one man spent four years and $35,000 to unmask his troll

[WanderingWinoZ]

www.theverge.com/2015/11/23/9772824/commenter-defamation-lawsuit-identity-revealed

Interesting article- it's about a local school board race in NW IL.  Commenter says guy running "is a Sandusky" and guy sues for defamation.  Gets the newspaper to give up IP address, goes to Comcast & then state Supreme court to get Comcast to give up name/address associated with IP.

===========


Hadley's quest was a more complicated version of a process that's used to unmask anonymous bloggers all the time. If a service provider like Comcast can be legally compelled to give up a user's registration information, then formerly anonymous websites can be brought to court under real names, a process that's played out at various levels across the world. Most recently, Microsoft drew criticism for revealing the name of a dissident blogger in Thailand after being ordered to do so by local courts.



In Hadley's case, Fuboy was a commenter on a third-party site, adding another step to the process. Before going to the service provider, he had to get a court order from the host site itself. That extra step (and the accompanying time and legal expense) is usually enough to deter plaintiffs, but they're increasingly willing to take the leap. Similar defamation suits have looked to unmask Reddit users and Twitter accounts, including one suit in which the actor James Woods sued an anonymous Twitter account for claiming he was addicted to cocaine. None of those lawsuits have ended in clear wins, but they routinely result in settlements or lengthy, expensive trials.



AFTER $35,000 IN LEGAL FEES, THE ILLINOIS SUPREME COURT RULED FOR HADLEY



But despite the trend, most comments sections operate under an assumption of soft anonymity. Olivera Medenica, a lawyer specializing in defamation cases, says part of the reason is the uncertain nature of defamation law. "It is the type of case where it is difficult to predict how a court will rule because it requires such a judgment call from the bench," Medenica says. Even if the court rules in your favor, deep-pocketed companies like Reddit, Twitter, or even The Journal Standard are exempted from damages by Safe Harbor statutes. In most cases, all plaintiffs get is the person who made the comment in the first place.

[NewOrleans]

That is a really interesting case. Huh. It makes me think.

The guy is lucky that he had the means to pursue it. I wonder if he will drop it now that he got the perp shamed.

[NewOrleans]

Nov 25, 2015 8:58:37 GMT -5 Lucy Honeychurch said:

This happened on the Nest. There was a lawsuit demanding the unmasking of several people slandering and stalking another user. It ultimately resulted in a settlement after the Nest gave up the names and registration info.

Shut. Up. 

[iammalcolmx]

Nov 25, 2015 9:46:19 GMT -5 Lucy Honeychurch said:

Nov 25, 2015 9:01:20 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

Shut. Up. 

True.  The settlement was obviously confidential, but someone figured out that one of the people involved, who emailed the poster's in-laws to tell them what a terrible person she was and etc, was Archergirl.  I don't know if you know who that is, but she was an old longtime Nestie.  Her husband was killed in a motorcycle accident (long after the lawsuit); she married again a few years later and was much beloved on ML (by most; some found her over-the-topness really irritating).  

Once she was unmasked, she sort of dropped off the face of the earth. 

So go the days of our lives.  lol.

Was this the same lawsuit caused by a nestie being caught looking through another nesties window?

[NewOrleans]

[iammalcolmx]

Nov 25, 2015 9:52:39 GMT -5 Lucy Honeychurch said:

Nov 25, 2015 9:47:53 GMT -5 iammalcolmx said:

Was this the same lawsuit caused by a nestie being caught looking through another nesties window?

I don't think it was the same one.  

LAWD!! I can't believe there were multiple lawsuits. But I remember the nest wouldn't let us talk about batcavegate because of something similar.

[aurora]

It's not safe here!

[skwcm80]

Nov 25, 2015 9:47:53 GMT -5 iammalcolmx said:

Nov 25, 2015 9:46:19 GMT -5 Lucy Honeychurch said:

True.  The settlement was obviously confidential, but someone figured out that one of the people involved, who emailed the poster's in-laws to tell them what a terrible person she was and etc, was Archergirl.  I don't know if you know who that is, but she was an old longtime Nestie.  Her husband was killed in a motorcycle accident (long after the lawsuit); she married again a few years later and was much beloved on ML (by most; some found her over-the-topness really irritating).  

