A former KGB agent is suing the online retail giant Amazon for libel over a customer book review published on its internet website.
Alexander Vassiliev, co-author of a book entitled The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America – The Stalin Era, claims that the review, by the British lawyer and film-maker John Lowenthal, is defamatory, and it undermines his chances of selling film and television rights for the book.
The case is likely to raise further issues concerning the law on internet-based publication, and on the murky area of where such defamation cases should be heard.
The lawsuit marks the first time that Amazon has been sued over a customer review, which can be written by anyone visiting the website. Previously the company has been sued in the British courts for offering particularly controversial books through its American or British sites – first in February 1999 over a book about the Scientology cult, and then in May 1999 over a book called The Committee: Political Assassination in Northern Ireland, which the Ulster Unionist MP David Trimble claimed libelled him.
posted on May 7, 2003 12:14:18 PM new
What a dork! It makes me sick thinking about all the sue-happy people in the world. I hope God has a 'special' place for all of those who've sued under stupid circumstances.
