The judge had a tad bit more to say about AW's obscurity.
"... Complaint alleged defamation solely for the reproduction of the text of the email on the Absolute Write website, and that Plaintiff spoke generally about, but failed to prove, that the Count I comments were accessed by, or accessible to, more then just the members of the small online community involved, ..."
"As discussed earlier, the Plaintiff did not contest that the Absolute Write website was a relatively small online forum, and he provided no substantive evidence demonstrating that anyone had actually discovered the Count II statements via an on-line internet search."
"As noted earlier in regard to Count I, the statements were made in a relatively small venue, to a group of authors, many of whom had also expressed some ill will towards either Plaintiff or PublishAmerica generally."
"The group of writers and webposters would have been less affected by Defendant's postings then a group of unknowledgeable viewers who were not familiar with the continued dialogue and banter regarding PublishAmerica and Plaintiff on the Absolute Write website."
"While Defendant's comments were negative and accusatory, they are, again, not so distinguishable from the mainstream discussion on the websites to be considered as the sole, or even necessarily primary, influence on anyone accessing them."
The judge is saying that no one is influenced by the AW PA threads. He is getting at the fact that like the little boy who cried wolf, AW has gone on so long in a negative and accusatory manner that they have no influence "on anyone accessing them. Their candle has burned out.
Once in a blue moon someone will post that AW influenced them to not sign a contract. These are the few exceptions that prove the rule.
Who better to evaluate the influence of a forum than a federal judge setting precedence in a federal defamation case?
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