yourdomainhost
May 25th, 2001, 10:22 AM
<VENT>
Just wondering ... is "How to be an Obnoxious Jerk" a required course in law school?
We run a directory -- a la Yahoo -- on a specific topic. Folks submit links, we verify that they're accurate, and include them in the directory.
Today, out of the blue, we receive an e-mail from some jerk claiming to work in the legal department of some company in Las Vegas:
We understand that you may have only been linking to the offending site, but nevertheless immediate removal of the link(s) is required to avoid any further legal action.
Please remove any and all occurances (sic) of the word ****** from your web content at once. Then reply with your URL so we can remove you from the list of offenders.
The moron doesn't even bother to point us to the offending page -- guess he expects us to drop everything and wade through 6,000 pages looking for it -- all based on an unsupported allegation from an unverified source.
My response began, "Given the fact that we have no idea who you are or what you're talking about, we take strong exception to your characterization of us as "offenders" of any sort,
and to your threats of "further legal action". The fact that you work in a legal department, if indeed you do, does not excuse you from the social expectations of civility and common courtesy."
... and ended, " If you want us to take any action outside of our normal procedures, you may forward the information required by our policy and the URL(s) of the affected web page(s) along with a polite request -- if you need to enlist the assistance of a non-lawyer to help you with the "polite" part, please do so -- to ..."
And lawyers wonder why "normal" people think they're all scum.
</VENT>
James
Just wondering ... is "How to be an Obnoxious Jerk" a required course in law school?
We run a directory -- a la Yahoo -- on a specific topic. Folks submit links, we verify that they're accurate, and include them in the directory.
Today, out of the blue, we receive an e-mail from some jerk claiming to work in the legal department of some company in Las Vegas:
We understand that you may have only been linking to the offending site, but nevertheless immediate removal of the link(s) is required to avoid any further legal action.
Please remove any and all occurances (sic) of the word ****** from your web content at once. Then reply with your URL so we can remove you from the list of offenders.
The moron doesn't even bother to point us to the offending page -- guess he expects us to drop everything and wade through 6,000 pages looking for it -- all based on an unsupported allegation from an unverified source.
My response began, "Given the fact that we have no idea who you are or what you're talking about, we take strong exception to your characterization of us as "offenders" of any sort,
and to your threats of "further legal action". The fact that you work in a legal department, if indeed you do, does not excuse you from the social expectations of civility and common courtesy."
... and ended, " If you want us to take any action outside of our normal procedures, you may forward the information required by our policy and the URL(s) of the affected web page(s) along with a polite request -- if you need to enlist the assistance of a non-lawyer to help you with the "polite" part, please do so -- to ..."
And lawyers wonder why "normal" people think they're all scum.
</VENT>
James