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Software Company Sues Popular Australian Forum

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the i'd-like-to-sue-a-bar-where-someone-was-mean-to-me dept.

Pugzly writes "In a recent announcement on the Whirlpool front page, it appears that accounting software maker 2clix is suing the founder of the forums as the founder "allowed statements 'relating to the Plaintiff and its software product that are both false and malicious' to be published on the Whirlpool forums."

6 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Thread Links by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Links to the threads in question:

    http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=628356
    http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=479484

  2. Australian Defamation Laws by Hellsbells · · Score: 5, Informative

    Australian Defamation Laws are ridiculously powerful.

    A failed restaurant recently successfully sued a major newspaper for a negative review in the Australian High Court.

  3. Re:It happens by davidmwilliams · · Score: 5, Informative

    One of the many flaws in 2Clix is that you get an unhandled division by zero exception when reprinting payslips if a certain non-mandatory field is zero or empty. Now, surely division by zero is the most basic and fundamental example of error handling used in any programming course or book or tutorial or other. To my mind, 2Clix are receiving negative criticisms for having software which is poorly-written and unreliable in its behaviour and outputs. To then attempt to silence critics by demanding censorship of unpalatable comments is nothing short of arrogant, bullying and reprehensible. I can barely imagine 2Clix or its lawyer considered how massive and widespread the publicity would become! People worldwide now know of this tiny accounting software package - and not for good reasons. Whirlpool.net.au is a well-respected forum, frequented by many IT professionals and decision-makers. I think 2Clix will find that Simon Wright has far more credibility and supporters than they do.

  4. The more true it is the more liable you are. by MrKaos · · Score: 2, Informative
    At least in Australia, and free speech here is a joke, you are free to agree, go visit 2clix it might be enough to make a point that folks on the internet don't like being bullied by excessively litigous companies.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  5. My real fear about this issue by smegged · · Score: 5, Informative
    I am very concerned about this lawsuit. There are two very real outcomes that could occur should whirlpool lose.
    • Firstly, whirlpool are THE resource for finding out about ISPs in Australia. Their neutrality and open forums, should they be lost, would be very, very bad for consumers.
    • Secondly, a ruling against whirlpool means a precedent would be set which basically ensured that forums in Australia would be practically eliminated. This is both bad for a lot of businesses and bad for users.
    For these reasons I really really hope that whirlpool wins (well, for those reasons and the obvious moral reasons).
  6. Re:You couldnt Pick a Worse Crowd to pick on by Manaz · · Score: 2, Informative

    "most people on whirlpool, are IT managers and admins"

    Oh please. Whilst I'm sure there are a lot of IT Managers and sysadmins on Whirlpool (I'm one of them), they're vastly outnumbered by kids and "enthusiast" internet users who's prime purpose on Whirlpool is to shop around for the most speed and monthly download capacity for their (parents) dollar.