Woman Sues MySpace For Taking Down Her Page

from the mental-anguish dept

Mon, Oct 27th 2008 10:09am — Mike Masnick

It's no surprise that some people get attached to their various social networking profiles, but would you sue if the social network took down your profile? That's exactly what one woman is doing, as seen in a lawsuit filed last week and brought to our attention by Eric Goldman. The complaint lays out the details, but a quick summary is that the woman was shocked (shocked!) to find out that some of the celebrity profiles on MySpace are not, in fact, run by the actual celebrities. So she set up a profile that would "verify" celebrities, and allow those verified celebrities to place her logo on their MySpace page. She claims that one of the fake celebrities complained to MySpace and they took down her profile.

Now, you might think that since its MySpace's site, they can take down whatever profile they want -- but not according to this woman, who mentions the "mental anguish" caused by this over and over again. While it may be a bogus reason for MySpace to have taken down her page, it's not clear what legal grounds she has to stand on. There are some other complaints in the filing, including the fact that MySpace allowed fake celebrities to sign up (and the lawsuit demands that MySpace be forced to take these fake profiles down) and that she had asked MySpace (via a cold call) to support her efforts -- and then was offended when MySpace "stole" her idea and had created their own "celebrities" site (of course providing no evidence that the idea was "stolen"). She also complains that she tried to take her complaint to the arbitration firm listed in MySpace's terms of service only to discover that the firm no longer did work for MySpace, so she claims that MySpace committed unfair business practices by including the arbitration clause in its terms without living up to it.

The best line in the filing may be after MySpace took down the woman's second attempt at this "celebrity verifying" profile:

"At this point Plaintiff was literally seething with anger to the point that she was now consumed by it."

It's not clear what's illegal about making someone angry, but these days, you never know... Anyway, the full legal complaint is below (click through for those reading this via RSS):

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Filed Under: lawsuit, mental anguish, myspace profile
Companies: myspace

27 Comments

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haha, 27 Oct 2008 @ 10:17am

Did anyone notice the part where she says "Tom" is in violation of his own TOS for displaying his age as 33 on his MySpace page when he's really 37?
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- chris, 27 Oct 2008 @ 12:21pm
  
  Re:
  hahaha, this is amazing. I hope i dont get sued for listing my name as Chris, when in reality it is Christopher.
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- Julie, 8 Dec 2008 @ 10:43am
  
  Re:
  It does say in the eligibility section that a person needs to provide "truthful and accurate" registration information. As everyone's first friend on MySpace, he lied. Tells you a lot about the site.
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KB, 27 Oct 2008 @ 10:22am

I can't imagine having that much time on my hands! Must be nice!
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- Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2008 @ 10:44am
  
  Re:
  Time and money to waste... wish I had those problems.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2008 @ 10:58am

I can't be bothered to read this whole thing, but why was her page taken down in the first place?

Because someone running a fake celebrity page didn't like the idea of people knowing they're fake? Why would myspace act on that?

Anyone care to give the answers to an extremely lazy student (seriously, been reading all day, I ain't readin' no legal documents in my off time)?
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- Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2008 @ 11:40am
  
  Re:
  no
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Erv Server, 27 Oct 2008 @ 11:43am

if anything this brings undesired attention to Myspace
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ulle, 27 Oct 2008 @ 11:49am

To #4, it appears that either Johnny Depp or an imposter asked my space to take down her site because the woman supposedly harrassed and threatened Mr.Depp (or imposter). The I part I do not understand is the " mental anguish" she keeps referring to. Seems to me that she needs to seek professional mental help more then she needs a lawyer
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- Julie, 8 Dec 2008 @ 10:48am
  
  Re:
  Mental anguish is a common legal term used to explain damages. If I were in contact with celebrities and MySpace took down my site, I'd be furious as well. Sounds like she spent a lot of time maintaining it. It probably did hurt her reputation.
  
