The Internet, as we all know, makes it possible for anyone to review anything and have hundreds of potential buyers or customers see it. Potentially it gives a negative review much more clout than when most of us were limited to word of mouth. So it’s not surprising people freak out about them.
Some companies, for example, allegedly take pay to provide fake Amazon reviews. Amazon has filed suit against them. The companies say they simply find customers willing to write reviews, so no big.
Other companies simply sue people who write negative reviews. Case in point, a dog-training school is suing a woman for $65,000 for posting what the school says is an inaccurate review. The school says it’s defending its good name, the woman says it’s just a SLAPP lawsuit (strategic lawsuit against public participation—using the threat of going to court to shut people up).
Some businesses have tried er, creative uses of copyright. A dentist tried to get a negative review taken down on the grounds it violated copyright over information about his own business. He failed and wound up paying the client almost $5,000. This apartment complex wrote an addendum in its lease saying that anything posted about the complex, either writing or photos, belonged to the complex. As such, posting it would violate their copyright. Plus they might fine the tenant who did it.
As the apartment-related link notes, that kind of clause has frequently been tossed out by courts if things get that far. Just because someone puts an illegal term in the lease and you sign it,it still isn’t legal (in most states, a landlord can’t simply make all repairs the tenants’ responsibility, even if the lease says so).
I’ve heard accounts of writers harassing online reviewers, but nothing this extreme. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened some time.
