Ex-Goldman Exec Proves You Can Run a Nasty Blog About Your Former Employer

(MoneyWatch)  I'll close the week with a news story that caught my eye this morning: that Goldman Sachs has lost a bid to sue ex-Goldman employee Michael Morgan and have his anti-Goldman blog, GoldmanSachs666.com, shut down. (Goldman Sachs is the devil? Get it?)

This brought a smile to my face because, while I expect the right for a company to protect its name, in many ways, this is just silly. Here's the background: Goldman first tried to get the site shut down a few months ago, saying that Morgan was engaging in copyright infringement, and Morgan, smartly, filed a pre-emptive lawsuit saying that Goldman had no right to sue him. If you take a look at the site (or hell, take a look at the logo, above), you'll see why this is pretty ridiculous -- as though people were really going to think that a site which carries the following phrase on its home page has the approval of Goldman Sachs:

When the people and the government fear Goldman Sachs, there is economic dictatorship that will destroy the very fabric of our existence as a civilized society.

In the end, Morgan was asked to put a (laughable) disclaimer at the top of his site, in red letters, that: "This website has NOT been approved by Goldman Sachs." Really? Ya think?

One thing the resolution of the disagreement doesn't address is the content itself, and that has to make one wonder whether this is just the beginning of a lawsuit bonanza between Goldman and Morgan or whether Goldman will simply decide to move on and count its profits. If the battle continues, this will be an interesting one to watch. Given the state of the economy there have never been so many pissed off employees, and given the state of technology, there have never been so many ways for ex-employees to trash those who once employed them. If I were a company that was associated in some people's minds with the devil, I'd buy up all of the nasty domain names -- and register for all of the nasty Twitter handles -- I could. Fast.