Legal action PR nightmare
By Bala Shah

US-based Indian origin Tech firm Apex Technology Group had initiated legal action against American blog EndH1B, Itgrunt and Guestworkerfraud. Apex Technology Group, which counts IBM, Microsoft, UBS and other blue chip companies as clients, wanted to protect its reputation after EndH1B published a post accusing it allegedly of mistreating Indians on H1B Visas. Apex has flatly denied all allegations made against it. At this point in time none of the allegations have been proved in court. (For full story see Techgoss article at the end of this snippet).

What Apex wanted was to use its lawyers to get all articles criticizing it removed from EndH1B, Itgrunt and Guestworkerfraud. But they landed up requesting the New Jersey based American Court to remove the 3 websites from the internet.  On Dec 23, the Judge, instead of asking for only anti Apex articles to be removed, banned the 3 websites. Banned as in ejected from the internet.

Now that the Christmas break is over and American journalist are getting back to work, there is outrage on how any American Judge can get 3 entire websites evicted from the internet.  Till the Court judgment, the battle between Apex and EndH1B was being followed by only a few thousand people on the internet.  Today, millions of people are reading about it.

Yesterday, iconic technology news site Slashdot which is read by 6 million people every month reported the story.  And while Slashdot readers may not agree with EndH1B, they are unhappy about Apex getting the 3 American sites banned.

International magazine Computerworld also reported the story.  Times of India picked up the Computerworld story.

Arguably, one of the most influential websites in America, Techdirt, also picked up the news.  Techdirt, which supports the H1B Visa system, wrote: “What's not at all clear is why the judge would completely shut down all three websites and the Facebook page. If there are problems with just this document, order an injunction against that document. Completely shutting down all three websites goes way too far, and seems to go well beyond what either defamation law or copyright law should allow.”

What is the Techgoss view on this?  Apex Technology Group insists that it has only acted according to American laws.  And this may well be the case.  So, if something negative was published about Apex, its management should have issued a public statement giving facts proving they are in the right.  These facts proving their innocence should have been published in the Apex website as well as the anti H1B sites.

The next step for Apex should have been to go to the Court to prove that the allegations against them were false. And if proved false in court, ask for an apology and compensation.

But by getting the 3 websites banned, Apex has walked into a public relations nightmare. Only a handful of American’s set up websites like EndH1B and ITGrunt to fight for their jobs.  But millions of American’s will fight for their freedom of speech guaranteed under the constitution.

While Techgoss has disagreed with the venom in some of the anti H1B and anti Indian blogs, the ground reality is that there is not much we can do about it. Apex has made a mistake by getting the websites banned. There is no way Apex can win this battle either in Court or in the hearts and minds of most Americans.

(Techgoss had published the following article on Dec 29, 2009)

Godaddy confiscates anti H1B anti Indian site
By Bala Shah

The USA had set up the H-1B visa program to hire on a short term basis highly skilled workers not available in America.  While many blue chip Indian tech firms follow the letter and spirit of the American law, the ground reality is that some have used every loophole in the H-1B system to bring in low cost workers. 

The ongoing misuse of the visas by a handful of Indian companies is an open secret. A few Americans had started anonymous anti H1B and anti Indian sites. The most caustic (with a tinge of humour) anti-Indian and anti-H1B site is ITGrunt.  Despite being written under a pseudonym, ITGrunt was even interviewed by respected international magazine Businessweek.  Another such site is the EndH1B.com blog. At many levels, both these blogs worked in tandem.

So, what happens in the cut and thrust between American tech firms and desi bodyshops when they are criticized by anti H1B sites like ITGrunt and EndH1B?  Most American tech firms and desi bodyshops keep a polite silence.

Once in a while, things blow up.  That is what happened in late November/first week of December, 2009.

As reported earlier, US-based Indian origin Tech firm Apex Technology Group had initiated legal action against American blog EndH1B, Itgrunt and Guestworkerfraud. Apex Technology Group, which counts IBM, Microsoft, UBS and other blue chip companies as clients, wanted to protect its reputation after EndH1B published a post accusing it allegedly of mistreating Indians on H1B Visas. Apex has flatly denied all allegations made against it. At this point in time none of the allegations have been proved in court.

This legal threat to the anti H1B and anti Outsourcing lobby was like a red flag to an enraged bull. EndH1B, and its affiliated blogs, had launched an all out open attack on Apex Technology Group and its legal team. EndH1B had publicly accused Apex Technology Group of illegally charging $3000 to process some Visas. EndH1B had told their readers that Apex legal threats were bogus and not even worth a reply.  EndH1B supporters donated $5000 to defray the costs of the legal battle.

On Dec 8, Apex served legal papers to the EndH1B blog to appear in the New Jersey Court on Friday, December 11. This American court ruled that under the American constitution, EndH1B had not broken any law by linking to allegations on other sites and publishing new facts about Apex Technology Group. Apparently, the Judge did not need much convincing as EndH1B was not even represented in court.

Flushed with victory, ITGrunt’s Tunnel Rat, who works closely with EndH1B, blogged on Dec 21 about this favourable court judgment.

Apex Technology Group then appealed to a higher court.  On Dec 23, another Judge in New Jersey ruled in their favour. Techgoss has a copy of this judgment with the court ruling on Dec 23 that Internet Service Provider Comcast Cable Communications should hand over to Apex Technology Group all the data it has to identify the anonymous bloggers behind EndH1B and ITGrunt.  The Court also ordered Yahoo, Facebook and website hosting companies to hand over all information they have to identify the anonymous ITGrunt.

The Judge also ordered hosting companies to shut down itgrunt.com, endh1b.com and other associated websites. By Dec 24 morning, endh1b and itgrunt had been taken offline.

The latest judgment is a big blow to sites like endh1b, itgrunt, guestworkerfraud which have campaigned persistently and vociferously against the short comings of the US Government’s visa system.

But this was just another milestone in the battle between the two warring parties. While Apex is clearly bent on clearing its name in court, the anti outsourcing lobby is well organized with a huge fan following among American techies.  The anonymous blogger ITGrunt has many die hard supporters and admirers.

Much has happened since the Judge’s decision on Dec 24.  While itgrunt and endh1b have been taken down, guestworkerfraud.com was still up and running on Dec 29. This is in violation of the court order and its hosting company is either on a Christmas break or is preparing to appeal against the judicial order.

Godaddy.com which is one of the world’s leading website registration companies is playing it safe. They have actually confiscated the domain name itgrunt.com rather than handing it back to its owner Tunnel Rat.  This prevents Tunnel Rat from hosting his website overseas.

With most of his anti H1B and anti Indian websites now forced down, ITGrunt’s Tunnel Rat has now logged on to Twitter to fight his battles. His allies like Vdare.com and programmersguild.org have started campaigning for Tunnel Rat against Apex Technology Group.

While ITGrunt has not been unmasked yet, only a successful appeal to a higher court will preserve his anonymity.

Apex may not be enjoying this legal battle victory.  Even if they win the legal war, they may become the lightning rod for everything Americans hate about outsourcing. Apex has already sworn on oath to the court that they lost 3 prospective tech employees because of the adverse publicity. 

Now that the Christmas break is over, we will witness the next round of legal and public relations battles.

Techgoss note:  If you want to see all the court documents you will find them at this link