hmmmmm

Lawsuit filed against Yahoo over message
board harassment (AFP)
AFP – An Internet surfer has filed a potential class action lawsuit against US online giant Yahoo, accusing it of sheltering anonymous users who electronically harass message board users.

and

A Florida woman has been awarded $11.3 million in a defamation lawsuit against a Louisiana woman who posted messages on the Internet accusing her of being a “crook,” a “con artist” and a “fraud.”
Wow – this can forever change how forum administrators monitor their forums and how bloggers write openly on their blogs.

The plaintiff Sue Scheff of Weston, Florida charged ahead with the case because she knew that the defendant, Carey Bock of Mandeville, La. couldn’t afford to go to court.

We had something similar but our boy Aaron didn’t back down.

But to be fair and show the other side; Scheff says, “people are using the Internet to destroy people they don’t like, and you can’t do that.”

and also

Nigel Smith, the private shareholder activist, is suing four retail investors for allegedly publishing defamatory remarks about him on ADVFN’s bulletin boards. He has already received £20,000 in damages and costs from three other individuals.

Smith is threatening to bring legal actions against another 42 people who he claims defamed him on ADVFN. He is also suing ADVFN for allegedly failing to remove a number of defamatory posts in a timely fashion.

Clem Chambers, managing director of ADVFN, dismissed any suggestion that ADVFN had acted irresponsibly. “We have removed thousands of posts and always try our hardest but we’re only human and if we get thousands of requests, we might miss a few,” he said.

Chambers believes the growth of litigation is a sign of the popularity of message boards. “Where there’s a hit, there’s a writ,” he said.

Smith, who posted on ADVFN under the names ‘Anomalous’ and ‘HannibaltheCannibal’, used the message board to build the action group that is defending some shareholders in scandal-hit Langbar International.

However, he has “no qualms” about his legal actions against ADFVN and the investors, which he insists will benefit bulletin boards rather then harm them.

“I think litigation will provide a degree of responsibility and improve the quality of posts,” he said.
:-k :-k