Case: Sera Sera

[bcholmes]

Today's Globe includes an editorial called "I Came, I Saw, I Sued", which includes some interesting statements.

First, it brings up the apparently obvious truth that the US is the land of the frivolous lawsuit. Second, that Stella Awards honours such frivolous lawsuits. The awards are apparently named after Stella Liebeck, who sued McDonalds (I do wish people would bother to learn about that case). I suspect that the Stella Awards are about as meaningful (and truthful) as the Darwin Awards.

It then goes on to describe a totally frivolous lawsuit: a class action suit has been launched against Sony Pictures. Apparently, Sony made some commercials for movies such as Vertical Limit and The Hollow Man quoting a fictitious movie critic. And the facts of the case aren't disputed. Sony has acknowledge that one of its employees "embellished" the movie reviews by quoting "David Manning", a supposed film critic for The Ridgefield Press. Sony has fired the employee in question and apologised for its role in these misleading commercials.

What interests me is that the editorial apparently argues that it is frivolous to sue Sony for this deception. As if to say that it doesn't really matter that movie reviews were invented for the purposes of promoting a movie -- such a thing must not have had any effect on movie-goers.

Comments

Re: Case: Sera Sera

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i do think it's frivolous to sue sony for inventing a movie critic. not because it doesn't really matter that they did that (it does, it was wrong), but because it's too lightweight an offense to involve the courts, IMO. it's cause for a letter to sony, and for an apology -- and i think sony did go all the way in setting things right by firing the perpetrator.

anyone who went to see a movie based on the recommendation of a critic whose name they could not have recognized as worth anything and then sues is a dipshit IMO, and trying to cover zir own gullibility about "authority". what they need is a gold-plated stapler for the "hand to head" maneuvre, not a class action lawsuit.

Re: Case: Sera Sera

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

I guess I am content to have the courts involved because I think that corporations are already far too cavalier with truth in advertising and, at this point in time, any litigation that reminds them of their responsibility is a Good Thing. Courts seem like pretty much the only power that average citizens have over corporations.

I mean: if all it costs a corporation to lie is to fire someone and apologize, then it doesn't seem like they're sufficiently dissuaded from doing so.