ISPs On Selling Your Clickstream Data: No Comment

Don't Sue DontDateHimGirl In The Wrong State

from the won't-get-you-very-far dept

Wed, Apr 11th 2007 10:17am — Mike Masnick

There were already plenty of problems with the lawsuit filed by a guy upset about what some women wrote about him on a site called dontdatehimgirl.com. It has been widely discussed that the lawsuit against the site was poorly aimed, since the site was protected against libel charges under section 230 of the CDA. The site is just a service provider, which played no role in writing or verifying the content posted to the site, and therefore should have no liability for the content. However, it appears there was another problem with the suit: jurisdiction. The original lawsuit has been tossed out of a Pennsylvania court, with the judge noting that he has no jurisdiction over the site, which is based in Florida. With that, the liability issue wasn't even addressed -- but could certainly come back up if the suit is refiled in Florida.

23 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

WhatTheHell, 11 Apr 2007 @ 10:37am

DontWorryAboutHislawyer.com
What a wuss. Grow up, you freakin' crybaby.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- dorpus, 11 Apr 2007 @ 1:18pm
  
  Re: DontWorryAboutHislawyer.com
  What if they make false accusations against you, though? If e.g. some guy claiming to be an anonymous girl claims you are a sex offender, posts your job history, your phone #, etc.? Is it still so innocuous?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Matt, 11 Apr 2007 @ 2:33pm
    
    Re: Re: DontWorryAboutHislawyer.com
    there's a difference between defamation and telling the world that you're a terrible lay...
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Poster (profile), 11 Apr 2007 @ 10:49am

Really. People say bad stuff about me all the time on the Internet...granted, I'm ONE of them, but still. Grow up, wussy.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
WhatTheHell, 11 Apr 2007 @ 11:11am

DontQuotePoppaTitusOrYoullGetSued.com
I say bad stuff about a lot of people too, including you, Anonymous Poster. But your smell notwithstanding... You americans need to stop TRYING to get offended, because it's starting to leak into my nice clean unnecessarily-litigious-free world in Canada. I'm too busy trying to abolish the CRTC, take down my provincial government and send all the french separatists to France, who, surprise-surprise, doesn't want them either. Why do I care what goes on in the US? Because it will all eventually end up costing me money in the long run, or even worse, corrupting the Internet to some horrible degree if some of your your crackpot politicians get their way. Seacrest Out.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Matt, 11 Apr 2007 @ 2:34pm
  
  Re: DontQuotePoppaTitusOrYoullGetSued.com
  canucks and their stereotypical comments...
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
wifezilla, 11 Apr 2007 @ 12:18pm

Too damn funny
I just checked out the www.dontdatehimgirl.com website because it sounded pretty funny. Where the hell was this site back when I was dating? LOLOL
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Sanguine Dream, 11 Apr 2007 @ 12:53pm

Just like that principal...
that wanted to sue over a made up myspace account this guy needs to prove the stuff she said about him was not true and (if they aren't true) sue the bitch!

And besides that site is nothing more than a a bunch of angry women that want to make themselves feel better by annonymously bashing guys from the safety of their keyboards (keyboard kowards).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 11 Apr 2007 @ 1:16pm

Where is dontdateherman.com? All it does is redirect to dontdatehimgirl.com. Don't they want us to have equal bitch opportunity?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Da Player, 11 Apr 2007 @ 1:21pm

These women are....
These women are bigger morons than the guys they dated simply for the fact that they dated them in the first place.

No standards or intelligence to see that they were taken advantage of.

Sheep for shearing, and got a bit too sheared!

LOL, game on.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Casper, 11 Apr 2007 @ 1:32pm

No Sympathy...
Girls always want people to feel sorry for them when they date losers... but they are doing to themselves. To me, that's like asking me to feel sorry for you when your burning yourself with a lighter.

