The recent legal proceedings brought against Whirlpool forum creator, Simon Wright, by the business and accounting software company 2Clix, appears to be on the cusp of being withdrawn.
2Clix had sued Wright for $150,000 in damages relating to alleged "injurious falsehoods" that occurred across several Whirlpool forum threads between September 2006 and July 2007.
The lawsuit received global media attention, and drew criticism from prominent law experts such as David Vaile, executive director of the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre at UNSW, over its attack on free speech.
In a statement posted on the forum's homepage today at 1pm, Whirlpool staff wrote the following message:
Whirlpool has responded to media speculation that the 2Clix case against Simon Wright has been dropped.
Simon Wright and the Whirlpool legal team can confirm that they received informal notice from an employee of 2Clix that there may be an intention on the part of 2Clix to withdraw their Statement of Claim against Simon.
However Queensland Supreme Court records still show (as at time of posting this statement) that the legal action is current and active.
Whirlpool legal representatives have made repeated efforts to obtain formal confirmation from 2Clix' legal representatives, Turnbull and Co without success. As such, we do not believe it appropriate to state that the action has been withdrawn and will not make such statements until it the matter is finalised.
Whirlpool said that it had removed donation links for its legal costs soon after receiving the note from 2Clix.
The forum will offer refunds to those that donated once the matter is formally withdrawn.