The Government has offered Australia's three mobile operators, and vividwireless, renewal of their existing spectrum allocated on 15 year licences in the late 90s and early 2000s at set prices, while the Government expects to rake in $3 billion.
In a rather curious media release, online watchdog Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) has welcomed a "decision" by Queensland based accounting software vendor 2Clix to withdraw its lawsuit against online telecoms forum Whirlpool for allowing a series of allegedly malicious postings against 2Clix on its site. The only problem is that there has been no official confirmation from 2Clix that the lawsuit has been halted.
In August, 2Clix filed a $150,000 suit against
against Simon Wright, the founder of Whirlpool claiming "injurious
falsehood" because of two forum streams that displayed critical
comments about the company's software from anonymous posters. 2Clix
claimed that the publication of that criticism caused a "severe
downturn in monthly sales" of approximately $150,000 per month.
The 2Clix lawsuit caused a stir among online civil libertarians and
some web publishers who viewed it as an attack on freedom of speech in
cyberspace. One such group, EFA, issued a strong condemnation last week
of the 2Clix lawsuit as details of the action came to light.
However, this week it appears to be all smiles from EFA as it claimed
in a release that an employee of 2Clix had contacted Whirlpool to say
that the the lawsuit had been abandoned.
Despite this claim, EFA admits in the very same statement that
Whirlpool has been unable to confirm with 2Clix or its legal
representatives that the case has been dropped. Nor has any paperwork
been filed with the courts to curtail the suit, according to EFA.
On the surface, it does indeed seem strange that news pertaining to the
changed status of a legal action would be conveyed to the defendant by
an employee of the plaintiff rather than a legal representative or at
least a high ranking executive. Then again, just about everything in
this case seems strange, including the lodgement of a lawsuit against
the founder of a forum in which the plaintiff had been an active
participant.
"Lawsuits are a short-sighted and self-destructive way of dealing with
criticism," said EFA Chairperson Dale Clapperton in a statement. "As
McDonalds and many other companies have learned, suing your critics
will cause much more damage and bad publicity than the criticism itself
ever would."
True enough, but until such time as 2Clix officially withdraws its
action against Whirlpool or makes an official statement to that effect
it seems a trifle premature to declare the case over and done with.
David Bass
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