After the publication of my news piece on the British Medical Journal about the Italian blog blogzero.it threatened by Boiron Italy, that ignited an International Streisand effect, several colleagues all over the world wrote about the issue, and some asked for an English translation of the letter.
Here is an informal translation of the threatening letter sent by Boiron Italy to Italian blogger Samuele Riva (translated by Fabio Turone, as a service for the science writers’ community).
The letter signed by the CEO Silvia Nencioni was sent to the Internet provider, and threatened both the provider and the blogger of bringing them to court in case they did not comply immediately with their requests.
The language contains a lot of lawyer jargon, that I tried to simplify, saving the meaning: take everything with a grain of salt (and ask if I was not clear enough).
On the letterhead of Boiron Italy.
Subject: Web site «Blogzero.it» – Libelous content – Intimation and request of removal
From the NIC (Network Information Center) it appears that you manage the domain «blogzero.it», registered on the name of Mr Samuele Riva.
On 13 July 2011, on the website appeared an article under the headline: «Homoeopathy: myth and legend», signed by «Samuele», libelous of homoeopathy and our Company.
In particular, in such article, announced as the first of a series, after expressing untrue and unfounded opinions on homoeopathy, appeared a photograph of two tubes of our medicine «Oscillococcinum» with the following caption: «The Nothing-at-all that according to Boiron treats flu… diluted 200K it doesn’t contain any molecule of active principle!».
Later, on 27 July 2011, another article is published under the headline «Homoeopathy: myth and legend (2)», signed by «Samuele», again libelous of homoeopathy and our medicine «Oscillococcinum».
In fact, under the picture of our medicine the following caption was published: «Seriously damages the intelligence (of those buying it)».
The article goes on citing our medicine and our Company and announcing a new article on the issue.
The publication over the Internet of such messages, untrue and derogatory of homoeopathy and our Company and our medicine seriously tarnishes the reputation of our Company, as described in the Article 595 of the penal code, and causes serious damages which could be recovered in a civil court.
You, being the manager of the blog through which those messages have been and continue to be diffused, are responsible for the control over the content, and hence you are co-responsible both from the penal and the civil point of view, of the defamation undercourse.
In the light of all that has been written, with this letter we intimate/order you – in your quality of manager and hence responsible subject for the domain blogzero.it – to remove immediately and, in any case, no later than 24 hours after receiving this letter all articles signed «Samuele», including every picture of our medicine and any and all references to our medicines and our company.
In addition, we warn you against any unauthorised use within your blog of pictures of our products and the logos of our Company.
We finally warn you to prevent Mr Samuele, author of the cited libelous articles, to access blogzero.it.
Missing such acts/if you don’t comply we reserve the right of any further actions to defend our rights and interests.
With Regards
Laboratoires Boiron srl (Italian arm of Boiron)
The Chief Executive Officer
Dott.ssa Silvia Nencioni
Filed under: business, farmaci, giornalismo, giornalismo scientifico, internet, medicina, rete, ricerca scientifica, salute, scienza, social networking, società | Tagged: blogzero, BMJ, Boiron, British Medical Journal, civil, court, crime, defamation, English, English translation, homeopathy, homoeopathy, Homoeopathy: myth and legend, image, Italy, Laboratoires Boiron srl, libel, libelous, oscillococcinum, penal, reputation, riva, samuele, Samuele Riva, streisand effect |
Presente 2.0 
[…] The untranslated letter can be found here and here. An “informal translation” can be found here. […]
They don’t just want the articles removed, they want every post by samuele deleted and his domain blocked?
That is outrageously over the top.
That’s one of the points in which the “legal jargon” is involved.
The text says that.
The CEO that I interviewed insisted in saying that for a lawyer (an Italian one) it’s clear that the request only applies in case the blogger doesn’t remove the offending pages.
But in my (non lawyer) ear there is still something that doesn’t hold water: they write to the internet provider, pretending to hold him responsible for what is written there, and ask him to act.
The company had several ways to contact the blogger: from commenting in the blog, to using the contact form, to asking the provider to forward a communication.
The blogger is not even listed in CC, so I dont understand how that request (of totally blocking access to the blog to Samuele Riva) might depend on the reaction of the blogger to a request he is not even informed of…
In my view, that letter is badly written, whatever the Italian laws might say about the use of the picture and the sarcastic/offending terms present in the original posts.
(Since I am not a professional translator of legal texts, I called my translation “informal”, just to later notice that others proposed translatons that confused the matter even more, ignoring that in Italian the verb curare is not “to cure” but rather “to treat”; Martin Robbins followed that translation and totally misrepresented the issue…).
This comment has been edited for clarity on Aug 21, at 11:30 pm
[…] commenti Anonymous su Giorgio Merlo: vergognati…Fabio Turone su The English translation of the…anarchic teapot su The English translation of the…Another translation … su The English […]
[…] would have you done if you had received such a letter as the Pharmaceutical firm Boiron sent to an Italian blogger? For myself I would have been […]
Hi, I just wrote a post about the story here:
Blogger should feel indebted to you for defending their liberty of speaking!
Well, I think that everyone was defending everyone’s freedom of speech (even if I must admit – as a professional journalist – that some bloggers misuse such freedom with sloppines and carelessness).
Of course it is an enormous pleasure to see that a single article you write can contribute so much to a worldwide reaction.
[…] tekst malog blogera, pa se odlučio na pravnu akciju. Samueleov internet poslužitelj je zaprimio prijeteće pismo od strane Boirona, u kojem se od poslužitelja zahtijeva trenutačno uklanjanje svake slike i […]
[…] vorzugehen. Die Übersetzung des Schreibens aus dem Italienischen ins Englische kann man hier einsehen, die schönsten Stellen hier noch einmal auf […]
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[…] Si les interesa leer el contenido de la carta, aquí tienen el original en italiano y una traducción al inglés. Por el momento, blogzero se niega a plegarse, y el famoso efecto Streisand está aireando […]
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