Diamond mega-conglomerate, South Africa-based De Beers, is doing its best to shut down the domain Joker.com, a spoof website, which recently published a fake De Beers ad. Joker.com is similar to The Onion in that is a parody news and pop culture website, and also publishes free newspaper-style inserts.

One such insert, a 14-page insert that featured such made up stories as the end of the Iraq war, the passing of a maximum wage law by Congress, and similar, also included other parody ads in addition to the one for De Beers, but so far, the diamond giant is the only one complaining.

Not that libel is not a serious thing, but the question of whether or not parodies constitute libel is one of those issues that has existed for a long time, and has always been decided on a case by case basis. When it comes to legalities, there is a provision in the federal Communications Act that protects domain name registrars and Web hosting providers from being held legally liable in most cases, but De Beers is not the only company that has tried to have a website shut down, it is just one of the most recent.

As the Internet rapidly eclipses traditional media outlets as the main source of information for many users, the question for corporations and website owners ultimately becomes: when it comes to a joke, how far is to far?

As Black Friday ushers in the official start of the holiday shopping season, online retailers like Amazon.com are doing their best to attract and retain customers. I’ve personally seen many online deals advertised (some in my own inbox) with promises of deep discounts, free shipping, and other incentives.

Amazon.com announced recently that it has formed a “Holiday Customer Review Team” made up of six of its top customer reviewers, who were given early access to Amazon’s Black Friday deals in order to share their favorites with other customers. This customer-generated feedback will help to drive Amazon’s marketing strategy this season.

“Amazon’s customer reviews have revolutionized the way that people shop, helping consumers make informed buying decisions,” Russell Dicker, senior manager of community at Amazon.com said in a recent statement. “Our customers have to come to rely on the the third party expertise our customer reviews provide, and the Holiday Customer Review Team is an extension of that resource over the holidays.”

Recent studies have shown that consumer reviews play a major role in the purchasing habits of frequent Internet users, and after an online forum that I participated in the other day about the influence of product reviewers on blogs and websites I’m inclined to believe that this is the case. What does this mean for you if you have an e-commerce site? It’s time to pay attention to the reviews, and the reviewers on your site, because it’s clear that visitors to your sites are paying close attention.