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.
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  1. identicon
    Oliver Wendell Jones, 10 Jan 2006 @ 10:58am

    Wrong link

    The last link (about the angry ebayer) points to the wrong Techdirt story...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    ZOMG CENSORED, 10 Jan 2006 @ 11:00am

    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Carlo, 10 Jan 2006 @ 11:09am

    Re: Wrong link

    Thanks, fixed.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Chris H, 10 Jan 2006 @ 11:33am

    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?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Mousky, 10 Jan 2006 @ 12:34pm

    Re: No Subject Given

    Maybe he should sue he Post Office.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Rikko, 10 Jan 2006 @ 12:35pm

    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Brewski, 10 Jan 2006 @ 1:13pm

    Re: No Subject Given

    > < I>get a buddy who lived near him to drop off the form

    Now you've got a conspiracy charge against ya!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    ccc, 10 Jan 2006 @ 3:54pm

    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Moron, 10 Jan 2006 @ 10:21pm

    Bigger Moron?

    The guy must be a pretty big moron if he gave out enough information for people to track him down like that.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    thecaptain, 11 Jan 2006 @ 5:16am

    Re: No Subject Given

    You'd have to assume losers like this have buddies.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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