It ticks them off, makes them complain to their readers and you become the target of a blog swarm. Stepping on their first amendment rights makes them cranky. Here is a step by step explanation of what will happen if you do not heed this advice (click on the link for a real life case study).

1. Blogger posts the “offending” remarks
2. No one outside of the small social group of said blogger really notices
3. “Offended” party gets pissed, hires lawyers who send a cease and desist letter with some threats of legal action and plenty of intimidating and overbearing language
4. Blogger is taken aback, and posts about the letter (maybe even adds in a scanned copy of it!)
5. Bloggers small circle of online friends and readers react angrily, and post about it themselves
6. One or more high readership blogs gets alerted, and writes it up, dramatically expanding awareness well beyond the original blogs readership. What was a small, local matter is now national news online
7. Massive blogger reaction ensues, with general condemnation of the suing party and their lawyers as “a**hats”
8. Suing party and their lawyers corporate names are now forever associated with the negative reaction to this letter (newsflash: blogs, thanks to their cross-linking behavior, naturally score high on Google PageRank)
9. The story makes the jump from blogosphere to local media
10. Your company name becomes a verb (as in “I got Kirked”)

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