If you are a software maker producing a product that may be harmful to the hardware of innocent gamers, calling out the whistle-blowing blogger with a lawsuit threat may be generally regarded as a bad move.
When that blogger happens to be Cory Doctorow and his blog, Boing Boing, just happens to be the most heavily trafficked blog on the Internet, one should probably change “generally regarded as a bad move” to “what were you thinking, anyway?”
The brouhaha began after Doctorow posted an account of how the StarForce anti-copying technology has caused hardware issues for gamers, as reported by a site dedicated to alerting others about the dangers involved.
Doctorow followed up that story the next day with a new post. StarForce’s response to the issue was a legal threat against Doctorow delivered by email, which he duly reposted to his blog:
From: “Dennis Zhidkov”
Date: January 31, 2006 9:55:40 AM BST
To: “doctorow@craphound.com”
Subject: StarForce Response to Cory Doctorow
StarForce Inc. response to Mr. Cory Doctorow
Dear Sir, calling StarForce “Anti-copying malware” is a good enough cause to press charges and that is what our corporate lawyer is busy doing right now. I urge you to remove your post from http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/30/anticopying_malware_.html because it is full of insults, lies, false accusations and rumors. Your article violates approximately 11 international laws. Our USlawyer will contact you shortly. I have also contacted the FBI , because what you are doing is harassment.
Sincerely,
Dennis Zhidkov
PR-manager
StarForce Inc.
www.star-force.com
In his post, Doctorow included his reply:
“Thank you for your response. I have appended it to my original post and have forwarded it to the Chilling Effects project to be part of the permanent record of abusive attempts by companies to silence their critics.”
Doctorow further noted how the company also made a similar threat against CNet, to which he linked for reference.
Many non-gamers (yes, believe it or not, they exist) who read Boing Boing probably would have passed over the StarForce post without noticing it much. By threatening legal action and the FBI against Doctorow, StarForce guaranteed the interest of a host of people beyond the gaming world.
The widely read tech news sites Digg and Slashdot both featured the story on their front pages. It made the front of Digg by virtue of plenty of user votes, and Slashdot due to its selection by an editor.
That means plenty of exposure for a story likely destined to fly under the radar without the threats. The lesson for PR today: fix your problems instead of trying to fix the blame. Contrition works wonders for the sincere.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
