Statements vs. Avid CEO Were Free Speech: TransNexus
Avid Telecom’s first amended defamation complaint fails to state a claim against TransNexus upon which relief can be granted because TransNexus “promptly removed, withdrew and retracted the alleged defamatory statements” about Avid CEO Michael Lansky that are at issue in…
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this dispute, said the defendant’s answer Wednesday (docket 1:22-cv-04829) in U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia in Atlanta. Avid alleges TransNexus published on its blog a transcript of a Skype conversation depicting one of the participants seeking to unlawfully mask illegal robocalls so they wouldn’t get flagged by federal investigatory agencies. But instead of identifying the actual Skype participant, TransNexus allegedly published a doctored version depicting one of the parties to be Lansky (see 2212080050). Because Avid and Lansky “were and are the subjects” of numerous state attorney general robocalling enforcement proceedings, their claims against TransNexus “may be barred in whole or part by the libel-proof plaintiff doctrine,” said TransNexus. The alleged defamatory statements “do no actual harm” to Avid’s and Lansky’s reputations, “which were already impacted, poor and tarnished by said enforcement proceedings,” it said. “TransNexus submits that some or all of the alleged defamatory statements were privileged forms of free speech concerning matters of public interest, which would not support an award of damages in the within action.”