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warshawlaw Local rag reported today that a case for defamation against ebay had been thrown out of court. Apparently, someone rich who was ticked off about negative feedback actually sued ebay for publishing defamatory materials by posting negative feedbacks. The court ruled that ebay was akin to an internet chat board, which is immunized under Federal law from liability for the defamatory comments of posters. The lawsuit against the person who posted the item apparently was permitted to go forward, however.
This will bear close scrutiny since there is so much inflammatory commentary in typical negative feedbacks. I'd be extra careful in the future vis a vis what you say in a negative feedback--limit the comment to the transactional facts and skip the personal attacks or you could end up on the business end of a summons from some whacko.
Scary times we live in, eh?