Posting On Line And Libel Lawsuits

[Blazerman]

I have been visiting this website for a while now and have noticed, for the most part people on here seem well mannered and courteous. There are a few who don’t really bring anything positive to the board but over all they are harmless. So I doubt anybody has ever been sued from something said here. But I thought this article was interesting and a good lesson for those who think what they post is always done anonymously.

“Some people have this illusion of anonymity and it emboldens them to engage in activities using words that harm or attack,” Richards said. “People do have much more of an expectation of privacy using the Internet than is there.”

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Gary Kramer last month ordered AT&T and Charter Communications to provide the names, addresses and phone numbers connected with six IP addresses, specific codes assigned to each computer.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/jefferson-county-libel-lawsuit-looks-for-someone-to-blame-for/article_aa8bbee5-f46b-5208-a873-43b79282e7f6.html

[jdmidwest]

Topix helped nail a murderer here a few years ago. They pinched him for threatening his sister in law on Topix. About a year later, they sweated him out for the place he buried the estranged wife he slaughtered and buried in a sandbar along the Mississippi. He received 5 years for internet threat, and pleaded for 15 in a cold blooded, pre-meditated murder of his wife, Jackie Waller.

[Phil Lilley]

Thanks for posting this. Very interesting.