Re: Pubs data

Hi Kingsley, Hi John,

First off, sympathies John for the roasting on Facebook - not a nice
experience I'm sure.

Re your question Kingsley... I should be careful what I say, don't
wanna give anyone any ideas ;)

Seriously though, regarding Revyu, while I developed the site, the IP
currently rests with the OU (part of the terms of my PhD), so the
picture gets even more complicated than it is already. There have been
some varied outcomes AFAIR in UK courts regarding the relative
culpability of messengers (i.e. sites) vs reviewers in reviewing
scenarios. Naturally IANAL, but apparently the defamation laws in the
UK are some of the most draconian around, so you're right to be
cautious John (sad though it is).

The most comparable experience from Revyu involved a review of a
garage; it's documented here in a way that prevents this blogger being
sued but retains the text online (and tells the account of the threats
received); note how the text is constructed:
http://doodznchyx.wordpress.com/2007/06/20/mot-mechanic-in-milton-keynes-chilling-free-speech/

So as that post says, I took the review down when an email was sent
threatening to get the lawyers involved, but I also logged the
takedown notice in the Chilling Effects database
<http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi> (now this would be AWESOME
as linked data) so that it didn't go unrecorded. I'm also very
grateful to Martin Poulter for blogging about it at the address above.

Since then I have moderated a few reviews voluntarily (I don't like
doing this, but it seems to be a sensible precaution for all parties)
but no more threats have been received. In my experience most people
are less reactionary than the garage and the people you and I
encountered. Some places have had bad reviews followed by a number of
highly positive reviews (perhaps even by friends of the owner, who
knows). In fact, this would be my first response to angry reviewees -
if you disagree then write your own review, or ask your satisfied
customers to do the same. This is much more powerful from a business
point of view than legal threats.

No idea if this helps; it may at least round out the picture.

Cheers,

Tom.



2009/3/5 Kingsley Idehen <kidehen@openlinksw.com>:
> John Goodwin wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I've decided to (for the time being at least) remove the pubs linked data.
>> Someone seemed to object to a review of their local (see here
>> http://tinyurl.com/d36s4c) and having looked at some of the other (more
>> negative reviews) I decided I didn't want this happening again.
>>
>> While I didn't do the data capture or reviews the pubs were hosted on my
>> website - and someone did find contact details and get in touch :( The
>> reviews were all meant in fun, but some could be (and have been) taken the
>> wrong way. So I'd sooner not risk getting sued or having my knee caps
>> removed by angry locals!
>> On the plus side it was a useful exercise for me...setting up some linked
>> data. Maybe I'll put it back at some stage without the reviews. Remember in
>> the words of the mighty Joe Strummer "You have the right to free speech as
>> long as you're not dumb enough to actually try it" :)
>> John
>> .
>>
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>
> John,
>
> So does Tom get into trouble if I give a Pub a bad review using
> <http://revyu.com> ?
> I still think you inadvertently stumbled on a business model here  :-)
>
> --
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Kingsley Idehen       Weblog: http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen
> President & CEO OpenLink Software     Web: http://www.openlinksw.com
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Dr Tom Heath
Researcher
Platform Division
Talis Information Ltd
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Received on Friday, 6 March 2009 14:26:29 UTC