Quote :

""Women named Jill and Hillary should be raped." Those are the words of "AK-47" -- a poster to the college-admissions web forum AutoAdmit.com. AK-47 was one of a handful of students heaping misogynist scorn on women attending the nations' top law schools in 2007, in posts so vile they spurred a national debate on the limits of online anonymity, and an unprecedented federal lawsuit aimed at unmasking and punishing the posters. Now lawyers for two female Yale Law School students have ascertained AK-47's real identity, along with the identities of other AutoAdmit posters, who all now face the likely publication of their names in court records -- potentially marking a death sentence for the comment trolls' budding legal careers even before the case has gone to trial. The unmasking of the posters marks a milestone in a rare legal challenge to the norms of online commenting, where arguments live on for years in search-engine results and where reputations can be sullied nearly irreparably by anyone with a grudge, a laptop and a WiFi connection. Yet a year after the lawsuit was filed, little else has been resolved -- and legal controversies have multiplied. The women themselves have gone silent, and their lawyers -- two of whom are now themselves being sued -- are not talking to the press. Legal experts are beginning to wonder aloud if there's any point in pressing the messy lawsuit."

and so forth...

http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2008/07/autoadmit


Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

7/30/2008 9:34:42 AM

as far as i know, it's not illegal to say mean things about people.

7/30/2008 9:38:49 AM

I'm your density

7/30/2008 9:39:55 AM

it is illegal to make threats or incite violence, though

7/30/2008 9:40:14 AM

Well, the next time someone says "god i'd kill for a sandwich right now", i'll be sure to call that a threat and let these people know

7/30/2008 9:51:25 AM

How about, "god damn, i'd rape Jill over in Accounting for a sandwich right now"

7/30/2008 9:56:46 AM

^ that's silly...rape is supposed to be fun just for the sex...the sandwich would be a bonus

7/30/2008 9:59:23 AM

this will set a ridiculous precedent if they win and are able to even unmask the kids' names

7/30/2008 10:11:44 AM

Quote :

"A federal judge ruled in January that the attorneys could serve subpoenas on ISPs and webmail providers. Using that power, the lawyers have unmasked some -- though not all -- of the AutoAdmit posters."

Lawsuits flying both ways. But still it borders on infringement on free speech and hate speech.

7/30/2008 10:16:13 AM

Quote :

"After months, the Jane Does finally dropped Ciolli from the lawsuit, but that did not satisfy Ciolli, who filed his own lawsuit in March 2008, accusing the women and their lawyers of improperly listing him among those who made the rude comments."

Ciolli will win. How much he'll win is questionable.

7/30/2008 12:13:56 PM

Ciolli has a decent defamation case it seems; whatever happened to anonymity of the internetz though?

Quote :

"this will set a ridiculous precedent if they win and are able to even unmask the kids' names"

7/30/2008 1:19:34 PM

One would assume that law students and profs. would know when not to include someone in a lawsuit, esp. if it 'might' result in costly legal action for them.

[Edited on July 30, 2008 at 1:23 PM. Reason : they won't win, but they have bullied a lot of people.]

7/30/2008 1:22:39 PM

silly people still don't understand the internet

7/30/2008 2:32:40 PM

War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength

7/30/2008 2:38:33 PM

this just adds to the long list of what women should not be allowed to do:

driving is most def. one but now we can add 'access to the internet'

7/30/2008 4:33:19 PM