14 DAY TRIAL // Enigma Software, the company behind the SpyHunter anti-malware software product, has filed a lawsuit against Bleeping Computer, a tech news site, after one of its moderators posted a bad review of Spyhunter on their forum.
The issue at the core of this dispute is a forum topic started in September 2014, after a user asked for support from the Bleeping Computer community to help him choose from three anti-malware products that included SpyHunter, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (MBAM), and IObit.
Enigma Software files slander lawsuit against Bleeping Computer
According to a lawsuit filed in the US Southern District Court of New York on January 8, 2016, Enigma Software is accusing Bleeping Computer's parent company, Bleeping Computer LLC, of false advertising, commercial disparagement, and defamation.
Enigma Software claims that, because Bleeping Computer participates in an affiliate program run by Malwarebytes for which it receives a commission for every new customer they send their way, Bleeping Computer has a direct interest in promoting a negative review of SpyHunter on their forum.
On the other hand, a quick Internet search reveals forum topics similar to the one on Bleeping Computer. The problem may reside in the fact that the Bleeping Computer topic is in the top 3 search results for Google search queries like "spyhunter review" or "spyhunter vs malwarebytes."
In its lawsuit, Enigma Software claims that all statements made on the Bleeping Compute were false and posted only to make users believe that Malwarebytes was a better product for the sole purpose of earning Bleeping Computer a commission out of redirecting users to Malwarebytes' website.
On the other hand, it's quite hard not to take Bleeping Computer's criticism seriously, especially since the person that wrote it also included external references to the stated facts.
Bleeping Computer calls it an assault on free speech
In a statement on its site, Bleeping Computer's owner, Lawrence Abrams, says that "the hallmark of an SLAPP suit, which is what we think this is, is to file a frivolous claim to try and silence your opponent."
SLAPP stands for "strategic lawsuit against public participation" and refers to lawsuits that come with such a high cost of legal defense fees that the plaintiff, even if right, may sometimes bow down to the opposition just to escape the mounting financial costs.
Mr. Abrams considers the entire lawsuit to be an attempt to censor his website and focused only on removing a negative review. "Enigma Software doesn't like this post and instead of publicly defending their product, they are trying to bully us into censoring it," he explains.
In recent years, Bleeping Computer has become one of the darling sites of the tech and infosec communities, after its members, together with various security researchers, helped crack numerous ransomware families and provide decrypting software free of charge.
In many past instances where people that got rid of ransomware recovered their personal files and wanted to give money back to the site's operators, users were told to donate to local charities instead.
Bleeping Computer plans to fight back
The site is now calling on its users to help it defend its right to free speech. To handle the cost of the legal defense, which is a whopping $100,000 (€91,000), Bleeping Computer has put up a GoFundMe campaign and is also taking donations via PayPal.
"Bleeping Computer was created and is devoted to helping consumers fix their computers and remove viruses for free. Whenever we help people we always recommend free reputable program that are both free-to-scan and free-to-clean so that our visitors do not have to spend any money," Mr. Abrams also added in a statement to Softpedia.
"It is incredibly frustrating that a company comes along and slaps us with a lawsuit because a volunteer moderator expressed his honest opinion about a product to protect consumers. Our moderator, Quietman7, earns nothing from helping on the site and yet has posted over 40,000 posts in the forums. If you think about the amount of time he has devoted to helping others for free it is staggering!"
"What concerns me even more is that suits like this threaten anyone who simply wants to express their opinion about a product, software, or service. It is important that readers realize that this is not just a fight against this lawsuit, but a fight to protect the security community from SLAPP suits."
"Allowing suits like this to win in court only encourages companies to go after other bloggers and the security community as a whole. It is important that everyone who cares about security to stand up, fight back, and rally around this cause. We need to show them that this is not acceptable and get our message out there."
Softpedia has also contacted Enigma Software for comments on this issue via email and its official website, but none of our messages has been answered at the time of this article's publication.