I disagree that they should necessarily sue if they can win.
NL suing would cause further controversy and damage to their reputation.
Lawsuits should be a weapon of last resort; in this case, it remains plausible that either Lightcone will eventually apologize, or that NL can win over the community. (Arguably they are in the process of doing so?)
A lawsuit is a negative-sum game for the EA community, due to the substantial lawyer fees; depending on the damages, it could be financially negative even for the winner.
In the event of a successful lawsuit, I believe we should think very mildly poorly of NL, and extremely poorly of Lightcone.
In the event of a successful lawsuit, we should consider NL fully vindicated and not engage in this sort of reputational retribution for daring to defend their rights. Actions that successfully punish wrongdoers are generally not negative sum because they discourage future misconduct. This is true even where it’s negligent and not malicious; knowing one may face consequences encourages greater care in the future.
Edit: I can see reasons it might be unfair to pursue a defamation suit against an unsophisticated/under-resourced party where it’s a really close call legally. But we are talking about legally sophisticated parties who effectively spent $ 6 figures’ worth of their time on this; the legal fees are chump change compared to what they’ve already put in.
I’m suspicious that Lightcone has already been deterred.
Even if they haven’t, we should prefer/pursue punishments that don’t involve setting a bunch of money on fire to pay lawyers, with a lawsuit as the last resort; we are not yet at that last resort, and probably won’t ever end up there.
Deterrence isn’t merely about Lightcone being deterred from future action, but also about other parties that are considering saying potentially defamatory things regarding others. If they can see that past defamatory statements carried legal consequences, they may be more inclined to exercise greater care; thus harm from future defamatory statements could be avoided.
I disagree that they should necessarily sue if they can win.
NL suing would cause further controversy and damage to their reputation.
Lawsuits should be a weapon of last resort; in this case, it remains plausible that either Lightcone will eventually apologize, or that NL can win over the community. (Arguably they are in the process of doing so?)
A lawsuit is a negative-sum game for the EA community, due to the substantial lawyer fees; depending on the damages, it could be financially negative even for the winner.
In the event of a successful lawsuit, I believe we should think very mildly poorly of NL, and extremely poorly of Lightcone.
In the event of a successful lawsuit, we should consider NL fully vindicated and not engage in this sort of reputational retribution for daring to defend their rights. Actions that successfully punish wrongdoers are generally not negative sum because they discourage future misconduct. This is true even where it’s negligent and not malicious; knowing one may face consequences encourages greater care in the future.
Edit: I can see reasons it might be unfair to pursue a defamation suit against an unsophisticated/under-resourced party where it’s a really close call legally. But we are talking about legally sophisticated parties who effectively spent $ 6 figures’ worth of their time on this; the legal fees are chump change compared to what they’ve already put in.
I’m suspicious that Lightcone has already been deterred.
Even if they haven’t, we should prefer/pursue punishments that don’t involve setting a bunch of money on fire to pay lawyers, with a lawsuit as the last resort; we are not yet at that last resort, and probably won’t ever end up there.
Deterrence isn’t merely about Lightcone being deterred from future action, but also about other parties that are considering saying potentially defamatory things regarding others. If they can see that past defamatory statements carried legal consequences, they may be more inclined to exercise greater care; thus harm from future defamatory statements could be avoided.