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.
Comments on “Protect Me, AOL”
Wrong link
The last link (about the angry ebayer) points to the wrong Techdirt story…
Re: Wrong link
Thanks, fixed.
Dillusion or Lack of Life
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.
No Subject Given
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?
Re: No Subject Given
Maybe he should sue he Post Office.
Re: No Subject Given
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.
Re: Re: No Subject Given
> get a buddy who lived near him to drop off the form
Now you’ve got a conspiracy charge against ya!
Re: Re: Re: No Subject Given
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.
Re: Re: No Subject Given
You’d have to assume losers like this have buddies.
Bigger Moron?
The guy must be a pretty big moron if he gave out enough information for people to track him down like that.