Legal Issues

Legal Issues

by Carlo Longino


Print



Just Because You Have MS, It Doesn't Mean You Can Surf Porn At Work

from the the-people's-court dept

A former employee of the America West airline, who was fired for sending pornographic emails around the office, has lost his lawsuit against the company for unfair dismissal. The man, who has multiple sclerosis, alleged that the firing violated the Americans with Disabilities Act -- basically because he says "everybody else was doing it" and he was singled out, even though other employees were fired and disciplined, and another one with MS was able to keep his job. Concerns over sexual harrassment mean employers are closely monitoring online activities, and while many of their restrictions and blocks are rather pointless, common sense should kick in at some point, as well. Just as employers should realize that a bit of web surfing shouldn't be a big concern, employees should also realize it's probably not a great idea to email porn around the office. Unless you live in Australia, that is, where looking at porn at work is apparently a-okay.

15 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1. by Aaron - Dec 8th, 2006 @ 9:30am

    Just read an article about the case on cnet

    http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6141982.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news

    That made it sound like he was the only one fired. The worst evidence against him is he kept an e-mail in his inbox that another employee sent him. I don't think he was fired because he had MS, but I think they had reasons other than this for his termination.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. I'm sure it's not intentionally misleading...

    by ConceptJunkie - Dec 8th, 2006 @ 9:32am

    ... but I can't be the only one who thought "Microsoft" when seeing "MS" in this context.

    On the plus side, for once a ridiculous lawsuit actually failed.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. Re: I'm sure it's not intentionally misleading...

    by AMP - Dec 8th, 2006 @ 9:38am

    I thought the exact same thing when I saw that, MS = Microsoft.

    He would have been better off finding a Dr. that would give his porn emailing habit some sort of personality addicition. Then he could have the ADA fight for him saying that you can't fire someone for addictions. He needs help not rtermination.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. Something is just wrong with this...

    by Okey Dokey - Dec 8th, 2006 @ 9:54am

    The kind of surfing mentioned here is just plain inappropriate for a business evironment, be a pervert at home please. What a rediculous lawsuit, I think charges of filing a frivlious lawsuit should be filed against this individual. Most company policies that you sign when you are hired usually state that certain activites and inappropriate use of company resources are usually grounds for termination.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. Re:

    by Anonymous Coward - Dec 8th, 2006 @ 9:55am

    Actually, the next sentence in this article seems to clarify this:

    After scrutinizing the "Wicked Weasel" image and other incriminating evidence, America West fired Sheville and the employee who had sent him the contraband. The airline also disciplined five other employees--but did not fire them--because their e-mail messages "did not contain frontal nudity."

    So, they had all the e-mails he had sent, as well as one in his inbox. They fired both this guy AND the other guy.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. by Anonymous Coward - Dec 8th, 2006 @ 9:58am

    That is the only reason i read the article... but I now I realize it was not M$ which make the difference.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  7. Re: Re: I'm sure it's not intentionally misleading

    by SPR - Dec 8th, 2006 @ 10:09am

    He would have been better off finding a Dr. that would give his porn emailing habit some sort of personality addicition. Then he could have the ADA fight for him saying that you can't fire someone for addictions. He needs help not rtermination.


    He should be fired for stupidity. There is no help for that.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  8. Handicapped Pieces of S___

    by dorpus - Dec 8th, 2006 @ 10:10am

    Yeah, I've been on handicapped forums before, and a great many of them are complete losers on welfare who spend the day posting perverted messages, acting like they are some sort of sex god. There are distinct cultures based on disability and pecking orders among them. Among the wheelchair crowd, the basketball players are treated like heroes, while successful people with jobs are resented and spat upon. Quadriplegics are regarded as subhuman and given condescending pity.

    I've got a marginal walking disability but have a successful career, so they really hated me. Enough of that.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  9. Doesn't excuse the company either.

    by Coward - Dec 8th, 2006 @ 10:39am

    Exactly why did they not make CERTAIN that Porn could not be sent across the network? Where is the mediation on that? I feel the company should be held responsible for a portion of the responsibility since they allowed this behaivor to happen ACROSS the company boards.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  10. by Anonymous Coward - Dec 8th, 2006 @ 10:53am

    If they had been referring to Microsoft, the headline would've been "Just because you're afflicted by MS..." instead of "have MS".

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  11. Who'd want to keep that job anyways?

    by Matthew - Dec 8th, 2006 @ 11:14am

    AWA is in the tank and being phased out; let it go.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  12. UGH

    by James - Dec 8th, 2006 @ 11:56am

    This is exactly why we wind up with assinine internet policy restrictions, or monitoring, because you damn breeders can't realize the difference between what IS and what IS NOT appropriate internet usage at work.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  13. Re: Handicapped Pieces of S___

    by Dosquatch - Dec 8th, 2006 @ 1:20pm

    the basketball players are treated like heroes, while successful people with jobs are resented and spat upon.

    Sooo... pretty much just like everybody else then, hmm?

    But seriously, what do you really think you're contributing with a post like this? I don't give a shit if you have a limp and you're just "shooting at your own", if you don't have anything beneficial to say, why not just STFU?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  14. Re: Re: Handicapped Pieces of S___

    by dorpus - Dec 8th, 2006 @ 6:13pm

    Absolutely, we should follow you and censor all debate about the reality of handicapped people, and let the same attitudes go on. Who needs progress?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  15. Re:

    by Nafisa - Dec 14th, 2006 @ 2:55am

    So what makes the different
    i mean if he got fire something like this. why can he just email to his friend no his collegues is

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

Add Your Comment

Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML Save me a cookie
  • Plain Text: A CRLF will be replaced by break <br> tag, all other allowable HTML is intact
  • HTML: No formatting of any kind is done without explicitly being written in
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <p> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>
Close
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML Save me a cookie
Search Techdirt
And now, a word from our Sponsors..
Subscribe to Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Related Stories
Close
E-mail It