What defines slander and would this (See question) constitute slander?

Question

Before I begin, please put in a quick placeholder if you want to answer and allow me time to complete the question with more details. Thanks!

I would like to know, legally, what is slander? How do you define it and what can you do about it if it is slander?

My question stems from a website which monitors other sites for spam activity. How it works is their spider fills in forms and signs up for mailing lists with a unique name and then determins how much spam is sent to that email address in order to calculate just how "spammy" a website is.

My website, www.antiqueshoppingguide.com has been in business for over 5 years. We have never resorted to spamming in any shape or form to get our business across to others.

When you do a google search for "antiqueshoppingguide.com" the very first thing that comes up in the list is this website ran by mckafee. If you go to http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/antiqueshoppingguide.com you will see that my site has been

labeled as a spamming website because their spider signed up on our message forums, which were using the PHPBB script, a commonly used forum script used on thousands of websites.

Spammers tend to spider the web looking for email names to harvest, and naturally, it found theirs on our forums. They received spam and therefor labeled MY SITE as the offending spammer.

If I have a potential customer do this google search and they come across this, they will believe that my business uses spam which we don't. Nowhere on the webpage by mckafee does it explain that the spam was due to them signing up on a widely used forum script.

I feel that this may have seriously damaged my reputation and very unfairly as well, seeing as how they knew they would get spam for signing up on the forums, and did not explain it to the people who look at their site.

Are there any legal options I can persue against them for slander or any other cause?

Please answer if you know. Thank you.

Answer 1

Legally speaking, slander is when words are spoken that harm your reputation and ability to earn a living. When the words are printed, it is called libel.

You can certainly bring a lawsuit (it would be a civil action, as libel is not a crime) but you would have to demonstrate that your income and reputation were damaged, and that the other party could reasonably have known it was hurting you. The onus of proof is on you. On the other hand, the other party could say that it was using and industry-standard spider to harvest the information and that it took only reasonable actions.

You could bring such a lawsuit but you better listen to the advice of your lawyer. Bringing a libel suit is not easy but laws are different from state to state and your state may favor you. Good luck!

Answer 2

Slander is usually oral defamation, representations to the ear. That is, slander involves use of the spoken word and is not reduced to some permanent form such as print or recording. Slander is generally not actionable unless special damages can be shown. Special damages are actual damages suffered by the plaintiff. At common law, there were four instances where special damages did not have to be shown: 1) Defendant has charged that plaintiff committed some reprehensible crime, 2) Defendant imputes to plaintiff a currently existing loathsome communicable disease, 3) Defendant imputes to plaintiff conduct or characteristics incompatible with the proper performance of plaintiff's business or profession, and 4) Defendant imputes chastity to a female plaintiff.

Answer 3

Slander is spoken, Libel is print.

Save the URL of that page and print it, including the url/date time etc.

Talk to a lawyer, thats your best bet.

If you take a look at the detailed analysis portion, you'll notice that all the email sent to that address were in fact spam, and had nothing to do with your script.

You could always contact MacAfee to get more information. Something is datamining the address from your script and spamming them.

Answer 4

You may be able to. I would first contact a legal authority, such as a lawyer or barrister, consult them, then contact this person, and ask them to please stop maligning the good name of your business. Some companies work on the assumption that no word back is an acknowledgement of their claim. I personally find it reprehensible.

Answer 5

Slander is a lie that harms your community reputation (which you must prove)