800Notes Receives a Threat

27 Jun 2008

Last week we received a letter from Thomas Georgianna, mynutritionstore's lawyer, in which he demanded the removal of unfavorable postings to avoid a costly lawsuit against 800Notes.com.

Apparently, our user received a call from the company and reported a bad experience. A few more consumers expressed their dissatisfaction. Although, the positive comments in the thread outnumber the negative ones, we have discovered that many of the “positive” responses appear to be posted by mynutritionstore itself.

When we replied that 800Notes.com cannot be held legally responsible for the posted material (such protection is provided by the Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act), Thomas Georgianna responded that in this case if we don't remove the postings they will sue the owners of 800Notes. He apparently hoped that the threat of expenses involved would drive us to comply with his demands.

In response to the threat Paul Alan Levy, a Public Citizen attorney, sent an open letter to Thomas Georgianna where he outlined the many reasons why this theory of forcing the website to shut down by increasing its legal expenses will not work.

Read more at Consumer Law & Policy Blog

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Comments

Rating: +7

Jason - 27 Jun 2008

Keep us posted on any updates about this.

Thanks :-)

Rating: +2

You Go Girl - 23 Jul 2008

Before sites like this, became available, the consumers were left at the mercy of companies like this, after the damage was done. Small Claims Court, can sometimes be a waste of time. Law suits, are very expensive. And we all know that the justice system is for sale in many instances, if you happen to be the highest bidder. The Better Business Bureau has protected businesses that are unethical. So what is left? I for one, am very pleased that sites like this are available to bring companies to their knees, when they don't deliver on their promises and treat the consumer badly. My question is, can these people get IP addresses from these sites? I posted a comment on another thread, and after the company threatened to find IP addresses, some of the notes and comments were taken off the site.

Rating: +16

Shaun - 27 Jun 2008

LOL - that is awesome - crappy company hires big time threat lawyer to stop bad publicity. What a great contry we have. lol

Rating: +3

Kyri - 27 Jun 2008

Okay, yeah, because Constitutional rights are SOOOOO not the trend right now.

Rating: +3

Nick - 28 Jun 2008

Awesome open letter. Very nice.

Rating: -1

AUTOSHOPGUY - 28 Jun 2008

800Notes receives a LEGAL threat

The first way it was written would require notifing authorities.
The way I wrote it - 800Notes could just say call our lawers.

PS - I just wrench on cars. No legal background.

Rating: +5

Mary M - 28 Jun 2008

I guess the truth hurts these crooks so they want to go after the honest guys like 800notes

Rating: +11

Not Scamming ME - 30 Jun 2008

If they don't want bad feedback then don't be a rotten Company!

Rating: +4

jammer - 7 Jul 2008

That would require ethics, and that word is not in their vocabulary, or dictionary.

Rating: +6

That's better - 30 Jun 2008

A hearty chuckle, thanks for posting the news. Hang in there Ms. Forte, et. al., you're doing a good thing!

Rating: +2

Faithful user - 1 Jul 2008

Julia Forte and 800 notes are the best ! Nice letter written by your lawyer to this bottom feeding ambulance chaser ! Hey Julia how about a date ?

Rating: -20

Lil Reminder - 1 Jul 2008

If 800notes.com makes MONEY off the site and contents,its liability is NOT limited,They ARE responsible,and they have put themselves in a very actionable position. If it were non profit,it would not have a worry.
But it makes $ from ads.. Money changes everything.
You make money,you ARE liable. The'we don't edit post or censor' but not adding 'and we make cash from the advertising on it' doesn't work.

Period.

I learned the hard way by getting sued over a site,and,open letter or not,that a** WILL find a judge that agrees.

Thats what sucks.800notes does a service,and just because they earn a lil bit of money to keep it running (I assume) some criminal telemarketer will sue because THEY are the victim.

Do what I did.
Get em on the phone,backtrace the call thru a sw comp prog,and if it's local...and that's rare,all out of Florida..why that State doesn't do something I have no clue..go beat the living CRAP out of the guy in the parking lot.
Worked for me. Not for him though.
Too bad I couldn't tell him my name.But he knew it was Karma.
Punks.

Rating: +9

jerrt - 1 Jul 2008

I don't think you know what you are talking about. There is NOTHING in CDA 230 that says that a website looses immunity if it runs banner ads.

Rating: +12

Mike - 1 Jul 2008

According to the law, it does not matter whether a website has ads or not. If content is provided by user submissions the website is a "service provider" that IS NOT responsible for the moderation of the content.

Here is an article that explains Section 230
http://www.citmedialaw.org/resources/primer-s ... ons-decency-act

Rating: +9

A Harassment Victim - 3 Jul 2008

I do not have to pay a cent or gve any personal info to post my personal experiences on this site. This site does a good service, and is free to all users. The money comes from a different source, and therefore limits liability for what is FREELY posted. Do NOT forget the protections of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, which (as was posted earlier) doesn't seem to be too popular at the moment. However, it is still VERY applicable. If you were successfully sued regarding a same situation, find a better lawyer.

Rating: +3

Laughing at it - 1 Jul 2008

It will be interesting to see the outcome. Hopefully it won't turn into a bunch of lawyers circling the pickle bush running up a tab for filing this and writing that.

Rating: +4

random consumer - 2 Jul 2008

Worth a fight, I would dare them to make a stink. the consumer backlash will far outweigh any bad publicity they were previously getting plus the story would get media attention. We've seen this movie many times...

Rating: +5

Tired of being a doormat to corporations - 4 Jul 2008

Good for you providing a space for consumers to share info about bad business practices. Way to go and keep it up! Without a site like this, consumers like me have to fume alone!

Rating: +9

TownCrier - 4 Jul 2008

@ Lil Reminder: Please keep your posting to topics you actually know something about.

@800Notes: Great job contacting Public Citizen, and it appears you were paired with a great attorney. As the former owner of a high-traffic messageboard community (35K registerd members and almost 3/4 of a million posts) I had my share of nutcases, trolls and scumbags. One troll group went so far as to post my home address on the front page of their website, along with veiled "hints" a to what anyone living nearby should "do." We had moved about 3 weeks before I learned of the post and website, however I was still able to have their site taken down throuh DCMA. Please do not let Mr. Georgianna intimidate you-keep fighting the good fight.

As for Mr. Georgianna and his clients, until today I had never heard of mynutritionstore.com, and so my opinion of them was completely neutral had anyone shared the name with me.

Now, my opinion of mynutritionstore.com is such that I would never do business with them, nor will I keep this new found opinion to myself.

On a side note, I would love hearing this hack of a lawyer argue that all posts referring to mynutritionstore.com should be removed, after his own clients participated in the postings!

Keep up the good work, and thanks much for the service you provide to the community.

TC

Rating: +5

FED-UP - 8 Jul 2008

I feel the same way. I never heard of this insignificant company, my nutritionstore.com before but you can be sure that after hearing their lawyers babble I will NEVER do business with them. It was he, their lawyer Mr. Georgianna that drove me away, no one else. It is he that will cause me to express my own personal opinion ( not of this website or it's owners )to all my friends, family and anyone who will listen. It is he, Mr. Georgianna that will cause me to keep a very. very close eye on what mynutritionstore.com does in the future and they had better abide the law at all times. So the owners of that lame business can thank the lawyer they hired for causing them much loss. Thank Mr. Georgianna!

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