Video Professor Lawsuit
In September 2007, the company filed a lawsuit against 100 anonymous posters of critical reviews, stating their belief that the negative reviews were the result of a competitor's efforts to damage Video Professor's reputation. Most of the negative reviewers were critical of Video Professor's practice of automatically charging customers' credit cards $189.95 for the first lesson as well as each subsequent month after their "one free disk" offer, complaining either that they were not informed or had difficulty canceling the charges.
The legal action launched by the company was criticized by the consumer advocacy group, Public Citizen. As part of their action, Video Professor requested and received the IP addresses of registered Wikipedia users from the Wikimedia Foundation Inc, the publisher of Wikipedia, who posted what Video Professor claimed was defamatory information about their business. Video Professor sent Internet provider Comcast a subpoena for the user identity of the IP addresses; however, Comcast refused, stating they only relinquish that information under court order, not subpoena. In late December 2007, Video Professor Inc. withdrew its lawsuit against John Does 1 through 100 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.
The company has also made claims of defamation and trademark abuse against several publications, including Uncyclopedia in December 2008, demanding that all content relating to the Video Professor be removed within 48 hours. Uncyclopedia has not removed said content as of August 2012.
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