Lawsuit over Message Board Attacks?

Lazerblade

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Good thing this guy didn't post here, huh?

Calif. lawyer sues Yahoo over message-board posts

LOS ANGELES, Aug 5 (Reuters) - A California lawyer who has waged an ongoing battle with Yahoo Inc. over personal attacks made against him on Yahoo message boards has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against the company.

The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday by associates of corporate attorney Stephen Galton, claims Yahoo has unfairly protected people who post negative messages on its bulletin boards and falsely advertised that it prevents such abusive messages.

"It wouldn't be prudent for us to comment on this pending lawsuit," Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako said in a statement.

Galton is a partner in the firm of Galton & Helm, which specializes in insurance law. He registered to use Yahoo message boards in early 2004 in order to respond to a negative late-2003 post about one of his clients, which he did not identify in the suit.

After Galton posted his response, under the screen name "stephengalton," he was subjected to name-calling by various other users of the message boards.

One user, a person using the screen name "mumioler" who had posted the original messages about Galton's client that started the dispute, wrote a series of new messages calling Galton a "shyster" and an "overly robust geezer that makes a living walking behind the elephant with a shovel."

Other users also took personal shots at Galton, and he filed suit in April of this year against them. At the same time, he sought their personal information via a subpoena from Yahoo. The company, the suit said, responded with incomplete or inaccurate information.

The suit proposes as a class any California resident who has been targeted by abusive messages on a Yahoo board, who tried to get such messages stopped or learn the identity of the message poster, and who had such requests denied within the last four years. It seeks restitution, a permanent injunction and other forms of relief.

I agree with Sledhead.
 
I don't know what sledhead's take is on this, so I can't fully agree with him just yet...
tounge.gif


However, with so many people signing anonymously on to msg boards at every corner of the web, and some having more than a single user-login at any given board, I just don't know how you could ever police it with absolution...

It's pathetic that some people seem to "get off" on creating chaos, but best thing to do is ignore it, don't try to flame it further, and let the "questionable" msgs die a slow thread death...

I suppose if a threat is credible enough or heinous enough, it's only right to report it to the authorities, providing IP/provider info and see if a disaster can't be diverted...
 
too many lawyers... since he is one, it doesn't surprise me that he found a reason to sue. You want to fix the lawyers, pay a visit to them. They will get the idea. ;)

Cloud
 
what the hell, being a lawyer and fighting someone for freedom of speech, i guess technically you have to write, i heard he is a shyster, or i heard he is an old biatch... just cant say that you feel that way... chalk one up for the ole constitution...
 
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