114 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
114 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
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PR firm declares war on 'rogue' web sites Copyright (C) 1996
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Nando.net Copyright (C) 1996 The Associated Press
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SAN FRANCISCO (Jun 10, 1996 09:23 a.m. EDT) -- To advertisers
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and activists, the Internet is nirvana -- unlimited space and
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the chance to get their message to the world. To the public
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relations firm of Middleberg and Associates, it's a potential
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nightmare.
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Before the World Wide Web, people unhappy with individual
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companies were reduced to convincing a news organization they
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had a legitimate gripe or standing around handing out leaflets
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at corporate headquarters.
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Now, all it takes is a weekend coding some HTML files and
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every complaint or concern they've ever had is instantly
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available to millions.
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"There was the 'Kmart Sucks' site, created by a disgruntled
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employee who was saying a lot of mean and nasty things about
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Kmart. Then there was the First Bost on site, where a former
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employee published proprietary salary figures," said Don
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Middleberg, whose firm protects its clients from attacks on the
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Internet.
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"Companies spend small fortunes to create a brand image and
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something called good will," he said. "These sites are actively
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destroying them."
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To counter the threat, Middleberg's firm monitors the Web for
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what he calls "rogue" sites, then finds the people who created
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them and attempts to convince them to go off-line. "If gentle
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persuasion doesn't work," he said from his New York office, "you
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need to bring in the lawyers."
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Over and above First Amendment concerns, threats of legal
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action are a long way from the golden vision of the Web as an
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democratic leveler rhapsodized about by Howard Rheingold, who
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has written several books about the ethos of the Internet.
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"The Internet puts the masses back in mass media. It lets
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anyone publish their manifesto for all the world to read,"
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Rheingold said from his home near San Francisco.
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Those days are over, countered Middleberg.
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"Rheingold's perceptions of where things are might have been
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true a few months ago," he said. "But this is big business.
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Things have changed. This is no longer a cottage industry.
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Companies have spent millions of dollars on this. They're going
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to fight to protect their sites."
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"If the lawyers decide to go after someone and a company is
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willing to spend the dollars, they certainly can threaten and
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make life very difficult for people ." It's legally unclear,
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however, how much power companies actually have. Merely making
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derogatory comments is not illegal, said David Maher, co-chair
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of the subcommittee on Internet Trademark Issues of the
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International Trademark Association.
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"If you have an individual who doesn't like Ford motor cars or
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Burger King and says rude things about them, the First Amendment
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provides quite a shield. Just because people are saying bad
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things about you, you can't necessarily stop them," he said.
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Not only is truth a defense against libel, but trade libel law
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requires that a company must show it actually has been damaged, a
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higher standard than individuals, who must show only that their
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reputations have been damaged, Maher said.
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But legal or not, even the threat might be enough to shut down
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smaller sites, said Jonathan Hall, a spokesman for the
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environmental group Greenpeace -- which maintains an active Web
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site.
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"I wouldn't be surprised if people gave in if they got a call
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and were told to 'remove this or there will be legal action.'
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They might do it because they don 't know their legal rights,"
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he said.
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Greenpeace does, which is probably why the association of
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nuclear energy producers Middleberg recently spoke to considers
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it such a threat.
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"They are scared to death of groups like Greenpeace, who are
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very clever in how they use the Net to get a message out,"
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Middleberg said.
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Not unexpectedly, Middleberg won't name his clients, though he
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says he's added eight to the list in the last six months.
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Other public relations firms say they haven't heard of anyone
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using a similar strategy. Curtis Kundred of Fleishman Hillard
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International Communications deem ed it a short-run approach
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that will backfire in the end.
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"I would hope it's not the job of a public relations firm to
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muscle someone into backing down from expressing their beliefs
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online," added Amy Oringel of Int erActive Public Relations
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Inc.
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Up until now, the Web has provided a level playing field, a
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place where "Joe Schmoe can have just as much credibility as
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CNN," said writer Martin A. Lee, whose book "Unreliable Sources"
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was an expose of the public relations industry.
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"Money is the great unleveler in this equation," he said. "We
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seem to be in the crux of a shift, when the whole equilibrium is
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shifting from 'a thousand flowers blooming' to a corporate
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market. It's disturbing."
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