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I find it easy to believe him. He posts using his real name. If he is lying then ....well Google has an army of lawyers. He is almost certainly telling what he

I find it easy to believe him. He posts using his real name. If he is lying then ....well Google has an army of lawyers. He is almost certainly telling what he believes is the truth. In contrast all the active Google employees who follow him around are anon posters. Anon posters who never worked with Michael and are only repeating office gossip or pointing out differences in perspective. Edit: Anon people sign up to hn simply to try and discredit MichaelOChurch by attacking his (admittedly a little rough around the edges) reputation. See shanterer's post below for evidence in this thread.

danielweber 13y ago
> I find it easy to believe him. He posts using his real name. If he is lying then ....well Google has an army of lawyers. Without taking any side here, this isn't indicative of much. One has to work very hard to be able to actually lose a libel or slander lawsuit in the US. And while it would be very easy for Google to start a lawsuit it knows it can't win just to pressure some guy to shut up, Google probably understands the Streisand effect very well.
- sheepmullet 13y ago
  > Without taking any side here, this isn't indicative of much. I think it does up the ante. If a Google employee (or anyone who doesn't like him really) could catch him in a lie his reputation would be damaged as he is a "public figure". On the other hand if you caught me in a lie... well only around 5-6 people know who I am and I copied this nick off another bloke on a different forum because I thought it was cool. So it wouldn't really bother me.
  - danielweber 13y ago
    Whether he's a public figure is debatable (the Wiki article gives a good summary of the questions we'd need), but all it means for a defamation suit is that Google would not have to prove malice. There would be many other hurdles to clear. IANAL.
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danielweber 13y ago

> I find it easy to believe him. He posts using his real name. If he is lying then ....well Google has an army of lawyers. Without taking any side here, this isn't indicative of much. One has to work very hard to be able to actually lose a libel or slander lawsuit in the US. And while it would be very easy for Google to start a lawsuit it knows it can't win just to pressure some guy to shut up, Google probably understands the Streisand effect very well.

sheepmullet 13y ago
> Without taking any side here, this isn't indicative of much. I think it does up the ante. If a Google employee (or anyone who doesn't like him really) could catch him in a lie his reputation would be damaged as he is a "public figure". On the other hand if you caught me in a lie... well only around 5-6 people know who I am and I copied this nick off another bloke on a different forum because I thought it was cool. So it wouldn't really bother me.
- danielweber 13y ago
  Whether he's a public figure is debatable (the Wiki article gives a good summary of the questions we'd need), but all it means for a defamation suit is that Google would not have to prove malice. There would be many other hurdles to clear. IANAL.

deleted 13y ago

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