Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/05/29/woman-threatened-with-jail-over-negative-tomato-puree-review-has-the-world-wondering-what-is-so-unpleasantly-sweet-about-nagiko-tomato-mix.html
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Lots of companies over here seeing this and going “Wow! What a great idea! Why haven’t we been doing this?” Sigh…
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What makes you think they haven’t?
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“ERISCO TOMATOES MATTER: OUR CYBERCRIME ACT IS POTENT, EFFECTIVE”
That’s one hell of a press release title; I must admit.
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That one from Lubbock seems…interesting
After the lawsuit was filed, Castleman told Everything Lubbock that he never received notice of a court date for the case, prompting a Lubbock judge defaulted the suit to the company.
That seems highly unlikely to me. This wasn’t some small claims case. This was a $1M lawsuit. He had to have been served notice. Or someone with his company was properly served. That story is from 2021. I wonder what happened with it…off to Google!
ETA: Interesting. Ok, so Castleman, as it turns out, is a moron. For some reason, which I can’t find anywhere, in the middle of that lawsuit, his attorney withdrew from the case. And then he failed to hire a new one. In the meantime, notices about hearing dates were still going to his old attorney, who contacted him and told him he couldn’t represent him and he really needed to get a new attorney. He didn’t. So he did have notice about the hearing. That notice just wasn’t sent directly to him so he’s trying to claim he didn’t receive notice. He was out of the country on the date of the hearing, and because he no showed, the judge had no choice but to enter a default judgment for the plaintiff. He hired a new attorney after that and appealed, and that was dismissed, because this was all his fault. Because he’s a moron.
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Kibbling?? People are being ground up into this sauce?!? That’s a pretty harsh claim!
(Onelook also sugests kibozing, kicksing, kiddling, kiddying or kivering, none of which I know what they mean.)
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The company’s founder, Eric Umeofia, refused to budge, however, saying … he won’t drop the lawsuit … and that he would “rather die than allow someone to tarnish my image I worked 40 years to grow.”
Yeah, about that whole image-tarnishing thing …
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You have tried it?
Talk about a minced oath.
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That would probably be a reference to what Leader Kibo’s main claim to internet fame was back in the usenet days. (replying to any/all posts with the word ‘kibo’ in it with… something.)
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Was there supposed to be a link to the news article…?
Considering this happened back in March, I felt certain there was already a lengthy thread on the subject, but if there is, I can’t seem to find it.
(I saw “the world wondering what is so unpleasantly sweet” and thought this was going to be an update about how in the last two months the business has been completely swamped with international orders clamoring for a taste of Unusually Sweet Tomato Puree, and that they’ve developed a new Ultra-Sweet Recipe because new customers are complaining that it isn’t sweet enough, and so on.)
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I fear for this woman’s life actually. Puree guy obviously has $ome influence on the police… people disappear in these conditions. Not good.
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Nigeria has form in the area of supporting corporations versus ordinary people. Remember Ken Saro-Wiwa.
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I feel certain that I have seen that smiling tomato cartoon on the can somewhere else. Is it copyrighted by someone else?
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mr eric has a mighty large wake up call scheduled. Too bad we don’t know when it will come.
All success and protection to Ms Okoli.
Brief tangent:
May I just add that the infuriating, obscene, absurd, all but universal censorship of the words ‘kill’ and ‘murder’ are doing absolutely nothing to help society’s ills.
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… never turn your back on a pig farmer, or a guy who ships cans of “purée” around the world 
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I hate it when semi-literate cops try to use big words. How does one “instigate people”?
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What about the bits?
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Killing, I guessed.
I read the Japanese one because I’m interested in Japan.
The story there is that a medical clinic received a one star review from a would-be patient who they advised to go elsewhere because they didn’t have the expertise necessary to treat the condition involved. They sued because the bad review cost them money, and Google refused to address it. In Japan, local clinics are small businesses and the doctor in charge would lose their livelihood if the situation got bad enough.
Surely there is a difference between reviewing a restaurant or a food product, and reviewing medical treatment? The argument could be made that by sending the patient away, rather than taking them in for amateur treatment, the clinic was doing a good job.
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