Once she was unmasked, she sort of dropped off the face of the earth. 

So go the days of our lives.  lol.

Was this the same lawsuit caused by a nestie being caught looking through another nesties window?

Wtf??? :?

[laurenpetro]

Nov 25, 2015 9:46:19 GMT -5 Lucy Honeychurch said:

Nov 25, 2015 9:01:20 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

Shut. Up. 

True.  The settlement was obviously confidential, but someone figured out that one of the people involved, who emailed the poster's in-laws to tell them what a terrible person she was and etc, was Archergirl.  I don't know if you know who that is, but she was an old longtime Nestie.  Her husband was killed in a motorcycle accident (long after the lawsuit); she married again a few years later and was much beloved on ML (by most; some found her over-the-topness really irritating).  

Once she was unmasked, she sort of dropped off the face of the earth. 

So go the days of our lives.  lol.

ETA:  ALLEGEDLY.  

WAITAFUCKINGMINUTE

archergirl (ALLEGEDLY) emailed the other person's ILs???  or was archergirl the recipient?

[pixy0stix]

YAY! It's story day!

[DesertMoon]

Oh dear..

[NewOrleans]

BLOW ME WHERE THE PAMPERS IS!

[iammalcolmx]

Nov 25, 2015 10:25:54 GMT -5 Lucy Honeychurch said:

Nov 25, 2015 10:17:45 GMT -5 laurenpetro said:

WAITAFUCKINGMINUTE

archergirl (ALLEGEDLY) emailed the other person's ILs???  or was archergirl the recipient?

Archergirl allegedly is the one who emailed the ILs.

I don't remember that. But CHILE I remember exactly where I was sitting when I got the text message batcavegate was going down. My hotel room didn't have Wifi so I IMMEDIATELY took my laptop down to Starbucks to read. I didn't believe the registry stuff until the link WAS SENT TO ME. I about passed the fuck out.

[darnkatz]

I'm sorry, but all I can think of is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

[NewOrleans]

Nov 25, 2015 10:47:14 GMT -5 mockingbird said:

Nov 25, 2015 10:45:07 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

BLOW ME WHERE THE PAMPERS IS!

??

lol.

So when the Nest broke itself for good with its new rollout, ML took over the Pampers board on The Bump because The Bump was still working and as functional as it could be.  The moderator (OF THE FECKING PAMPERS BOARD) came on to scold them and said they were ruining the Pampers experience for other posters.  Someone said "Blow me where the Pampers is" which is from a funnyass 90's movie that might have been before your time.

[NewOrleans]

What precisely is Batcavegate?

[zelda25]

Nothing brings out the old-timey stories like the holidays!

[laurenpetro]

Nov 25, 2015 11:11:07 GMT -5 zelda25 said:

Nothing brings out the old-timey stories like the holidays not wanting to work the day before a holiday!

FTFY

[StrawberryBlondie]

Nov 25, 2015 10:51:23 GMT -5 darnkatz said:

I'm sorry, but all I can think of is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Dead. My day is now over. Must go home and watch this episode.

[NewOrleans]

Nov 25, 2015 11:46:19 GMT -5 Lucy Honeychurch said:

Nov 25, 2015 11:10:02 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

What precisely is Batcavegate?

What is referred to as the Batcave was an email group containing several MLers of old.  Being that it was the Nest / Nesties, there erupted a whole spate of infighting between them.  There were accusations of a dinner attended by a few at which the check was split inappropriately (lol), and mainly just some general sniping back and forth between members.  But then, a troll showed up on ML and posted the link to the SO registry entry for one of the Batcave members' husbands.  And then all hell broke loose.  

Accusations flying between people, old friendships totally splintered, years-old backbiting brought to the surface -- and it all mainly erupted on the MarriedLife board.  And then one of the craziest of the Batcavers was outed as the troll who posted the link, and she was subsequently banned.  She was crazyface mclunatic, hardcore.

this is good stuff.  Thanks!  One more question: what is an SO registry entry for a husband?  And was posting it bad because it exposed a name and address?