Here's an idea, GET SOME STANDARDS! I can give you a real quick run down of things to check before dating a guy:

1- Are they employed?
2- Do they own their own car?
3- Do they have their own place?
4- Can they figure out how to wear a hat sideways?
5- Are their pants 6 sizes too big?
6- Do they refer to you as their b*tch?
7- Are they half way articulate?
8- Would they strike you in a fight?
9- Are they financially independent from their parents?
10- Are they within a few years of your age? (mostly applies for people in their late teens early 20s)

If any of those are incorrect then you don't want to be dating them. Included below is a cheat sheet to let you know the correct answers:

1- Yes
2- Yes
3- Yes
4- No
5- No
6- No
7- Yes
8- No
9- Yes
10- No
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Casper, 11 Apr 2007 @ 1:33pm
  
  Re: No Sympathy...
  Added Info: Number 10 is subjective. If you are in your early 20's then you should try to stay withing the same group. As you get older 30', 40's, and up it doesn't matter as much.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- mendy, 6 Nov 2007 @ 11:25pm
  
  Re: No Sympathy... reply
  read your post. this is the dumbest shit i've ever read. you surely can't tell if a man is a psychopath, sociopath or predator from your list
  
  no doubt, we are not sheeple.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
lar3ry, 11 Apr 2007 @ 1:37pm

False accusations...
The issue of false accusations is a valid one. People shouldn't think that they have a right to drag a person's name through the mud, especially if it is unprovoked or without any basis in truth. I think we've all heard the horror stories about a jilted lover posting negative stories or pictures of their ex... While it may be therapeutic to vent over a personal negative experience, the internet seems to have a very L-O-N-G memory, and once the damage is done, it's difficult to undo it.

If the site seems to solicit negative postings, then there might be some justification. That doesn't seem to be the case with donthatehimgirl, though.

If somebody were to start a "ihatemyboss.com" site, soliciting horror stories about people's bosses, and then getting sued for it, they may have some culpability. (Warning: I checked and that URL is valid, although it redirects to a career site. I still wouldn't suggest trying that domain out on a work computer...!)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Norman H., 11 Apr 2007 @ 2:02pm

Really now...
This guy is a wuss and a moron. Howmany peopel actually knew www.dontdatehimgirl.com even existed before this article? I'm willing to bet not that many at all. This idiot only brought more peopel to the website to view. Thanks BTW. The stuff on there is crazy funny! As for the guy, STFU and grow up.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
JS Beckerist, 11 Apr 2007 @ 2:25pm

@dorpus
There is no right to privacy on the internet. If you are a fan of Japanese culture, and share it with those on the internet, then it becomes public domain. On top of that, your statement is not even relevant to the story! Hypothetically you're describing something that could be construed as harassment in a court, but this is not even close to what's happening here.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
PlayerSnitch, 11 Apr 2007 @ 2:34pm

I've been watching this lawsuit...
... because I run a similar website myself at www.PlayerSnitch.com and I have had lawsuit threats also. It's too bad - because I was waiting for the CDA 230 toss in case I ever need to point to a precedent in a lawsuit against my own site.

BTW, I run an equal opportunity complaints department at PlayerSnitch: I have both men and women reported (but I'll admit men outnumber women about 10:1). Want to vent about someone? You know where I am!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Witty Nickname, 11 Apr 2007 @ 2:45pm

People who fight with their keyboards
People who win "fights" over the internet are like the gold medalists in the Special Olympics. Even if you win, you are still retarted.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 11 Apr 2007 @ 4:09pm
  
  Re: People who fight with their keyboards
  If you're going to call people retarded - try to spell the word correctly.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 12 Apr 2007 @ 6:29am
    
    Re: Re: People who fight with their keyboards
    ???
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
IHMB, 6 May 2007 @ 7:35pm

there is an "i hate my boss"
www.ihatemyboss.com.au
Australia is ahead here- they already have an I hate my boss site and it is funny! not only can you vent anonymously about your boss- you can find casual jobs in Australia too! thats cool i like it
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
justiceserver, 5 Jan 2008 @ 4:50pm

stupid website operators
There will always be problems with every website, but with www.dontdatehimgirl.com it's not just the posters, but also the operators of the site themselves! As one of the other posters stated, numerous of them are pretty stupid just to have anything to do with the loser dudes to begin with. But when they're so retarded they can't even understand english enough to be grateful for a good warning that's posted, but turn it into something completely opposite, how frustrating. Then when you point it out to them and they know they've 'lost', just like the wussys they are they turn and run to the 'authorities' and tattle-tell on you to try and 'get back at you'!! But then, even worse, the operators actually GO ALONG WITH IT!!!! So obviously, THEY ARE NO BETTER!
What does that tell you about them? E-gads...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
lmao, 21 Feb 2008 @ 1:51pm

dumb niggas
da nigga who suing is obviously mad cuz his dirty ass has been exposed. here is a little advice dont sue just get yo shit together so no one will have nothing to say about yo dusty ass
[ link to this | view in chronology ]