Blogger threatened with law suit

Ryne McClaren has a report on a South Dakota expatriate blogger who is being threatened with a lawsuit:

Have you ever heard of a company named NationMaster? I hadn't either until I checked out this post by Dan, a blogging South Dakotan living in Nebraska.

NationMaster is an online statistical reference, along the lines of the CIA World Factbook.

It seems as though Dan published a rather unflattering review of the NationMaster service. NationMaster complained, calling the post "defamatory." Dan removed the critical post in question, and sent an e-mail of his own, an e-mail which detailed further grievances he had with NationMaster. NationMaster responded with more demands to take down other posts (or post titles). Dan replied, keeping his tone quite civil.

NationMaster responds a third time, this time telling Dan that they'll refund money to him after Dan edits post titles on his blog.

See where this is heading?

Dan points in yet another e-mail that what they're asking him to do is above and beyond what was originally requested, but as a "show of good faith" alters the original post title in question.

So at this point does NationMaster refund Dan his money? Apologize and patch things up? If you guessed no, you'd be correct. Instead, NationMaster renews the legal threat, this time telling him that if he doesn't do what they ask they'll turn him over to their lawyers "on Monday." (You can follow this exchange over at the blog Dan set up to keep track of the NationMaster threats: NationMaster Watch.)

I'm no legal expert, but I know this: many companies operate under the impression that you may sue anyone on the Internet who says something unflattering about your product or service, even if what was written was nothing more than an honest, "bad review."