We are sick and tired of sites like Rip Off Report, Bad Business Bureau and Complaints Board hiding behind the "Communication Decency Act" and providing a forum for their own amusement to destroy the lives of innocent consumers.
These types of boards allow unknown, unproven, unverified individuals to create accounts and post reports on their boards that contain false information regarding businesses and individuals that many times is completely untrue. This puts the victims of these reports in a position of limbo, as they have no recourse except to try to post a rebuttal on the site hosting the report, and many times they are unable to accomplish that. These sites refuse to remove the reports and some of the sites offer to "mitigate" a better "report reading" for a cost to the victim, under the guise of fixing the issue between the complainant and the business or person the report was filed against. The cost can be quite high and if the report is a blatant lie, one should never have to consider paying anyone for anything. Even if you pay, the report remains so that when anyone were to run a search of your company, the bad information shows in the search results, thereby still affecting your business.
There are business owners that allege their competitors have placed reports against them, individuals who know that rivals and enemies have placed false reports to cause them harm in the community. Businesses have lost customers and had to close, have paid thousands of dollars to attorneys, and all of this is like a game, it seems, to the site owner(s).
People are being accused of being pedophiles, thieves and other heinous things and kept awake at night not knowing who put the lies on the sites. These are people who are not millionaires, who cannot afford to hire attorneys to try to find aloof, unreachable site owners, and then try to fight a law that has been written so ambiguously as to allow these site owners to squeak through holes. Enough is enough.
We are asking that this type of site be no longer allowed to operate without some type of standard in place to protect the rights of all Americans and consumers. That no one should have to live in fear of retaliation of a lie being posted on the Internet and have no recourse to have it removed because of a law that was put into place not meaning to cause this affect.
People are breaking restraining orders using anonymous names to try to destroy people they are stalking. This is serious. Not a game.
We are ready to unite and we want our voices to be heard in unison. It is time for someone to hear us.
It Takes An Entire Online World to Stop a Few Tyrants
In a civil society, no one would dream of putting in print the lie that John Doe was seen luring 12 year old girls into hotel rooms. In a logical society, no one would write an article saying that ABC company refused to refund money to them when they were sent the wrong part, and instead told them to roll over and die, when they had never done such. In the real world, no one would accuse Mary Chicken of having sex with donkey's and charging money for people to watch and printing it in a report, while Mary cries and stops leaving her home.
But, in an anonymous world where anyone could hang their competitor out to dry, send their enemy's to their grave or stick it to their lover's wife, and no one can prove who wrote the scandalous lies, there is a complete underbelly of vomit flourishing and alive.
Could some of the reports be true? Absolutely. But one only has to read them to see what the ratio must be. And if only 1/10 were lies, that is enough to disallow the sites to run as they currently do.
People's lives are being destroyed, and they can do nothing about it. Thanks to the good old Communications Decency Act put into place in 1996, holding site or board owners innocent for postings that may be placed on their sites. But as I understand it, the site owners and managers may not change or alter the postings, ie: edit, put false reports there, etc. They must indeed be the real thing.
I cannot imagine that this law could have forseen the Ed Magedson's of the world that would seek to create an entire business from this that would do what has been described above to many individuals. Oh, he says "By consumers, for consumers". What does that have to do with Mary Chicken? What consumer group does that fall under? Did someone get cheated and is Ed trying to rectify this? No. Her life has been destroyed by a lie, most likely of Mary's enemy. It is at best salatious lies, and defamation of her character that she cannot fix.
Were these same lies to be placed into your local newpaper, the author's name would follow, as it does with all legitimate journalism. And the readership would be to around 500 people. And of course, you would sue the author. No one would dream of writing such a heinous lie about you.
With Rip Off Report, you have to hire a lawyer and I never think you can get the name because no one really uses their real name when they sign up and it will cost you hundred's of thousands of dollars and the report is seen by hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions. You may be able to get the information given from their computer when they signed up. You still may have recourse, but it would be a stretch.
Anytime her name is googled, this headline pops up RipOff Report "Mary Chicken has sex with donkeys and people pay to watch".
Forever. It never goes away.
Consider this report. "RipOff Report "M&M Foods Does Not Pay It's Employees. They are Scam Artists". This is a lie. But, if a competitor put that on there, it would run off M&M's customers and future employees. This has created a wonderful breeding ground for unbalanced nut cases and criminals to flourish.
Offered to these victims there seems to be a corporate advocacy program. Well, woohoo. You pay good ole Ed a fee and ta da. Your nasy old lying report turns into a somewhat cleaned up report on his Rip Off Reports site. BUT, on Google, it is still there.
Now, I ask you, if you had to put your REAL name in that report, if the site owner verified that was your real name, that the information was true, would you put things like that on his site? Would you?
Hell No. It is all a game. Why, if old Ed wanted to, he could put reports on there himself, or have his staff do it, or friends, to build his database, which Google would like, right? I don't know about these things, but being a thinker and all that, and with this anonymous thing, why not? WHY NOT?
