Nobody who's in business likes bad online reviews. But one Dallas company got a North Texas man thrown in jail for saying negative things about it on a blog.

And a jury will decide if it's a matter of free speech or a crime.

William Laurence Stanley was charged on Dec. 6 in federal court in Dallas with a crime for his blog posts about Generational Equity, a Dallas merger and acquisitions company he once did work for. That's because Stanley was convicted last year of extorting the company. Stanley had threatened to ruin the firm's reputation by flooding the internet with false and negative information unless it paid him about $29,500.

He's now charged with retaliation.

Stanley, who owned a "search engine optimization," or SEO business, said he was released from federal custody on Nov. 4. He said he wrote the controversial posts about Generational Equity prior to that, from a halfway house. He was arrested Nov. 30 and charged with the new offense after Generational Equity complained to the FBI about the online reviews.

The company says the posts have already cost it about $75,000 in lost sales, and that it could potentially lose an additional $50,000 per day, according to an FBI complaint.

Generational Equity officials could not be reached for comment.

Stanley, 54, says he was exercising his right to free speech and that everything he wrote about the company is true. He vowed to seek a trial and mount a First Amendment defense.

William Stanley

"This is America and you cannot shut up someone that is speaking the truth," Stanley wrote The Dallas Morning News from prison via an email service.

But not all online comments are protected by the Constitution. Legal experts say it comes down to whether statements are based on opinion or stated as fact. The indictment says Stanley posted "false and derogatory comments and reviews online" about Generational Equity in retaliation for the company reporting a crime to federal authorities.

One of the things Stanley wrote was that Generational Equity paid him for "black hat SEO work" against some of its competitors, according to the complaint. He says the company is engaging in illegal activities that he is trying to expose.

"I have no regrets about the blog, and I feel vindicated that I was able to tell the truth, finally," Stanley said.

His trial is scheduled for February.

Reputation at stake

Stanley's line of work was improving companies' online reputations.

Generational Equity hired him in 2009 for online reputation management, court records show. The firm fired him about a year later, for acting "outside his contracted duties."

Stanley began sending threatening emails to Generational Equity in December 2013, records show.

Stanley had threatened to link the company to a scam in online posts that would rank high in a Google search of the company's name, an FBI complaint said. The firm paid him $80,000 in 2010 and 2011 to end the relationship, authorities said.

Stanley said Generational Equity owed him the money for his services and that he was trying to collect it.

Stanley, a former Texas resident who has been living in Romania, was first arrested in 2014 — for the extortion charge — at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston where he arrived on a flight from Europe.

He pleaded guilty last year to extortion and received three years and one month in prison, in addition to three months of probation following his release.

In November, an additional prohibition was added to his list of probation conditions. It said he shall not "post anything online" regarding the victims "without first seeking permission from his probation officer or this court."

Stanley said he was not on probation, but at a halfway house, when he wrote the posts in question.

He was transferred to the halfway house in Houston this year after being released from prison. The following month, in September, he was placed on home confinement.

Earle Cabell federal courthouse in Dallas (Getty Images)

Two weeks after that, Stanley posted a negative review of Generational Equity on Yelp, the FBI said. The review linked to a blog that had more negative information about the company, an FBI complaint said.

"The blog had links to approximately 67 articles/blogs/complaints which were intended to portray GE in a bad light," the FBI complaint said.

One headline said, "The whole thing is a SCAM," according to the FBI. And one of the comments said, "Had to do a lot of illegal stuff."

The Bureau of Prisons sent Stanley back to the halfway house.

Federal authorities said Stanley continued to post negative online reviews while in the halfway house using a smartphone. When the chief of security at the facility confiscated the phone, Stanley told him: "They owe me some money. I didn't do anything wrong," according to the FBI complaint.

Stanley was indicted Dec. 6 on the retaliation charge and has pleaded not guilty.

Fact or opinion?

The federal law cited in Stanley's indictment criminalizes retaliation against a "witness, victim or an informant who provides truthful information to a law enforcement officer about the commission or possible commission of a federal crime."

But Stanley said Generational Equity lied to the FBI and that the truth — as well as the Constitution — is on his side.

His lawyer, a federal public defender, could not be reached for comment. But legal experts say online comments are not always legally protected.

The First Amendment Center, located at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, and at the Newseum in Washington D.C., says libel cases over online comments are increasing.

"Unfortunately, not all complainers can be counted on to give an accurate and fair account, and a business can be damaged irreparably by false allegations," Ken Paulson, president of the center, wrote on the organization's website in 2013.

He said courts have generally ruled that the First Amendment protects comments that are opinion while unsupported statements can lead to legal liability.

Someone could safely post, for example, that their lawyer is a "clown or buffoon," he said. But saying the lawyer is unlicensed, negligent or careless could result in a lawsuit, Paulson said.

Stanley said his posts about Generational Equity can be supported by facts.

"They are just harassing me with this and violating my right to free speech," he said.