Decus Attends a Very Special New York Benefit for Sphinx

Decus Communications supported and attended a very special benefit hosted by Bloomberg News for Sphinx Music in New York on Wednesday, July 29. Emceed by Tony Award nominated actor Delroy Lindo (Ransom, This Christmas, Up, Get Shorty), a big supporter of Sphinx Music, the event was attended by Sphinx Music benefactors, board members and New York based arts patrons.

Champion to Lead Decus Business Development and Client Services

Jennifer Champion has joined Decus Strategic Communications as Director of Business Development and Client Services. A veteran of more than 12 years of marketing and sales experience, Jennifer will lead our growth initiatives as well as enhance our client services portfolio.

By Eric Parzianello – Beals Hubbard, PLLC

There’s not a national radio, television or newspaper company that hasn’t been sued for allegedly publically maligning someone’s character or making libelous statements that could be perceived to damage a company’s reputation.  But maligning a reputation on the internet has become another matter altogether as companies have fewer options restore their good name in the face of angry internet missives from customers, partners or employees.

There are now countless blogs, websites and even Facebook pages dedicated to doing nothing more than dump misinformation and destroy the reputations of individuals and companies. And unfortunately, with all the legislation and legal strides that have been taken in the last 20 years to rein it all in, the world wide web continues to be more like the wild wild west.

Our legal marketing consultant, Mark Gilman, President of Decus Strategic Communications, handles not only legal marketing, public relations and strategy in his business, but works with clients who are attempting to restore their online reputation. “Outside of some tricky legal maneuvers, the best defense is offense,” he says. “You’ve got to really ignite an extensive SEO (Search Engine Optimization) campaign to try and make sure you are negating the reputation damaging stuff online by posting a flood of positive stories.”

One of his clients, the owner of a professional sports, “experiential photography” company, is a good example of a small business with few resources to fight people with a lot of free time who spent countless hours trashing his company’s reputation on a website called complaintsboard.com and on Facebook. “The owner refers to this as internet terrorism,” said Gilman. “They’ve single handedly destroyed his reputation to the point where he can no longer raise money for his company because of all the negative chatter.”

The company owner, who refers himself as a “serial entrepreneur,” is not just some fly-by-night guy working out of his home. He helped launch several successful national companies before embarking on this latest venture two years ago. Like many small business owners and startups, he was immediately successful but then hit a cash flow crunch because of late reimbursements on photo orders with the company he had contracted to house them and the extremely large upfront fees he had to pay to get into professional sports arenas.  As a result, he was late paying some photographers. Ironically the person who started the online campaign of reputation destruction was a photographer who the company owner refused to pay because he used the company camera and time to take personal pictures he ended up posting and trying to sell on his own photography website, a violation of the freelance contract Red Bow’s photographers sign before embarking on the job.  The photographer then set himself on a reputation bashing campaign which issued threats, called the owner a coward, crook, narcissist, scam artist and even a drug dealer (an obviously baseless claim which he did manage to get removed). In addition, the photographer, who according to his web bio has never had full time employment and lists 23 jobs since 2000 before becoming a full-time “freelance photographer,”  has had ample time to bash the company’s online reputation. He even took the time to send a threatening e-mails including to the owner (actual e-mail);

XXXX Coward,

I came by to see you last week, Coward.  You closed your office down...what a Coward you are.  We will find you, Criminal... and you will pay me for the work I did one way or another.  You can run but you can't hide forever.  The Internet is awesome...it sort of follows you with out much effort.  You wife and kids must be so proud of you.  having to run and hide like the low life you are.  The good news is, I'm not violent, but I bet you have a few pissed of people that are much less tolerant than I am...that's probably why you are running

It would have been so much easier to cut me a check...in hind site I bet your rethinking that move, huh?

Take a look in the mirror, Sociopath...do you like what you see?

My LEGIT businesses take me to (your area) frequently, so don't worry...we'll be seeing each other again :-)

So what does a guy like the photo company owner do to fight someone who spends his days trashing his company’s reputation and threatening him personally?  Other than hiring people like Gilman who clean up reputations online for a living, the legal remedies include;

From a personal standpoint, the company owner should take out a Personal Protection Order, just so there’s public record of the threats the freelancer has been making and his efforts to get police attention. As for the company, a suit for defamation is always an option as shown by a recent Tennessee filing. In that case, reported in the Knoxville News Sentinel, “a Knoxville marketing firm filed a $2 million libel lawsuit against a former client claiming comments posted on social media sites Facebook and Twitter have hurt its reputation.” In those types of actions, court orders to remove certain defamatory posts may be sought. These cases require knowledge of the identity of the poster which cannot always be determined when posters assume anonymous user names.

