An Old Libel Dispute Still Dragging On... Advice Needed

[Seraphim]

Several years ago I was involved in a serious internet libel dispute with a blogger, all resulting from a simple domain purchase inquiry that I had sent out. Long story short, my name was completely destroyed with false accusations of being a spammer, a Google SEO'd blog article was written about me, that article was eventually syndicated through Technorati, and then picked up and republished by tens of thousands of people around the world (a deliberate "Google Bomb" was dropped for my name). I contacted probably 40 different lawyers at the time, including all of the well known domainer lawyers, none of which were confident they could help me without massive five figure legals fees being paid out. So for better or worse I eventually held on to the thousands of dollars it would have cost me to fight this person in court, and hoped the problem would slowly go away over time. Obviously I pumped out hundreds upon hundreds of cease and desist letters, and was able to control much of the damage being done.

Well here I am three years later, the blog article about me is still published, and still ranked in the search engines. As a result of this one blog article I've now dealt with 3 years of death threats, disturbing emails, phone calls at odd hours of the night, and just a complete and total breach of my personal privacy. It's 2009, and I've finally come to the painful conclusion that this problem is not going to disappear, and could likely go on for another decade or so for all I know.

Assuming there was some sort of statute of limitations for dealing with this, it's years past now... I understand there probably isn't much I can do at this point, but any advice on how to deal with this matter would be appreciated.

[David G]

I would file lawsuits against everyone involved and responsible in Federal Court in your jurisdiction but pro-se only so it hardly costs you anything except the small filing fees involved.

[Seraphim]

I would file lawsuits against everyone involved and responsible in Federal Court in your jurisdiction but pro-se only so it hardly costs you anything except the small filing fees involved.

Thanks trader, I know nothing about self representation, but I'll look into it. Sounds tough.

I should also mention that 2 years ago I called the person over the phone who is responsible for this false blog article, and I asked them to take it down, and that I was getting death threats as a result of it. This person implied that they would be willing to take down the article, but they were afraid that by taking it down, that would incriminate them some how. So obviously they left it up and live. I also told this person that I would welcome the article being taken offline, and that if they did so I wouldn't take any legal action against them, as I really just want to move on with my life.

[David G]

I have filed a couple lawsuits myself (pro-se) in U.S. District Court in the past (more or less successfully filed - please note I did not say I won). It would make them answer and likely hire a law firm licensed to practice in Federal Court at great cost. Basically, all you would need are the forms and docs which could be like a template of sorts. The court will actually help you as far as the paper process goes and procedure involved if you go down there in person and see the clerks at the front desk who are friendly and helpful.

[lotsofcoffee]

What's the article ranking for? If it's ranking for your name, you could take proactive steps to get other sites ranking higher. Create a bunch of pages on off site services like blogger, wordpress, squidoo that use your name (e.g. firstname-lastname.blogger.com, firstname-lastname.wordpress.com), and throw some links at them. After a few months, you should control much of the top rankings for your name.

If you don't know how to do this, hire an SEO - will be cheaper than a lawyer.

[domaingenius]

Seraphim


Im sorry to hear that you have same problems O had in the UK. I wont
bore you with too long a story but suffice to say that I became
embroiled in a 10 year court case against a Govt body ,and that
body through everything they had at me. I won after 10 years
and getting to highest court and forcing them to attend trial.
I will cut this short to tell you what I learnt and what I did
as may also apply in USA. I found fighting civil claim was hard
because the defendants just through taxpayers money at it and
goes on for years. What I therefore did, which I should have done
in beginning, was to issue a Criminal case against the key party.
In UK we have a law that forbids harassment and makes it a
criminal act. Also in uk it is possible to issue case without a lawyer
so I did that. What I am suggesting to look at is some other
means to crack the matter you have, such as maybe a
harassment type criminal charge. Each time a message is posted or
appears on internet the statute time starts again.

DG

Several years ago I was involved in a serious internet libel dispute with a blogger, all resulting from a simple domain purchase inquiry that I had sent out. Long story short, my name was completely destroyed with false accusations of being a spammer, a Google SEO'd blog article was written about me, that article was eventually syndicated through Technorati, and then picked up and republished by tens of thousands of people around the world (a deliberate "Google Bomb" was dropped for my name). I contacted probably 40 different lawyers at the time, including all of the well known domainer lawyers, none of which were confident they could help me without massive five figure legals fees being paid out. So for better or worse I eventually held on to the thousands of dollars it would have cost me to fight this person in court, and hoped the problem would slowly go away over time. Obviously I pumped out hundreds upon hundreds of cease and desist letters, and was able to control much of the damage being done.

Well here I am three years later, the blog article about me is still published, and still ranked in the search engines. As a result of this one blog article I've now dealt with 3 years of death threats, disturbing emails, phone calls at odd hours of the night, and just a complete and total breach of my personal privacy. It's 2009, and I've finally come to the painful conclusion that this problem is not going to disappear, and could likely go on for another decade or so for all I know.

Assuming there was some sort of statute of limitations for dealing with this, it's years past now... I understand there probably isn't much I can do at this point, but any advice on how to deal with this matter would be appreciated.

[David G]

.... What I therefore did, which I should have done in beginning, was to issue a Criminal case against the key party.
In UK we have a law that forbids harassment and makes it a
criminal act. Also in uk it is possible to issue case without a lawyer
so I did that. What I am suggesting to look at is some other
means to crack the matter you have, such as maybe a
harassment type criminal charge. Each time a message is posted or
appears on internet the statute time starts again. DG

Excellent advice. Can be done in the US also.

