Jack Thompson vs Amazon?

Zorglub writes "Feeling his book page at Amazon has been harassed by bad reviews, nasty tags, and a user-submitted vomit pic, anti-game lawyer Jack Thompson threatens to sue Amazon if the offending material isn't removed."

Comments

You don't have the right to not be offended

[Reality Master 201]

Short of slander, whatever nasty stuff someone says about you in a situation like that is fair game. If he doesn't like the attention, maybe he should shut the fuck up and stop making an ass out of himself publically.

Message board is scary

[mumblestheclown]

That message board where the link points to is absolutely scary. The way I saw the piece:

1. Jerk writes book.
2. People who hate the jerk play underhanded amazon tricks to sabotage book on Amazon.com
3. Jerk complains to amazon that such tricks are clearly against amazon's rules and asks amazon to remove the offending material, which amazon does poorly or incompletently.

I expected the mesasgeboards there to be filled with "I disagree with what Jerk says, but I respect his right to say it in a fair way", instead it is full of Vigilante Logic such as pointing to Jerk's supposed jerk activities in a vein of "two wrongs make a right" logic criticizing the guy for asking for amazon to play by its own rules.

Sad.

Re:Message board is scary

[Gulthek]

Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write. -- Voltaire

I disagree with many things, but I only get upset by one-sided debates and conclusions made without reason. So as long as it's said "in a fair way" I respect their opinions. I may debate their opinions which is enjoyable for both parties if thought has gone into the respective conclusions for both sides (who doesn't want to get another person on 'their side'); but debate does not indicate disrespect of their right to have an opinion.

Re:Amazon safe

[Lead Butthead]

I'm sure Amazon & their team of lawyers has covered their backs. Shouldn't he be suing the people who posted the comments? But then he couldn't milk a mulit-million dollar cash cow then, could he?

That has never stopped a lawyer froms suing before. More precisely the sort of crackpot that would write this kind of book is exactly the sort that would sue, in the face of any common sense.

Then maybe they should remove the book entirely

[Lonewolf666]

At this point, Amazon has three options:
1) Do nothing and get sued.
2) Remove the offending comments and get a reputation for censorship.
3) Remove the book entirely from the Amazon website and don't sell it anymore.
I guess 3) would be the least painful version, and it would also show Thompson that he cannot do business with Amazon AND tell them how to run their website. Good riddance.

Re:Amazon page and tags

[j_kenpo]

OK, I have hope for the future of this country... the responses by the "14 year old" were some of the most well thought out responses, and JTs ignorant, 1 liner retorts clearly showed that he isn't on par. It is kind of sad that JT had to try and throw his weight around with "I'm working with Readers Digest and Senators" to try and impress or intimidate the kid. Kudos to the 14 year old for keeping his head on.

Re:Amazon handle fake reviews badly

[PeteDotNu]

"What interested parties can do is go to this page and leave 1* comments to balance off the fake ones."

I'd propose that instead of doing this, people would actually read the book in question and then leave their rating. People should not leave reviews for books that they haven't read, not even as a form of vigilante justice.