Determining the liability of the website or blog operator is another option, though operators of blogs are generally immune from liability for defamatory statements posted on their websites. However, as one blogger notes in an article devoted specifically to complaintsboard.com, if the operator or blogger contributed to the posting, they may still face liability:

“In 2003, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a listserv moderator and operator of a website which allegedly published defamatory statements provided by a third party was eligible for immunity under the Communications Decency Act (CDA). Batzel v. Smith, 2003 US App.LEXIS 12736 (9th Cir. 2003). However, if the online service provider plays an active role in soliciting information from users that leads to the defamatory act, the operator may not be protected by the safe harbor provisions of the CDA. In Carafano v. Metrosplash.com, Inc., a federal court ruled on the application of the safe harbor of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). The defendant in that case operated a matchmaking website known matchmaker.com. As part of its service, the defendant collected profiles of singles based on an extensive questionnaire. The plaintiff sued Metrosplash because of a false profile of her which an unknown user had posted to the website. The court ruled that by creating the extensive questionnaire, Metrosplash played an active role in developing the information that had been posted. Furthermore, the court ruled that Metrosplash was an information content provider and thus not eligible for the CDA’s safe harbor provided to “interactive computer services.” Carafano v. Metrosplash.com, Inc., Case No. CV 01-0018 DT (CWx) C.D. Cal. 2002) (subsequently reversed by appeals court). While operators of blogs and services are generally immune from such liability, the more active the service is with its member’s, the greater the likelihood of potential liability as a publisher of defamatory materials.”

These issues can be troubling especially for start-ups which have not otherwise established a solid reputation and can easily overcome a few postings. When it becomes a problem, you should consult with your business advisors.

by Mark Gilman

Seeing poverty first hand always sets me back…back to the slums and garbage dumps I’ve seen in Guatemala, Bolivia, and El Salvador, in addition to the depression and financial ruin that’s affected those who live in the Ukraine and Romania.  But none of this prepared me for my trip to Kenya this month.

Invited by my friend Mike Kern at Stout Risius Ross and the folks at Convoy of Hope in Springfield, MO, my trip to Kenya last week was frankly, something I’ll never forget. Convoy, thankfully, broke the trip up with a two day Safari in the Masai Mara, but as incredible as it was to see those animals in the wild, it paled in comparison to the need of the children in Nairobi and the perseverance and spirit of those who are dedicating their lives to making a difference.

There are certain levels of poverty around the word and then there is the poverty we witnessed in the Mathare Valley of Nairobi. A level of its own. Few areas of the world have been harder hit by AIDS and to witness children by the thousands, living in conditions animal welfare activists would call police over if we treated our dogs this way in the U.S., was to say the least – devastating.  Children as little as 2 or 3 months old fending for themselves in slums filled with violence and garbage, sewers running through the streets, infectious drinking water, little food, plentiful homemade drugs, homemade alcohol derived from sewer water and hopelessness was enough to take your breath away.  Nairobi and the Mathare Valley is the postcard for what happens to children whose parents die in record numbers from AIDS, and who have been abandoned by many in a society who have little means to rescue these children.  That’s where organizations like Convoy of Hope come in.

We were given a tour of the slums by a woman known only as “Mama Jane” (women are named Mama ____ in Kenya based on name of their oldest child) who is a one woman force for change in Nairobi. She is known by all in the slums and regularly interviews families and children and brings them to one of the schools she operates in Nairobi. She is also building a safe haven for young girls to protect them from the sex trade and human trafficking. Her energy is infectious, her passion undeniable. What she doesn’t have enough of is resources. Convoy of Hope and some other organizations do what they can to help on a daily basis, but awareness and help is a daily issue. Local missionaries work daily with the government to streamline the distribution process, but it’s the self sustaining work in the group homes that provides the solution. These small group homes, attached to Christian churches in the community do everything from AIDS counseling for those with HIV to feeding, educating and enhancing the lives of people throughout the community. For a moment, I thought my emotions were immune to yet "another trip to witness poverty" until I felt lead to pray for two women with HIV and the faucets opened. The people of this community and the homeless orphans who are the victims, are now thriving in an environment where they have goals of becoming accountants and lawyers and doctors instead of having to spend their time fending on the streets for scraps and attempt to find safe haven from violence. These group homes are also growing their own vegetables, raising chickens, using the manure for methane to cook and heat water. Absolutely incredible. Sustainable hope is Kenya’s future and it's changing lives.

Convoy of Hope is also putting together a new center which will serve as an inland “Port of Hope” for food distribution in the area. Another tremendous opportunity to make yet more of a difference in the region.

I heartily encourage our friends and clients to help Decus with supporting this incredible organization.  It's a trip that has changed my life and I pray I will continue to have the resources to help. You can change a life today by responding and calling me at 248-942-5896 or go to www.convoyofhope.org.