Legal fund for Reviewers/Erin?

[Ron Texas]

- The US has very defendant-friendly laws on the books relative to other countries, where if you actually get sued for this, you are just screwed

This is true when compared to the UK where the defendant must prove the truth of his statements. In the US the plaintiff must prove the statement was false. However, the US allows contingency fees which tend to encourage litigation. There is actually a US statute which provides US courts will not recognize foreign defamation judgments when the foreign jurisdiction has laws inconsistent with the US first amendment protection of freedom of speech. Congress had the UK in mind when this was enacted.

 

[Human Bass]

Constitutional protections apply to protect you from the Federal government, not private actors

It actually protects from private actors unless we are dealing with severe libel/slander. Someone expressing a lack of satisfaction towards a product is well inside the 1st.

 

[Aperiodic]

Somewhat similar story:

Dr. Amar Bose Dead at 83

Don't speak ill of the dead is commonly accepted wisdom to which I almost always subscribe. However, an Amar Bose obituary in today's New York Times by Glenn Rifkin that read more like an advertisement than an obit forces my hand. The obit writer claims the Bose Corporation "..became synonymous...

www.analogplanet.com

 

[617]

Somewhat similar story:

Dr. Amar Bose Dead at 83

Don't speak ill of the dead is commonly accepted wisdom to which I almost always subscribe. However, an Amar Bose obituary in today's New York Times by Glenn Rifkin that read more like an advertisement than an obit forces my hand. The obit writer claims the Bose Corporation "..became synonymous...

www.analogplanet.com

What an obnoxious article. Amar Bose was a visionary engineer whose work brought joy to more people than every audio critic in the world combined.

 

[MattHooper]

View attachment 362098
I would need meds if I had to look at this. This is the "more is more" and size matters school of speaker design.

I'm with you on that. That's about as horrifying for my aesthetic sensibilities as it gets. I couldn't imagine being able to concentrate on a TV image with that level of distraction.

 

[No one who matters]

I personally can't really see anyone really thinking positively about Tekton after this fiasco, I don't think it can really be spun positively in their view and you don't even have to be an ASR follower to believe that I think.

Considering ASR and Erin combined have millions of active users globally and even more readers, this incident has likely had a poor outcome for the brand on a global scale.

The irony is all it would have taken to have a highly positive outcome was to simply contact Erin, offer the feet and request another review. Even if specs turned out not ruler flat (I’m highly confident they would not), it would have been of no consequence, given the proliferation of DSP products designed to fix the very measurement problems that exist commonly. Then, the brand would stand on other merits, like aesthetics, fit for personality niches, and all of that. But the response, clearly rooted in certain emotional biases and their attendant agendas, precluded that outcome.

It’s also likely the case that some very good things will come of it in the form of other brands being less likely to poke the bear (countless millions of audio enthusiasts interested in product reviews), and instead will start designing objectively better wares.

While the storm rages currently, it will likely result in a cleansed, reinvigorated ecosystem in the longer run, IMHO.

 

[Prana Ferox]

Right, but libel/defamation laws cannot violate free speech (Congress shall make no law…), and this sort of lawsuit seeks to deploy those laws in one’s favor.

SLAPP Suits

A SLAPP suit seeks to use the courts to silence someone who has exercised First Amendment rights and deter others from similar speech.

firstamendment.mtsu.edu

It actually protects from private actors unless we are dealing with severe libel/slander. Someone expressing a lack of satisfaction towards a product is well inside the 1st.

The stuff y'all are thinking of are way lower level and are applied by the states, not the Feds, so there is more nuance / variation. Certainly state constitutions and laws were written with Federal laws and the Constitution in mind, but no, this is not how the Constitution works

 

[Fahzz]

Libel/slander used to be pretty much dead torts in the US. The rise of social media, and some recent prominent case seem to have changed all that. A casual remark on twitter (or whatever it's called) reaches millions of people in an instant and real permanent damage can be done to someone's life. A good example is Rudy Giuliani, Esq. who learned that the hard way.

Talking about a speaker not measuring well is one thing, but disparaging a person, which seems to happen often around here, can be legally actionable.

 

[ahofer]

The stuff y'all are thinking of are way lower level and are applied by the states, not the Feds, so there is more nuance / variation. Certainly state constitutions and laws were written with Federal laws and the Constitution in mind, but no, this is not how the Constitution works

You don’t think the constitution prevents a state from making an unconstitutional law? Been following the abortion debate?

Consider one of the most seminal Supreme Court rulings-Sullivan. It started with the NYT losing a libel case in Alabama.

 

[Human Bass]

You don’t think the constitution prevents a state from making an unconstitutional law? Been following the abortion debate?

Not rare to states and cities approve something unconstitutional and it can take many years to bother enough people and reach higher courts.

