Thought you folks might be interested in this:

PheroTruth received the first threat of lawyer involvement last night, from the owner of a pheromone company who didn't like what was written about them in the forum.

I'll not mention their name or company, but I received a letter requesting that we remove a thread, alleging: "This thread is a chain of several completely misinformed posts that damage my name", and then threatened to involve their attorney if the thread was not removed within 2 business days.

I wrote back advising:

Quote:Dear sir,

PheroTruth is an uncensored and unbiased forum for members to share their opinions. We do not moderate posts and we are not responsible for opinions shared by our members, nor will we remove any posts or threads because a company does not like what a member had to say about them.

If you feel that any information posted is incorrect, you are welcome to either join the forum and tell your side of the story and/or contact the post authors and request them to retract or rewrite their posts.

They wrote back to say that they would not participate in our forum, stating that they would not associate with one of the posting authors in any way. Then stated that I would hear from their attorney.

As we promised, this forum will remain uncensored and we will not bow down and remove posts or threads over threats, because someone doesn't like what was said about them.

If they want to involve their attorney then so be it! I am not an attorney, but I can read and understand Federal Law! The Communications Decency Act of 1996, 47 U.S.C. § 230©(1) provides immunity to ineractive websites or forums that publish information provided by others: specifically stating,

Quote: "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

I can also cite a ton of legal precedent and case law supporting that immunity.

Your opinions are yours, and we will NOT be coerced into censoring or deleting them, just because somebody didn't like what you had to say.

However, and this is an important however, we may not be responsible, but you are! You are responsible and liable for anything you post, and you can be sued for making false, slanderous or defamatory statements about any person or company.

And lastly, if a person or company cares to PROVE that a member made false or incorrect statements or allegations about them, that is a different story and even though legally we are under no obligation to do so, the untrue/incorrect information will be edited or deleted.

Pheromone people are truely a differance breed. I don't know who this company is but, if I can give you a little advise. Give your customers the best pheromone and pheromones blends for the money. And I guarantee you, your praises will out wieght your criticisms. Most people can see a grudge carrier or an unreasonable person.

Hiring lawyers only takes away from your product. Put that money back into your product so it can be what we the customers want it to be.

Take that advise to the bank and have faith in your product.

Nice, way to stick up for yourself Mark! Thanks for providing us a sanctuary, though I don't have anything bad to say.

I usually don't post negative feedback, so people if I'm silent on a product it means 1 of 2 things. Thing #1: I haven't used it, Thing #2: It sucked & I hate to dwell on it.
Seriously though, a manufacturer threatening legal action over bad reviews is ridic. for a few reasons. 1; There aint no way to prove or disprove a pheromone products efficacy to the FDA's standards. 2; A lot of the raw materials used to make our beloved 'mones, can be used to make other peoples very illegal, beloved roids (which makes me wonder if they're not roid-raging, seriously WTF?). Most of all, #3; It's just BAD business for small businesses to attack customers.
Kudos Mark for defending the 1st Amendment!

(02-15-2011 12:32 AM)Beccah1 Wrote:  I usually don't post negative feedback, so people if I'm silent on a product it means 1 of 2 things. Thing #1: I haven't used it, Thing #2: It sucked & I hate to dwell on it.

Best form of flattery for a Pheromone product is to talk about.

You should scan the lawyer's letter and post it to the forum.

I would like to know which "company" would rather hire a lawyer than try to improve its products. I think this would be valuable information for forum members.

I think it's important that we all see the lawyer's letter.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot.

When/if someone pays a filing fee to a court to sue a party, that party has a right to counter-sue which brings with it the power of subpoena. With the power of subpoena a party can obtain all emails, text messages, receipts, invoices from suppliers, telephone records, internet activity, and business records of the pheromone company. The list is endless. Really, you can subpoena anything!

When the post office asks the pheromone company if he or she is mailing anything hazardous, liquid, or fragile, what is the pheromone company's response? A subpoena will answer that question with absolute certainty.

Keep us updated on this one. And I really would like to see this letter posted to the forum.

I don't think I'm going to be receiving any letters. The member that posting the offending post has retracted their statements after seeing this thread.

Had it gone as far as legal action though, I would have laid everything out for all to see. Court actions are in the public domain, and at that point there would be no reason not to post copies of everything.

I was vague in the O.P and didn't mention any names, because I had been threatened and didn't want to add fuel the fire or open myself up to liability. If it were to go beyond a threat though, at that point there would be no reason not to.

Oh, and yes you can subpoena anything, but the other party does have the right to contest any parts of a subpoena that they believe are irrelevant to the case. I.E., trying to subpoena phone or email records in a simple property damage lawsuit probably wouldn't fly.

If memory serves me, you're an attorney right JAYCEE? I am not, but I have a pretty good understanding of the law, and know how to do legal research too. Attorneys don't scare me, and I once went into a partnership with an attorney who ended up trying to screw me over, then threatened to have me arrested for bullshit reasons. Guess who won! Yep, his threats were empty and without merit and when I retaliated with the threat of a complaint to the State Bar for several violations of the Professional Code of Ethics, citing chapter and verse, he backed down, REAL QUICK!

Gee, maybe the forum should operate like ripoffreport.com does and charge $5,000 to remove damaging reviews. JUST KIDDING! But, just think of how many molecules we could buy for the members to test if we did. JUST KIDDING AGAIN.

Open and uncensored was and is what PheroTruth stands for, and what I'll personally go out on a limb to defend.

As long as it's clearly stated as an opinion they have no chance of legal action for defamation.
JAYCEE maybe you are an attorney, but you cant subpoena for irrelevant info, and they can be contested as well.

I would suggest the review is reworded as opinion.
I think if you take out the negative you have to also take out the positives, otherwise it becomes only onesided.
But this of course defeats the whole purpose of the forum, hence my suggestion.
And no I aint a laywer either but I do have experience in web/intellectual property issues.

OK, I guess I should clarify what prompted this thread: The post that I received the complaint and removal request over was not a review, it was post containing only derogatory statements about the companies business practices.