  I read the whole complaint. To me, it sounds like MySpace tried to pull one over on her and she caught them. I can't imagine alledging all those facts without being able to prove them. Good for her!
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Shohat, 27 Oct 2008 @ 11:55am

Don't make me...
Don't make me hungry. You wouldn't like me when I'm hungry.
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- Robert D, 27 Oct 2008 @ 2:37pm
  
  Re: Don't make me...
  Don't let me get relaxed! You won't like me when I'm relaxed!
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interval, 27 Oct 2008 @ 11:56am

What a waste of time and bits.
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Bill, 27 Oct 2008 @ 12:06pm

A grain of sand in a mountain of BS
The only valid issue I see is that of Myspace stealing her idea without mentioning the source. If they canner her page with the ussue unresolved, it would appear that they destroyed her evidence. I don't know Myspace's TOS (whether they claim ownership of all content on user pages), so maybe they were within their rights to steal her idea or maybe not.
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- Tron, 27 Oct 2008 @ 2:29pm
  
  Re: A grain of sand in a mountain of BS
  You can't copyright an idea.
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Nate, 27 Oct 2008 @ 12:34pm

If she were literally "consumed by anger," then this whole thing ought to be thrown out without a plaintiff, right?

Sounds kinda like a Grimm fairy tale.
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ASTON TECHNO, 27 Oct 2008 @ 1:46pm

my space
there are millions of email logins to acquire

just login as a new user and this time save what you create

and copy and paste it to the new blog

she's not the only one that myspace has booted

footprints in the snow

never let 'em see ya' comin' honey ô¿ô
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2008 @ 2:02pm

What is this myspace site all about?
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2008 @ 2:08pm

ok for one just cause you created a myspace profile doesn't mean you own it, myspace can take myspace down at any given point in time, you don't pay for their services so therefore you don't own it, and for those people that upload their personal photos on myspace and that is the only copy shame on you, as far as this chick that is suing myspace for taking down her profile and then recreating a profile that works like hers, oh well you don't have rights to create something to use with someone else's software and able to get away with it or sue over it, they can recreate your profile/program and use it as they like!...and plus most fake profiles are created for a reason it is called advertisement lol and also i would probably bet that the chick didn't read the whole terms and conditions where it states they meaning myspace can make any changes at any given point in time, i for one is guilty of not reading most contracts that i sign as for more than 50% of people that don't read contracts that they also sign, for the lady that is sue happy get over yourself of being a self rightcious bum and sue happy get off your couch and get a job lol
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Slartibartfast, 27 Oct 2008 @ 2:24pm

Who cares?
Yet another storm in a teacup over complete nonsense by some stupid, (and possibly mentally unstable), person who is obviously struggling with reality.
Yawn!
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2008 @ 2:54pm

Mental Anguish
Just reading this document has inflicted mental anguish upon me by the plaintiff. Who want's to represent me?
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Casey, 27 Oct 2008 @ 3:00pm

Poorly written complaint
How could anyone take that complaint seriously considering the amount of spelling and typographic errors? And point 95 is hilarious.
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Dan, 30 Oct 2008 @ 1:17am

mental state
From the way this suit makes her sound, I could well imagine this woman harassing people with fan pages etc.
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anonymous, 10 Nov 2008 @ 7:43am

wow.
i mean how can you get pissed over myspac.e
its not that serious

its just MYSPACE..
once you turn off the computer its gone...

its people like her that have no lives that would go this far just to try to get some money for something she never even paid for. im a lawyer myself and there is absolutely NO violation of laws in this case. she wont get very far
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- Julie, 8 Dec 2008 @ 10:41am
  
  Re: wow.
  You're not a very good lawyer then if you don't think there was a terms violation. Are you familar with breach of contract?
  
  Not to mention, MySpace cannot distribute a person's ideas outside of MySpace. Read the TOS. MySpace ran press releases about the celebrity site.
  
  I'm sorry but I see a different side of this lawsuit then the rest of the people that commented. I hope she kills them in court.
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Gene, 7 Jan 2009 @ 2:33pm

Don't use the free site
If you pay for something, then you have a right to sue over how it performs. It cost you something. You have a right to a refund. In this case, she has a right to a refund of what she paid. $0. Probem with society is the rampant lawsuits. If you get something for free, you cannot sue over it. Wouldn't that be logical? If you don't like it, don't use it. simple.
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mini, 1 Apr 2009 @ 5:42am

pook
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