NY Stock Exchange Wastes Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars On One Internet Poster
from the personal-vendettas dept
The New York Stock Exchange apparently spent hundreds of thousands of dollars (possibly over a million) to try to stop someone from using the name of its CEO on an internet discussion group. Someone started posting on RagingBull using a set of usernames based on the name "Dick Grasso", and the NYSE hired expensive lawyers to go after the guy. From the article, it sounds like it wasn't Grasso, himself, paying for this lawsuit, but the company he worked for. Sounds like someone needs to get a grip on how the internet works. The posts were very clearly not actually from Grasso, and there was no chance that anyone would think that the actual Dick Grasso was hanging out on RagingBull.com posting poorly edited, nearly incomprehensible missives. However, the stock exchange claims that such posts harmed business for the NYSE. The real kicker is that the guy who was doing it says he would have just stopped if the exchange had asked him to, instead of immediately suing him.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
dick grasso
[ link to this | view in thread ]