Behringer seeks to silence criticism by suing Dave Smith Instruments and 20 forum users for $250,000

  • Published
    Wed, Jun 20, 2018, 09:27
  • Words
  • Share
  • It's the latest in the budget music corporation's attempts to quash negative opinions about its products.
  • Behringer seeks to silence criticism by suing Dave Smith Instruments and 20 forum users for $250,000 image
  • Behringer is pursuing a $250,000 lawsuit against Dave Smith Instruments, one of Dave Smith Instruments' employees and 20 anonymous forum users. CDM reports that the suit, filed in San Francisco County Superior Court on June 9th, seeks damages for libel per se, libel per quod and product disparagement. It's based on comments made in a thread on the Gearslutz forum, wherein Dave Smith Instruments engineer Tony Karavidas and 20 anonymous forum users were alleged to have made "false, defamatory, and libelous" statements about Behringer products. One of the comments referred to Behringer's 6-in-1 cable tester as a "blatant copy, except for the paint" of the Ebtech 6-in-1 cable tester, pictured below.
    The court rejected the suit, ruling that "all of Music Group's (Behringer's parent company) claims against it arise from activity protected by the anti-SLAPP statute, because all of the claims are based on statements that were made in a public forum on an issue of public interest." The anti-SLAPP statute seeks to stop lawsuits designed to censor critics from going to trial. Dave Smith Instruments is now seeking to recoup financial costs. News came to light last week that Behringer also threatened to sue Chinese tech blog Midifan. As of yet, no law suit has been opened.
RA