Dentist Who Used Copyright To Silence Her Patients Drops Out of Sight

According to a report at Ars Technica, a dentist named Stacy Makhnevich, who billed herself as "the Classical Singer Dentist of New York," threatened patients who wrote bad Yelp reviews with lawsuits, along the same lines as the online dental damage-control outlined in a different Ars story in 2011. This time, though, there's something even stranger than bargaining with patients to forgo criticism: when a patient defied that demand by describing his experience in negative terms on Yelp, Makhnevich followed up on the threat by seeking a takedown order based on copyright (putatively signed over to her for any criticism that patients might write, post-visit) — then disappeared entirely when lawyers for patient Robert Lee filed a class-action lawsuit challenging the validity of the agreement.

Re:What's most surprising about this story.

[Jane Q. Public]

"I always do. I read absolutely everything that I sign, because there are too many unscrupulous people out there. You never know what bullshit is in those contracts, and I've even refused to sign some, and some they've changed or removed clauses"

Me too. And I have a good story. You should be aware that this works both ways, and you can use it to your advantage.

Years ago, I had to take a pee test for a pre-employment "drug screening". I have a strong philosophical objection to that practice, but I wanted the job so I did it. (I don't do that anymore, but that's another story.)

So I got to the clinic, which specialized in doing pee tests en masse. Big waiting room, lots of chairs and people, window with a woman behind it. She handed me a form to sign on a clipboard, and I sat down and read the whole thing. And it amazed me. The form said that the clinic could tell anybody (not just the company) anything they wanted about my pee test, even if it was wrong, and I waived any right to hold them responsible in any way.

I went up to the window and asked the woman: "Do I understand this correctly? You are in the business of doing these tests, yes?"

"Yes"

"But in order for you to test me, I have to waive any right to sue you or hold you responsible, even if you screw it up?"

(Annoyed look) "It's just a standard form."

I said "Well, I don't think it is. I think I'd like to own a business where nobody could hold me responsible for actually performing the service they pay me for. Seems like a pretty sweet deal." She looked pretty pissed off.

I sat back down, looking it over. And on the second page of the fine print, where it said I could not hold them responsible, I penned in "Except in case of negligence."

I signed the form and gave it back to the woman. She didn't even look at it... just signed and dated it, and threw it into the pile of papers to file.

Hahaha. I could have written in "And I get to fuck your brother" and nobody would even have noticed. But it was just as legal a contract as anything THEY handed ME.

Re:Probably Not Enforceable Anyway

[am 2k]

Facts are not in any way creative works, fox news notwithstanding.

I'm pretty sure that Fox News "news" are copyrightable.

Re:"murica

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Land of the free

Sounds better than the land of unbalanced malloc, don't you think?

Dentist Who

[Noughmad]

The much less popular time lord.