But that's enough off topic. A speaker company suing a reviewer just seems extremely petty and lame.

 

[Induna]

Human beings are complex and their subjective responses to music and audio are not even close to demonstrating how complex we are. I sincerely hope that Erin will not be discouraged from continuing to do what he enjoys due to this encounter with a person whose actions have been, in my personal opinion, disconnected from reality and common courtesy. I have had the great misfortune to have family members who demonstrate behaviors and attitudes similar to Mr. Alexander's, again in my personal opinion, and it can be very disturbing for a "normal", rational person, who Erin certainly appears to be, to be confronted with such exaggerated, aggressive and irrational responses. People with the predispositions that Mr. Alexander appears to me to have often depend on the fact that more balanced people will be so shocked and upset by their behavior that they will not know how to react and will give in.

I am very gratified that @amirm had such a clear, no nonsense response to Mr. Alexander's aggressiveness and supported Erin so forcefully, as did this community. I hope that this will leave Erin with more confidence in his project moving forward and will place Mr. Alexander's behavior in the proper context. It would make me very sad if this encounter took away some of the joy Erin obviously gets from his channel. That is what is important here -- that good honest people don't get pushed around and hurt by possibly unhinged bullies, in my opinion.

Sorry for the digression but with all the talk about bad behavior this has generated I wanted to point out how important it is to counter destructive behavior with positive support, not just for the sake of quality audio reviews but because that's how we help each other stay human.

 

[ahofer]

Not rare to states and cities approve something unconstitutional and it can take many years to bother enough people and reach higher courts.

But that's enough off topic. A speaker company suing a reviewer just seems extremely petty and lame.

It’s not off topic. See my SLAPP and the first amendment link above.

Eric Alexander is trying to suppress Amir and Erin’s free expression with litigation, or threats thereof. There is a body of state law built to deal with it, precisely for freedom of speech and expression reasons.

 

[lewis]

This attitude from the manufacturer really puts me off them. I would never buy their product.

 

[Sokel]

Background checks are interesting.

Here he is described as "self taught" so no studies in the field other than experience.
The juicy part though comes from this:

Seeking a new adventure, Alexander sold his car audio business and, through a mutual friend, Zu Audio's Sean Casey, met audiophile heavyweight Ray Kimber. Alexander invited Kimber over to his studio for a listen to one of his new speaker designs, a design, that as Alexander tells it, "floored Ray Kimber." It wasn't long before Alexander, Casey and Kimber went into business together, forming DiAural, named after the trio's new crossover design.

As the saying goes,"show me your friends"...

(the Zu audio guy?Really?)

 

[Timcognito]

When in my late forty's my start up went public and my wife said that could buy any car I wanted, as long it had a back seat (had a 3yr old son). Well with good advice by professional race car and professional skiing camera man enthusiast friend I got a BMW M3 E36 and proceeded to load the engine and suspension with Dinan upgrades. This was followed by four speeding tickets and letter from the California DMV stating that I was among top 1% worst drivers in the state and with one more such infraction my driving license was gone. The wife said if that happened that letter would be framed and hung my living room among other other punishments. Well more to the point I slowed down (kind of).

So Erin this is first threat, so please finish and post the Tekton review and know we got your back. Don't take the bait. Stay honest and detailed as in the past. Don't that A__ win.

 

[SCPB1967]

Just want to say thank you to Amir for putting his weight behind this.
I feel I'm guilty of misjudging you previously.
Keep up your great work Amir.

Just a thought... But if any YouTubers who have reviewed Tekton, good or bad reviews, maybe you could take the content down & starve them of the publicity?

 

[Matt_Holland]

I would need meds if I had to look at this. This is the "more is more" and size matters school of speaker design.

Not only does Tekton fail to include advise on fitting the feet to the cabinets, it fails to provide a warning that its speakers are not suitable for people with Tryphobia

 

[CleanSound]

I personally can't really see anyone really thinking positively about Tekton after this fiasco, I don't think it can really be spun positively in their view and you don't even have to be an ASR follower to believe that I think.

You'd be surprised.

There is a large audience, who believes that HiFi audio is largely art. They believe that different amp with linear frequency response can somehow give you more "air" and "opens up the soundstage."

These people believe that "pure analog" is holy and that cables makes enough of a difficult that even their wives can hear it from the kitchen.

 

[lordhumungous]

You'd be surprised.

There is a large audience, who believes that HiFi audio is largely art. They believe that different amp with linear frequency response can somehow give you more "air" and "opens up the soundstage."

These people believe that "pure analog" is holy and that cables makes enough of a difficult that even their wives can hear it from the kitchen.

Indeed.

 

[jools]

I just knew that Erin and Amir using cheapo mains cables for their Klippels, and not even having any cable risers, was only ever going to end in tears. How could they hope to measure the magic?

(JOKE)