I can tell you that I put four reports on ROR and I would gladly put my real name on them all. Gladly. I could never be sued. They were all true. The ones that were put on there as revenge against me by one person, were gross lies. Good old anonymous rat writing. By a chicken hearted adultress.
So, Congress, Obama, do you hear us? We are gathering together. You are so concerned about small business, about the inability of mankind to make a living in America today. An HONEST living. Here is a place to start. Give me a call. I have a few hundred friends to support me. They are hungry.
But, in an anonymous world where anyone could hang their competitor out to dry, send their enemy's to their grave or stick it to their lover's wife, and no one can prove who wrote the scandalous lies, there is a complete underbelly of vomit flourishing and alive.
Could some of the reports be true? Absolutely. But one only has to read them to see what the ratio must be. And if only 1/10 were lies, that is enough to disallow the sites to run as they currently do.
People's lives are being destroyed, and they can do nothing about it. Thanks to the good old Communications Decency Act put into place in 1996, holding site or board owners innocent for postings that may be placed on their sites. But as I understand it, the site owners and managers may not change or alter the postings, ie: edit, put false reports there, etc. They must indeed be the real thing.
I cannot imagine that this law could have forseen the Ed Magedson's of the world that would seek to create an entire business from this that would do what has been described above to many individuals. Oh, he says "By consumers, for consumers". What does that have to do with Mary Chicken? What consumer group does that fall under? Did someone get cheated and is Ed trying to rectify this? No. Her life has been destroyed by a lie, most likely of Mary's enemy. It is at best salatious lies, and defamation of her character that she cannot fix.
Were these same lies to be placed into your local newpaper, the author's name would follow, as it does with all legitimate journalism. And the readership would be to around 500 people. And of course, you would sue the author. No one would dream of writing such a heinous lie about you.
With Rip Off Report, you have to hire a lawyer and I never think you can get the name because no one really uses their real name when they sign up and it will cost you hundred's of thousands of dollars and the report is seen by hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions. You may be able to get the information given from their computer when they signed up. You still may have recourse, but it would be a stretch.
Anytime her name is googled, this headline pops up RipOff Report "Mary Chicken has sex with donkeys and people pay to watch".
Forever. It never goes away.
Consider this report. "RipOff Report "M&M Foods Does Not Pay It's Employees. They are Scam Artists". This is a lie. But, if a competitor put that on there, it would run off M&M's customers and future employees. This has created a wonderful breeding ground for unbalanced nut cases and criminals to flourish.
Offered to these victims there seems to be a corporate advocacy program. Well, woohoo. You pay good ole Ed a fee and ta da. Your nasy old lying report turns into a somewhat cleaned up report on his Rip Off Reports site. BUT, on Google, it is still there.
Now, I ask you, if you had to put your REAL name in that report, if the site owner verified that was your real name, that the information was true, would you put things like that on his site? Would you?
Hell No. It is all a game. Why, if old Ed wanted to, he could put reports on there himself, or have his staff do it, or friends, to build his database, which Google would like, right? I don't know about these things, but being a thinker and all that, and with this anonymous thing, why not? WHY NOT?
I can tell you that I put four reports on ROR and I would gladly put my real name on them all. Gladly. I could never be sued. They were all true. The ones that were put on there as revenge against me by one person, were gross lies. Good old anonymous rat writing. By a chicken hearted adultress.
So, Congress, Obama, do you hear us? We are gathering together. You are so concerned about small business, about the inability of mankind to make a living in America today. An HONEST living. Here is a place to start. Give me a call. I have a few hundred friends to support me. They are hungry.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
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Jan:
ReplyDeleteIt will take hundreds, if not thousands, of people like you and me banding together to accomplish our goal of preventing the type of internet defamation that we are now experiencing. We may not have the numbers, but we certainly have the principles on our side.
Good people are being adversely damaged by a good law that has resulted in bad policy. In order to get action taken to address the problems inherent in the current CDA, we must organize and take our message to state legislatures and to Congress.
I think it can be done. If you’ll be my Norma Rae, I’ll be your Erin Brockavich. We have a story to tell and it’s high time we told it.
Tina Norris
TNT Management
Des Moines, Iowa
You got it sister, Norma and Erin! Or Thelma and Louise, or maybe The Banger Sisters! haha...Just kidding.
ReplyDeleteDefinately Norma Rae and Erin Brockavich. People forget that sometimes dark horses abound and can carry messages that they never expect. Just keep pushing forward. United. As One.
There was a comment placed here informing us that there was an impending class action lawsuit against ROR, but without information regarding the firm involved. The link to the web site of the firm did not work. All that we were given was an email address and I emailed to them asking for more information and a working web site. They did not respond.
ReplyDeleteI would caution anyone who receives this type of correspondence to ask for more information before responding as you may be giving your information to someone else other than a firm that is putting a class action together. If they are not providing those key elements in their advertisements, I would question why.
Therefore, I am removing it but I welcome them to return and post this information for us as all of us who have been harmed by ROR and ED M. have the information to provide and are itching to work with them. We just need to be sure we are in the right camp. We do not want to find out that we have given our information to or our identity to ROR.
