Has anyone ever received a cease and desist for negatively reviewing a course? I haven't yet, but I know a guy that offered to help fix the design flaws on a new course that received one this week.
Cease and desist for reviewing courses?
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biscoe
* Ace Member *
Well, don't leave us hanging... this is waaaay too vague.
The new Colbert County Disc Golf Club is sending out cease and desist letters to anyone that criticized the safety concerns at their new Spring Park designed disc golf course in Tuscumbia, AL. The safety concerns are legit by the experienced dgers that raised concerns to the city.
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Sounds like a course designer who interprets criticism as challenging his self-perception or is reminding him of his insecurities or inadequacies.
Keep in mind cease and desist letters by themselves hold no legal power whatsoever. Online reviews are covered under free speech. If someone sent me a letter of this kind I would laugh and tell them to kick rocks or troll them into oblivion while eating popcorn and drinking whiskey.
One of my pet peeves is people who take themselves too seriously.
Keep in mind cease and desist letters by themselves hold no legal power whatsoever. Online reviews are covered under free speech. If someone sent me a letter of this kind I would laugh and tell them to kick rocks or troll them into oblivion while eating popcorn and drinking whiskey.
One of my pet peeves is people who take themselves too seriously.
I just emailed my review as a concerned taxpayer to the mayor. I want a letter so I can film myself pissing on it. That course is not even fixable either. What a waste of my tax dollars.
biscoe
* Ace Member *
Hopefully a small child doesn't get hit.
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Most reviews are protected under the First Amendment (free speech). However, a court can find a reviewer guilty of defaming a business if they post factually incorrect accusations. Freedom of speech typically boils down to whether someone is expressing their opinion or asserting a fact.
Sounds like we are all safe. I'm going to take wagers on what hole a person gets hit by a disc first. My money is on hole 9!
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Look out for the hole on hole 8 ... the one with the stick in it!
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Sounds like another course squeezed into an already busy park.
When will they learn???
Got you down for $20 on hole 8.
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With the state of the forums having no way to search it took me a while to find this thread. Enjoy:
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So someone is trying to shut down the internet? I think we know how that will work out!!
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How to get more likes on your review.
As far as a "cease and desist" letter, if you have never played the course, trash it saying untrue things. Then they might have a lawsuit. But if you have actually played the course and make 100% true statements, free speech is the letter of the law.
Yes, a company can sue someone for a 1 star review if they can prove the person is only doing it maliciously. This has come into play with the "cancel culture" recently. I don't know of any lawsuits that have gone before a judge, but I do know some companies have fought back. Most of the time Google just removes the reviews.
As far as a "cease and desist" letter, if you have never played the course, trash it saying untrue things. Then they might have a lawsuit. But if you have actually played the course and make 100% true statements, free speech is the letter of the law.
Yes, a company can sue someone for a 1 star review if they can prove the person is only doing it maliciously. This has come into play with the "cancel culture" recently. I don't know of any lawsuits that have gone before a judge, but I do know some companies have fought back. Most of the time Google just removes the reviews.
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In the US, anyone can sue you for nearly anything. The more relevant question is whether the suit would have any merit, and whether there would be legitimate monetary damages to be recovered.
Hard to imagine that either would be the case for any semi-responsible disc golf course review. I certainly do not plan to lose any sleep over the possibility.
Standard disclaimers: I am not a lawyer, free legal advice is worth every penny you paid, yadda yadda.
Hard to imagine that either would be the case for any semi-responsible disc golf course review. I certainly do not plan to lose any sleep over the possibility.
Standard disclaimers: I am not a lawyer, free legal advice is worth every penny you paid, yadda yadda.
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It's also about how many trips in front of a judge it takes for a frivolous suit to be dismissed. Legal bills can add up quick even for a BS suit that ultimately gets thrown out. Can't really count on the judge forcing the plaintiff to pick up your legal costs upon dismissal.
Standard disclaimer also very much applies to my comments.
Cgkdisc
.:Hall of Fame Member:.
Since the course has Chainstars, I'm thinking Discraft might be helpful in applying pressure to the city if some of the holes have safety issues.
"Safety" is ambiguous in disc golf. The sport does not have any formal standards for what level of "safe" is acceptable. But that may be a good thing keeping specifics unclear.
"Safety" is ambiguous in disc golf. The sport does not have any formal standards for what level of "safe" is acceptable. But that may be a good thing keeping specifics unclear.
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The course descriptions (both here and on uDisc) go out of their way to credit the designers. If they're not the ones behind the threat (and they may well be), you'd think they would be motivated to remove any safety issues. The injured party wouldn't have to look far to assign blame, other than blaming Tuscumbia Alabama (home of the first lady of courage, Helen Keller).
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If someone is injured and sues, discovery would reveal whether the responsible party was aware of the safety hazard(s), and what steps they took to mitigate said hazards.
If the responsible party had emails in their possession showing that they learned of the hazard and, rather than trying to correct the problem, instead tried to suppress information about the problem . . . well lets just say I would not want to be their lawyer.
Which I would not be, because I am not a lawyer.
But in my former life as a safety/environmental compliance guy, documenting a hazard means that you NEED to make legitimate efforts to mitigate that hazard.
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