Techdirt. Stories filed under "revenge" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "revenge"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Thu, 3 Jun 2010 07:46:19 PDT When Reporters Write A Story You Don't Like, Perhaps Don't Impersonate Them Asking For Sexual Encounters Or Nude Modeling Jobs Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100602/1534199663.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100602/1534199663.shtml amusing, if slightly disturbing, email exchange between a recent law school grad, Jesse Clark, seeking a paralegal position, and the lawyer who (almost) hired him, Rosaleen Clayton. You should read the whole thread. It starts out with Clayton almost offering Clark a job, but expressing some concerns about his work, and suggesting that perhaps they try a few freelance (paid) projects, and if the quality is good, she would offer full-time employment. Now, you may or may not think this is a reasonable offer, and I can certainly understand why some job seekers might not like it. But the response should be to gracefully move on, seeking full-time employment elsewhere. Instead, Clark responded by claiming he didn't understand why she wouldn't offer full time employment based on his writing samples and good grades.

Clayton, in response, gave a very honest assessment to Clark of her concerns. Some might consider her response a bit harsh, but it appears to just be honest constructive criticism -- which is actually quite useful. Clark responded defensively, and slightly threateningly (in saying he is going to call someone who works for Clayton and let them know that she wanted Clark to give a report on how she answered the phones) and the whole thing spirals completely out of control. We're not just talking about burning a few bridges here, but setting a whole town on fire. Clayton points out that Clark's response is probably not a good way to kick off a career in the tight-knit legal community, and Clark gets ever more insulting -- including the two statements that standout:
  • What next? Do you want me to kiss your feet her Royal Highness?
  • It's amazing that the Ma Bar lets women practice law. Shouldn't you be home cleaning and raising children?
Wow. But, okay, even if you grant that the guy was having a bad day and pissed off about not getting the job, you would think that after all this he would recognize that perhaps it's best not to fly off the handle like that. Apparently not. After The Docket reported on this story, so did Kashmir Hill at AboveTheLaw -- and Clark, none too happy about either report, decided that he was going to respond in his own special way.

In response to the report on The Docket, Clark apparently changed a male modeling profile he had set up so that it was in the name of The Docket reporter, Noah Schaffer, saying that Schaffer was available for nude photo shoots (this post also notes that Clark apparently posted a Craigslist post "responding" to Clayton's help-wanted ad, but does not identify the nature of this post). As for Kashmir Hill, she discovered (after getting a barrage of phone calls on her mobile phone from unknown men) that someone (who she suggests was Clark) put up a "casual encounters" ad with her mobile phone number and photo on Craigslist, suggesting she wanted to get together for casual sex.

Both Hill and Shaffer seem to take this in an amazingly good natured manner, though Hill points to recent case law of others posting such fake Craigslist ads being arrested and charged with various crimes. In Hill's discussion of this, she spoke with Shaffer who said that Clark:
"sent me a note threatening legal action, but then added that he'd take down the model site if I removed the blog item about him."
Apparently, someone doesn't know when to quit.

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]]> just-a-tip http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100602/1534199663 Thu, 9 Oct 2008 11:51:03 PDT Patent Lawsuit Silly Season: TechCrunch Sued For Patent Infringement After Critical Blog Post Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081009/0117112499.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081009/0117112499.shtml sue a bunch companies he just didn't like, was perhaps alone in that category. But, it appears that we now have a new entrant. Apparently, some company (who we won't even name, since there's a good chance it's doing this just to get press attention) sued a more well-known competitor for patent infringement, over a location-based services patent. Looking over the patent itself it's difficult to see how it was approved. People were talking about location-based profile matching a decade ago, let alone five years ago when this patent was filed.

TechCrunch wrote a post mocking the lawsuit as a weak attempt to get press coverage (it worked!), while noting that TechCrunch itself was partnered with the sued company to provide a "co-branded community." This apparently caused the patent holder to amend the lawsuit and include TechCrunch as a defendant. Apparently, there were no threats or notification (though, the guy claims he tried to call TechCrunch). This will likely get tossed out incredibly quickly, as any judge will recognize that TechCrunch is just licensing its brand, not supplying the technology (and also hopefully question the validity of the patent itself). Already, though, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington is planning to countersue, so this could get fun.

The patent holder claims that adding TechCrunch to the lawsuit had nothing to do with the original post, but that's rather difficult to believe. There's also this somewhat amusing quote from the patent holder:
"TechCrunch can say whatever they want, and I applaud them. But no one has the right to infringe on a patent that I worked very, very hard for many years to bring about -- not just on paper but in reality."
Yes, and thanks to a broken patent system, you now get to dump a totally frivolous lawsuit on a site that clearly did not infringe on your highly questionable patent. Just like Thomas Jefferson intended.

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]]> this-will-end-badly http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20081009/0117112499 Fri, 25 Jan 2008 00:25:00 PST Before You Revenge Delete All Your Firm's Data, You Might Want To Make Sure You're Really Getting Fired Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080124/18330567.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080124/18330567.shtml few different stories over the years about fired employees who take revenge on their former employer's computer systems -- usually deleting important data. It's amazing that these people don't expect to get caught (and receive a punishment much worse than losing your job). We even wrote about one case where an employee, who was afraid he was going to get fired, put some code in place to delete data... just in case. He also got caught, though no damage was done to the computer systems. However, down in Florida, details are coming out on an even more ridiculous situation. An employee at an architectural firm saw a help wanted ad in the newspaper that looked similar to her job description, and included her boss's name and phone number. So she drove to the office on Sunday and deleted seven years of architectural drawings and blueprints from the computer system. The only problem? She wasn't about to be fired. The job listing was actually for her boss's wife's company, not her own. Of course, now she has been fired. And, oh yeah, arrested, too.

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