Message Board Law Suit Commenced!

[Nickatilynx]

The plaintiff, a lawyer named Stephen Galton, claims that he registered for Yahoo message boards earlier this year after a learning about a derogatory post about one of his clients. When he posted a response under the screen name "stephengalton," other board users began to attack him as an "overly robust geezer that makes a living walking behind the elephant with a shovel."

An attorney has sued Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) , charging the portal didn't do enough to help him stop personal attacks against him on its message boards. He hopes to make the suit a class action.

Stephen Galton, a corporate lawyer in Los Angeles, California, filed suit on Wednesday. Galton claims the Internet company has protected people who have posted potentially defamatory comments while falsely claiming that it monitors boards to prevent such abuse.

"We are declining to comment on this lawsuit," Yahoo spokesperson Mary Osako told the E-Commerce Times.

Yahoo Terms of Use
Yahoo message boards direct users to a terms of use notice that says in part, "messages that harass, abuse or threaten other members; have obscene or otherwise objectionable content; have spam , commercial or advertising content or links may be removed." It also states: "Never assume that you are completely anonymous and cannot be identified by your posts."

In the suit, Galton claims that he registered for Yahoo message boards earlier this year after a derogatory post about one of his clients was brought to his attention.

After posting a response under the screen name "stephengalton," he said, other board users began to personally attack him, calling him a "shyster," and an "overly robust geezer that makes a living walking behind the elephant with a shovel."

In April, Galton moved to file suit directly against some of the message board posters and asked in a subpoena for Yahoo to provide personal and identifying information about those using aliases. Yahoo responded with incomplete or inaccurate information, the complaint alleges.

Class Action Suit?
Galton is leaving the suit open for others to join, proposing to establish a class action suit on behalf of California residents who -- since 2000 -- have been targeted by abusive messages on a Yahoo board and denied information about their attackers.

Although specific dollar amounts are not mentioned in the suit, Galton is seeking restitution for his costs as well as an injunction against Yahoo.

Attempts to reach Galton at his firm, Galton & Helm, were not successful.

Yahoo's Defenders
Yahoo will almost certainly find plenty of allies among civil libertarians and other groups.

Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), said anonymity is a bedrock principal of public commentary in the United States.

"The idea is that if you want people to speak freely about issues of public concern you need to give them the option of not having their names revealed," Cohn told the E-Commerce Times.

The EFF has been involved in a number of cases in which it argued in favor of protecting the anonymity of message board users, including several suits stemming from comments posted on Yahoo boards.

California has been at the forefront of protecting freedom, and even anonymity, online. A state lawmaker recently filed a bill that would require Internet service providers to inform users when someone attempts to find out their identity through a subpoena.

Not Libel
Galton is not suing Yahoo for libel, likely because recent case law has largely indemnified Internet companies from being held accountable in libel suits. The case law holds that the responsibility for posting erroneous and damaging information lies primarily with the person who posts it, not the Internet company.

[NickPapageorgio]

Pretty interesting. I look forward to hearing the outcome.

Now who do I talk to about all those bastards that flamed me on AOL instant messenger when I first got online? :P

[Newton]

The BBC, the best news service in the world covered this better ..

Yahoo sued over anonymous abuse
Yahoo headquarters in California
The California-based company has not commented
A California lawyer has filed a potential class action lawsuit against the internet search company Yahoo.

Stephen Galton says he was subject to a "barrage of harassing, defamatory and abusive messages" from anonymous users on a Yahoo message board.

Mr Galton, who wants other users to join in the suit, has accused Yahoo of sheltering users who harass people in cyberspace.

The California-based company declined to comment.

A spokeswoman for Yahoo said: "It wouldn't be prudent for us to comment on this pending lawsuit."

'Name-calling'

Mr Galton, a partner in legal firm Galton & Helm, registered to use Yahoo message boards to respond to a post criticising one of his clients.

His defence of his client led to him being subjected to name-calling by other message board users.

When the company refused to reveal the details of the message board users who allegedly harassed Mr Galton, the lawyer sued the company for the information in April.

He sought the names, addresses and phone numbers of his critics from Yahoo, but he says it provided only partial information.

George Godar, a technology partner at law firm DLA, said US laws makes it straightforward for people who believe they have been defamed to find out who is behind online nicknames.

Typically, he says, a complainant sues a fictitious defendant, usually "John Doe", and then issues a subpoena to make a net firm release the real name of person behind the disputed postings.

When presented with a legal document most net firms will hand over details of users and subscribers, he says.

"People rarely look at things like privacy policies," says Mr Godar, "and most companies will have a specific exception which says if they are compelled by law to hand over information they will do so."

The Recording Industry Association of America has used this willingness to share subscriber information to gather details of users it considers to be illegally sharing pop music.

Legal protection

Mr Galton's lawsuit has been launched to make Yahoo hand over more information about people who posted the allegedly offensive messages.

He also alleges that Yahoo does nothing to give redress to people who have suffered abuse via its message boards.

He is now urging others who have been the target of such attacks over the past four years and made fruitless efforts to find out who posted messages or get them removed to join him in a class action lawsuit.

One of the consequences of the publicity Mr Galton has received over the lawsuit has been to have his e-mail address and telephone number posted to message boards.

In many countries net firms are granted so-called "common carrier" or "immunity from suit" status that removes their legal responsibility for what their users do online.

However, this legal protection usually evaporates if a company is put on notice about websites or messages that infringe laws but does nothing about them.

[SykkBoy]

geez, good thing this guy didn't stumble across usenet...his head would have exploded...I thought lawyers were supposed to have thick skins?

[Lee]

Definately an interesting case to follow.

Could have far reaching consequences if a precedent is set for sure.

[darksoft]

I hope he has his ass handed to him.

[TheEnforcer]

Damn..

[Winetalk.com]

he will lose.

[Raven]

I don't see how he can win this....and the laugh factor alone should lose him clients. It seems both frivolous and a time waster, at least on the surface.

I thought I read somewhere that message board owners were not liable for what others posted...so wouldn't that apply to Yahoo, if it's true?

[Lee]

Originally posted by Raven@Feb 17 2005, 01:51 PM
I thought I read somewhere that message board owners were not liable for what others posted...so wouldn't that apply to Yahoo, if it's true?

Thats correct they arent however, thats NOT why he is sueing them.

He is sueing them because they didnt take 'reasonable' action to stop the abusive behavior once it had started and, as that type of thing is mentioned in their T.O.S and they did nothing, they are in fact liable.

It is also noteworthy that despite being given an injunction to do so, Yahoo didnt tunr over the information contained in that order as demanded, i would say that in itself will weigh heavily against them in court.

Also, because this guy is located in CA, i beleive the law there calls for disclosure of a privacy policy which needs to be adhered to, i would say that the fact his information was posted on a public forum after it was entered into the Yahoo backend could potentially be another losing angle for them.

Whether he will win, is another story.

[Dravyk]

Originally posted by Lee+Feb 17 2005, 04:56 PM-->