Cynosure & Their Legal Intimidation Department

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Someone supposedly from Cynosure and using the dubious name 'Legal' has decided that posting threats against people making comments on the Cynosure Laser Users forum is the very best way to move the discussion along.

Now there are any number of dubious posts on Medical Spa MD to be sure. The straight spammers are easy enough to pick up but the 'hidden agenda' groups are around too. (I've outed others in the past.)

Here's 'Legal's' IP address lookupAnd this appears as though it's really coming from someone at Cynosure; although probably not thier customer service or sales departments.

You can see their IP address to the right >

More on that in a moment; here's what 'Legal' left as his initial comment:

ATTENTION:
Mike P did not write the above statement in regards to Mr. Leibl. The person involved with Mr. Leibl must refrain from using any executive's name at Cynosure or any current Cynosure employee's name in this forum to publicly air their differences.
Cynosure may take legal action and have all IP addresses pulled for sourcing of information, if these action do not stopped immediately.

Cynosure has no involvement with this web site and the accusation by Leon Leibl,
Paul Edmondson, Dee Greene and the fictitious employee by the name of Bob West.

It seems odd that 'Legal' wouldn't identifiy themselves if the actually worked for Cynosure; Medical Spa MD has been threatened with lawsuits many times by companies who didn't like what someone had to say and in every other instance, there's been a lawyers name attached.

This didin't only seem suspect to me. LH (A well respected regular around here) had this comment:

Legal,
It sounds as if you have nothing to say in this matter considering the fact that you have left an anonymous post and the others have left their names. Please do not try to come on her with your legal crap and try to intimidate people. This threat has been used before and did not work. If I am not mistaken these posts are over a year old and this is called free speech.
LH

Here,  'Legal's' response gets a little shrill:

Dear LH,
It's called defamation of character, not free speech when placed in this context. Establishing a statement exposing a person to hatred, ridicule, contempt, or causing injury to you in your occupation.
It isn't enough that the untrue statement was said and published, it must also have been conveyed or be published to others and understood to be about you. Figures seeking to prove defamation of character must also show that the false statement was made with actual malice

LH,
Do you care to tell us your name? Do you care to share with us your infinite brilliance of wisdom on this subject?

'Legal's obviously not been reading the site for long. (LH has bee around for more than a while and has a stellar reputation. Many of our Members, including myself, do know who he is.)

So what are we to think about Legal?

To be honest, he may have a legitimate gripe. There's a comment in the thread above that does sound as though it's written by someone claiming to be from Cynosure. However, I get emails every couple of weeks about some comment that's mistakenly attributed or where someone has revealed their business information and would like that information removed. (Although this is a hassle I try to oblige as long as it does not change any 'content'.)

I'll note here that Cynosure has not contacted me in any way. If Cynosure had, and they provided me with anything reasonable that indicated that someone was posing as one of their employees, I probably would have just removed the comment. We have a very strict policy around this. (Posting anonymously is fine; there are a lot of physicians and others who could be hurt by airing their real opinions in public. But posing as someone else will get you banned and outed.)

While it seems that 'Legal' is posting from Cynosure, it's hard to say who they are or what their motives are. (And their grammar is suspect. "your infinite brilliance of wisdom'???)

The threat that 'Legal' makes of 'have all IP addresses pulled for sourcing of information' is totally bogus. It would take a court subpoena in order to even try to get any IP addresses. The fact that the treat is even made is just stupid. 

Cynosure's business management should walk in and have a talk with 'Legal' about making corporate threats in public. I don't imagine that Cynosure reps want to be in answering questions about this thread while they're trying to demo a Smartlipo or Affirm.

If Cynosure's business or legal departments actually have an issue with someone's comment or claim that it's been posted fraudulently, please contact us directly. We're happy to help and if it makes sense we'll remove it. But don't just go around threatening and trying to intimidate others on Medical Spa MD forums... you'll make the front page and get your IP address banned... as in this case.

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