have traditionally enjoyed the freedom to air controversial views without using real names, courts can order websites to hand over e-mail and Internet-protocol addresses, and other personal details, if anonymous comments go too far. A person who disrupts Web forums with inflammatory or offensive remarks is known as a “troll” in Internet slang.
‘Online Anonymity’
Disclosing the identity of Web users shouldn’t be taken lightly, said Eric King, human rights and technology adviser at advocacy group Privacy International. It could even be illegal, unless the comments caused serious harm.
“Online anonymity is a hugely important aspect of the right to privacy,” he said.
In 2007, the owner of a fan site for soccer club Sheffield Wednesday was forced to disclose the identities of several users after what a judge described as a “sustained campaign of vilification” against the club’s directors. Financial websites Motley Fool and Interactive Investor had to provide information about a user known as Zeddust in 2001, following a lawsuit filed by internet service provider Totalise Plc.
In the U.S., with stricter laws protecting freedom of speech, judges have sometimes found in favor of victims of online abuse. Former model Liskula Cohen won an order from a New York judge in 2009 requiring Google to identify a blogger who defamed her, while another model, Carla Franklin, won a similar ruling in 2010 over comments made on YouTube.
Court Order
Cohen, the JPC lawyer at firm Bains Cohen, said the company would now apply for an order against Internet provider TalkTalk Telecom Group Plc (TALK) to get the physical address of one of the individuals who posted the remarks on MoneySavingExpert. The company plans to sue the person for defamation, he said.
TalkTalk said in a statement that it “would never disclose any information” without a court order.
JPC, part of the Wyvern Media brand which publishes the Lincolnshire Telegraph and the North London Chronicle, said in an e-mailed statement that anonymous posters of abuse cost small businesses hundreds of thousands of pounds every month. “We are determined to bring our abusers to justice,” it said.
Brendan Perrett, head of operations at MoneySavingExpert, said the site hadn’t initially provided information about its users because of its privacy policy and the U.K. Data Protection Act.
“The job of balancing the consumer viewpoint and right to give their views without letting people unfairly tarnish companies’ reputations is never an easy one,” he said.
Duodu said the issue of freedom of speech had to be considered by companies deciding to tackle online abuse.
“The other concern for corporations is that they should be wary of stifling genuine debate. Seeking the closure of websites because of a few detractors can lead to a massive public relations own goal,” he said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kit Chellel in London cchellel@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net
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Business Reputation New Free Tip Of The Day
If at the moment the battlefield where you fight for your good reputation is based online and those on the other side, appear to have a reasonably good understanding of the battleground and of the basic tools and ammunitions which are required to cause you maximum damage, you might want to seriously consider moving the battlefield elsewhere where it will be harder for your reputational enemies to fight back.
Internet Law Expert Yair Cohen says Victims of Online Reputation Attacks And Online Intimidation Should Take Their Cases To The High Court Instead of Reporting Them To The Police – London Lawyers
Internet Law Expert says that victims of online reputation attacks and online intimidation should take their cases to the High Court instead of reporting them to the police.
“It is not surprising at all”, says one of the UK’s leading internet legal experts Yair Cohen, “that it took the authorities 18 months before Andreassen was finally jailed. By this time, his victim must have been completely destroyed, mentally and emotionally. Her confidence must have been shattered and her trust in people would have been replaced with cynicism and weariness. Had this hate campaign been conducted offline, I have no doubt that the authorities would have acted much quicker to bring it to a halt.”
What Is A Google Bomb
A Google Bomb. What a scary phrase. Surely you must have heard this term being used before and wondered what it actually meant.
So what does the term “Google Bomb” really mean, how can a Google Bomb affect you or your business and what can you do to protect yourself from being a victim?
Find a ‘live’ example of a mini Google Bomb on my Internet Law Expert blog.
Follow this link to read the full article on How To Create A Google Bomb
Internet Law Experts: What Is A Google Bomb | Internet Lawyers | via Internet Law Experts: What Is A Google Bomb | Internet Defamation
How Can I Remove Defamatory Websites? Internet Law Expert Internet Defamation
Online Reputation – Injunction Against Google: How To Remove A Website « Internet Law Expert
How Can I Remove Defamatory Websites?
In the past few weeks we removed over 40 defamatory websites, which up until then, devastated our clients’ reputation.
We removed a vast number of defamatory videos from YouTube and we managed to remove a popular, yet defamatory article against a successful businessman from a national news website.
We sought and won injunctions against YouTube, Google Inc, Firefox and other internet giants around the world and successfully enforced them all in the UK, the USA, Canada and other countries.
We gave one decent, hard-working online retailer his business back following savage online reputation attacks against him and his company by competitors.
We advised a client who owns an international franchise company on how to deal with online attacks by a former employee. These constant attacks were estimated to have cost the company in excess of £300,000!
We have also helped the owners of a national services company to form their first ever online reputation strategy following a devastating online reputation attack against them by both a competitor and a former employee, which cost them their biggest contact.
So this is how it is done… Read Full Blog on Internet Law Expert
via Online Defamation – Injunction Against Google « Internet Law Expert.
By: Yair Cohen
Internet Law Expert Tip of the Day
There is an old saying that “the first step to getting out of a hole is to stop digging”.
If you discover that your online reputation has been tarnished on a rough website and that bad results are appearing against your name upon every Google search, do yourself a favour and overcome the natural tenancy of constantly clicking on the link to the bad result. A defamatory remark on the internet is similar to a toothache – we feel almost a compulsive need to touch and feel the pain – in case it has already gone without us noticing it.
Sadly, with defamatory remarks on the internet, the more you click the more powerful they become. Google gives priority to popularity. So every click makes the bad comment more dominant and in Google’s view also more important, which means that the defamatory remark will constantly be climbing up the search engine ladder with more people seeing it.
When people see a link to a defamatory page against them, they tend to tell friends and family about it with the result that the link to the bad comment becomes very popular. The more people click on the link to see what is being said about their friend/family, the more likely it is that the link will remain at the top of the search engine.
So remember that the first step to getting out of a hole is to stop digging.
An internet law expert will use special tools to examine the link and the defamatory page regularly without actually adding to its popularity. So if you are unfortunate enough to have enemies who have taken upon themselves to defame your character online – make sure you don’t tell the world about it and take legal advice from an internet law expert as soon as possible.
By Yair Cohen
Social media lawyer Business Talks 