Court supports gripe site
CircleID: Another Good Decision on Internet “Gripe Sites”:
Lucas Nursery and Landscaping v. Grosse, 2004 WL 403213 (6th Circuit March 5, 2004).
This case involves Lucas Nursery, a landscaping company in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, which apparently botched work done for Michelle Gross – or at least that was her opinion. But, when she established a web site to tell her story, Lucas sued her under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (“ACPA”). She took the site down but Lucas persisted, taking her gesture as a sign of weaknesses and hoping to get some blood – or, perhaps, to send a message to other critics. But the trial judge decided she had not posted her web site with a bad faith intent to profit, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has now affirmed.
I sympathize with the plaintiff, though I like the predisposition toward freedom of speech.