[lexus]

SO = sex offender

[secretlyevil]

Them were the days.

[NewOrleans]

Nov 25, 2015 11:50:15 GMT -5 lexus said:

SO = sex offender

 

[NewOrleans]

I guess that answers my question why posting it was bad.

lol @ me-- I am so innocent.

[lexus]

Nov 25, 2015 11:59:33 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

I guess that answers my question why posting it was bad.

lol @ me-- I am so innocent.

I'm a lurker from DWP. Before we left the SAHM board on the bump we had some SO registry drama of our own... Fun times.

[iammalcolmx]

Nov 25, 2015 11:46:19 GMT -5 Lucy Honeychurch said:

What is referred to as the Batcave was an email group containing several MLers of old.  Being that it was the Nest / Nesties, there erupted a whole spate of infighting between them.  There were accusations of a dinner attended by a few at which the check was split inappropriately (lol), and mainly just some general sniping back and forth between members.  But then, a troll showed up on ML and posted the link to the SO registry entry for one of the Batcave members' husbands.  And then all hell broke loose.  

Accusations flying between people, old friendships totally splintered, years-old backbiting brought to the surface -- and it all mainly erupted on the MarriedLife board.  And then one of the craziest of the Batcavers was outed as the troll who posted the link, and she was subsequently banned.  She was crazyface mclunatic, hardcore.

I remember Cooper being instrumental in exposing everything. She got pissed that one of the batcavers was trying to find out her real name. Consequently Cooper left because someone posted her personal information on E08

[rugbywife]

Huh, I just figured out that the DWP board here is full of SAHMs. I had no idea.

[lexus]

Nov 25, 2015 12:15:35 GMT -5 Lucy Honeychurch said:

Nov 25, 2015 12:03:29 GMT -5 lexus said:

I'm a lurker from DWP. Before we left the SAHM board on the bump we had some SO registry drama of our own... Fun times.

I HAD NOT HEARD THIS ONE.  Enlighten us, young paduan. 

The details are fuzzy. Maybe @tooshort and penguingrrl can help fill in the details.

We had a lively board with some strong opinions and a mod that was rarely around because she was busy crafting, volunteering, and blogging about her awesome life as a Pixar wife. The bump decided we needed a second mod so without any input they assigned some random person from another board as a co-mod. Turns out that new mod had been involved in some SO drama on her birth month board. Her bump BFF was married to a SO and when times got tough she organized a go fund me (or something similar) to help their family. Except no one told the rest of the board that their issues were because he was a SO. When we found out the new mod and BFF tried to rationalize everything.

What am I missing?

[iammalcolmx]

How did they find out he was a SO?

[lexus]

Nov 25, 2015 12:29:38 GMT -5 @tooshort said:

Nov 25, 2015 12:26:29 GMT -5 lexus said:

The details are fuzzy. Maybe @tooshort and @penguingirl can help fill in the details.

We had a lively board with some strong opinions and a mod that was rarely around because she was busy crafting, volunteering, and blogging about her awesome life as a Pixar wife. The bump decided we needed a second mod so without any input they assigned some random person from another board as a co-mod. Turns out that new mod had been involved in some SO drama on her birth month board. Her bump BFF was married to a SO and when times got tough she organized a go fund me (or something similar) to help their family. Except no one told the rest of the board that their issues were because he was a SO. When we found out the new mod and BFF tried to rationalize everything.

What am I missing?

That's about all I can remember too. It was a mess. The best (worst) part was that the Mod didn't see any reason why she shouldn't let her own daughter be around the SO. She was so damn dumb.

Then there was the random newbie who was asking us questions about opening a daycare to bring in some income. When we started talking about being licensed she said she wouldn't be doing that because her SO was a sex offender but it shouldn't be a problem because he wouldn't be home while her daycare was open and he would hardly ever interact with the other kids. She didn't see the big deal since he was "a good guy" and his offense didn't have anything to do with minors.