I have recently had a post placed about me. Pure slander by a woman I did not even meet. I contacted her through an internet dating site and then decided after phone conversation and email that we were not a good match. She flew into a rage and implicated me as a sexual predator and mentioned my business and my whole name, so that if you google my name and my business, the Ripoff Report is the first to show up.
ReplyDeleteI would participate in an action against ROR. I have engaged counsel for a personal suit against ROR
That is horrible. And Ed M thinks that he is helping ppl. The unbalanced ppl definately find that damn site, there is no doubt about it. I am so sorry that you are a victim of them. We all are hoping, against hope, that something will happen.
ReplyDeleteHoping is one thing but action is another. I am pursuing legal recourse though uncertain how much I can accomplish as an individual. If Google were to get enough complaints they may be motivated into doing something
ReplyDeleteHere is the thing, I do not think that Google cares. They have a monetary gain from the relationship that they have with ROR. Their own standards and ethics are blown all to pieces by what is going on, and they just turn their heads the other way as far as I can see. What we NEED, is a lobby in congress, a Senator, someone who will take this to Washington because there has yet to be one judge who really seems to get a care and what this is going to take, imo, is a change in the law. THEN that site will have to go. Please come back here and keep us informed regarding your legal fight. It is like there are so many people who say this and then it is lost in the shuffle. We have no idea what happens next.
ReplyDeleteWell, what do you have to say for yourself and this lame, half baked effort? This really sucks. Thank you for making us feel so empowered with your pathetic blog standing up for our rights.
ReplyDeleteLame half baked effort? There is nowhere to start. No one will take up the cause. Do you have any idea how many hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent to date fighting ROR? Trying to get the names of the authors to sue them, get that shit off of the site, get Ed shut down? You have no idea what you are talking about. This may seem lame to you, but what are you doing, and why do you care?
ReplyDeleteAnd, I am doing things other than this blog. I am lobbying Senators, Judges, Congressmen, etc. I hunt their reports and I contact them because I need to find someone in a position to help jetison this to the right place to get the law changed. We cannot fight the site. We need to change the law. But, someone in a position to help us is going to have to become Mary Chicken before it will happen.
Get off your ass and start a blog or find a senator or do something before you run your mouth.
And so you know, blogs are so that you can express your thoughts, this is my blog and if you do not like it, too bad. Start your own, stay off of mine. Who do you think that you are? Do you think that it is my job to empower your lame ass? Get on the stick and do something instead of running other ppl down for at least taking a stand. Loser.
ReplyDeleteCan you tell me anything about the russians,ukrainians, that life with Danny Scalf Where they involved with the tapeing of Govt officials ,so many 3 letter agencies were taped by Danny Scalf and Ed Magedson ,I even heard a rumor that some of the tapeing was from 2 party consent states like NJ and PA ,state which you must inform the other party you are tapeing them....how can we get the tapes from those guys ,Also would be very interested in the tapes Danny Scalf mage of Magedson directing him to alter reports
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI am really unsure what you are talking about but if you are asking if taped conversations are permited in this type of crime, I think it varies from state to state. In my state you can tape phone convos so long as one person knows they are being taped. So, if I want to tape you, it is legal. But, if a spouse puts a tape recorder on the phone to catch their wife or husband's conversations, that is not legal and not admissable. So it varies.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are successful in getting ROR shut down. My business has been suffering for a very long time due to this scam artist!
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry to hear that. My understanding is that they have come up with an "arbitration" program now. There has been so much heat, and everyone over there really looks so smarmy, I hope that they would like to change perceptions. Look if I were an attorney, regardless of the money, I would get tired of being connected to sleaze. I would have to realize that sooner or later this crap is going to fall and then what? Who would want to hire me? You cannot roll around in shit and not come out smelling good. I, personally, think that there may be some decent ppl involved in this, there are even some ppl who think that Ed has been used, he is a patsy at this point. It is out of control. I can see how that could be. He has removed himself as owner, at least paperwork wise. So, something is really screwed up.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many ways that site could become a site you could depend on. It could become a site "for consumers, by consumers". Check the reports out. If numerous reports are on there, and the company says they are lies, look at the IP Addys. Are the same ones being used over and over again to create personas to post reports? They are not legitimate reports. Take all the personal reports down. They have nothing to do with consumer issues. You want to do a personal reports/vendetta site? Do it. Do not mix the two.
He loses credibiltiy. When ppl join the CAP program, do you think that Ed or anyone on his staff contacts all the ppl that have written those reports and barters good customer relations? Say, someone has five hundred reports against them, or even twenty, do you think that happens? And what if the report writers are not willing to go along? How does that rise to the level of them being a good company? What if the company decides, fuck it. I am going to pay the CAP fee and do whatever I want, long as I pay my monthly fee, I am covered. See? It is not a plan.
So, ROR does not work in any sense of the word. And, it has destroyed hundreds of ppls lives, incomes, companies, homes, etc. I be damned if I would want that on my conscience.
Google inc is helping Ed further his agenda because Ed is helping Google make money. It's all about money. Not about the truth.
ReplyDelete