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Legal Issues

by Carlo Longino

Tue, Jan 10th 2006 10:18am





Protect Me, AOL

from the trigger-happy-lawsuits dept

An Ohio man has sued AOL for failing to protect him from alleged online abuse from two other men in one of the company's online chat rooms. The guy says the other two were making fun of him online, then one of them traveled to Ohio from Alabama to -- wait for it -- disrupt his mail service by turning in a change-of-address form at the local post office. It remains unclear as to exactly how this is the fault of AOL, in theory or in actuality, since courts have ruled that online publishers aren't responsible for material written by others. Traveling several hundred miles to mess with somebody's mail is both questionable and extreme. In any case, though, it's still no match for the alleged harrassment of the world's angriest eBay seller.

10 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    Wrong link

    identicon
    Oliver Wendell Jones, Jan 10th, 2006 @ 10:58am

    The last link (about the angry ebayer) points to the wrong Techdirt story...

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Dillusion or Lack of Life

    identicon
    ZOMG CENSORED, Jan 10th, 2006 @ 11:00am

    Either this guy is dillusional, or the harassment he's experiencing is from someone with so little to do that they have the time to travel across the country to annoy someone... Either way, it's sad and disturbing.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    Re: Wrong link

    identicon
    Carlo, Jan 10th, 2006 @ 11:09am

    Thanks, fixed.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  

    No Subject Given

    identicon
    Chris H, Jan 10th, 2006 @ 11:33am

    lol, from Ohio to Alabama just to mess with his mail? That's extreme. Maybe they can direct their efforts towards charity work. Imagine what they could accomplish then.

    Doesn't this count as a federal offense, mail fraud?

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  

    Re: No Subject Given

    identicon
    Mousky, Jan 10th, 2006 @ 12:34pm

    Maybe he should sue he Post Office.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  6.  

    Re: No Subject Given

    identicon
    Rikko, Jan 10th, 2006 @ 12:35pm

    If I was so determined to pester this guy I'd probably just get a buddy who lived near him to drop off the form rather than cough up a few hundred bucks and an entire day on travel...
    But hey, I guess I'm practical sometimes.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  7.  

    Re: No Subject Given

    identicon
    Brewski, Jan 10th, 2006 @ 1:13pm

    > < I>get a buddy who lived near him to drop off the form

    Now you've got a conspiracy charge against ya!

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  8.  

    Re: No Subject Given

    identicon
    ccc, Jan 10th, 2006 @ 3:54pm

    It isn't necessary to go to the post office the person is supposedly relocating FROM to do this, you can fill out a form for any address in the US from anywhere in the US and submit it to ANY US post office.
    You can also call their toll free number, at least to have your mail held for up to a month.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  9.  

    Bigger Moron?

    identicon
    Moron, Jan 10th, 2006 @ 10:21pm

    The guy must be a pretty big moron if he gave out enough information for people to track him down like that.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  10.  

    Re: No Subject Given

    identicon
    thecaptain, Jan 11th, 2006 @ 5:16am

    You'd have to assume losers like this have buddies.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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