[domaingenius]

I don't know abut US laws but you should find out what makes the offence
of Harassment or whatever it is you think fits the bill and is easy to pursue
in person. In the UK, as an example that may help, if someone does an act
2 or more times, i.e. like posts 2 messages saying "you are a f'ing idiot"
or whatever, then if that is likely to cause you alarm or distress you
have then "made" your case and the defendant will have hard time
defending. Best always write to the party/ies and say "what you are
doing is distressing (or what US laws say makes the offence) and
I ask you to desist (or remove the messages etc etc). Then if they don't
act they will find even harder to defend.

Whilst we are on subject ,for European readers, I discovered year ago
that it is unlawful in Europe to post personal details about any person
onto the internet. Personal details include such things as religion, date
of birth, health etc . Exclusions apply to bona fide newspapers.
So if I posted something on my website saying " Fred Bloggs is a
muslim ,was born on 24th July 1909 and is suffering from domainitis"
then I would be breaking the law, believe it or not. Mind you way things
are going in Stasi UK breathing will be illegal soon as well.

DG

[Acro]

Join the club. Every anonymous coward can attempt to smear your name and unless the content is presented on web sites within the US jurisdiction there is little that you can do, other than rebut their claims in the same forum.

Now, if you are receiving phonecalls and even death threats that is indeed a matter of the police. File a report and establish a record that will document the situation and allow you to potentially take legal action.

[katherine]

unless the content is presented on web sites within the US jurisdiction there is little that you can do, other than rebut their claims in the same forum.

Now you give me an idea. Regardless of the jurisdiction I would try to take the domain name down. For example a properly crafted complaint to the registrar could do the trick. Also have a look at the whois, if you notice anything funny feel free to use the WDPRS system.

[domaingenius]

First thing to do really is ascertain which Country the server is located in ,or
even the domain is registered in/to. If it is in Europe then you can contact
the appropriate company and also the Official Body, in the UK the
Information Commissioner, and get it taken down that route.

DG

[Gerry]

Lord, need more coffee.

I glanced at the title and thought it said -

Old Liberal suit still lives on.

[GUA]

I appreciate it may be a difficult situation, but what I dont get is why you would be receiving death threats... What have you 'apparently' done that would warrant such a strong response?

[Seraphim]

I really appreciate all of the advice and feedback so far. I have SEO'd a website to take the #1 position for my full name away from this person in Yahoo and MSN, still working on Google though. I will look into both self representation and the criminal aspects of this issue, as suggested.

GUA: The death threats, odd phone calls, email abuse, etc., is likely the result of thousands upon thousands of people republishing the original story. The volume of collective traffic across all of these sources has to be very substantial. The original article was syndicated through various blog networks, Technorati. Obviously the irony in it all is that this person spammed the hell out of the major search engines in order to get the message across that I am a spammer.

[EGS]

I don't feel people should answer your question before you tell us more of a background.
What happened and why? What did you do? Obviously you seem content with taking the blame for something you did wrong.

What did you do? This doesn't seem random...people don't set up sites or pages like this against innocent people. -_-

[domaingenius]

.people don't set up sites or pages like this against innocent people. -_-

A troll, or stupid ?. Of course they do, if they happen to be that
way minded ,or believe they are right but infact are wrong.

DG

[GUA]

Seraphim,

Why not start a 'Counter campaign', get members here, and other people you know to link to a false claim about the individual in question, so they know how it feels...

Yes, 2 wrongs dont make a right, but if someone is spreading lies, it can really hurt reputations.

[Seraphim]

I don't feel people should answer your question before you tell us more of a background.
What happened and why? What did you do? Obviously you seem content with taking the blame for something you did wrong.

What did you do? This doesn't seem random...people don't set up sites or pages like this against innocent people. -_-

Well first off, I will not post public information about myself here in the thread, and please do not post it here either. You can dig through my Whois information, and easily find the answers as to the how, when, why, etc. Check it out if you're interested.

Secondly, I've never took the blame for something I didn't do, and I resent your comment. Cease and desist letters, and other materials have been published online, where I refrute this person's false accusations until I am blue in the face.

Why did this happen, and why was it so aggressive? I sent a domain purchase inquiry from a Polish email address, as I live in Poland (and I can prove it all day long). Obviously that got me lumped into the same category as the Nigerian email scammers, etc. This person then went on a dirt finding mission, to try and figure out what my scam or spam angle was, despite there not being one (I made a cash offer for their domain, naturally they would investigate). This person then found 4 link exchanges emails that I had sent out in 2002, four years prior to the dispute, and asked me if I had sent them. Well first off those 4 emails were not spam, but they were associated with a business I had sold just two weeks prior, for mid five figures at another forum. So I denied my association to this business, and the 4 emails, and tried to gingerly back out of the situation, fearing this person could slander by old business, and it's new site owner (I have dated invoices, signed contracts, can prove this all day long). Issuing a gigantic refund was my sole fear at that moment. So after I denied it, I incriminated myself further, this person smelt blood, and started harassing me further, more false accusations were made about my business this time, blood began to boil on both sides, and harsh words began to fly back and forth. This all took place over the course of 2 days or so. 4 months later while browsing the internet, I noticed this person had publicly called me a spammer all over the web, etc.

That's pretty much it in a nut shell.

Seraphim,

Why not start a 'Counter campaign', get members here, and other people you know to link to a false claim about the individual in question, so they know how it feels...

Yes, 2 wrongs dont make a right, but if someone is spreading lies, it can really hurt reputations.

I thought about it, and have a website that I built long ago dedicated to refuting this person's false accusations, but it never ranked well. When I get time, I need to post that info on one of the other sites I'm using as a ranking blocker, and then SEO it (hoping I don't get a dup penalty in the process). When I get that done, I will post a link to it here in this thread, reluctantly of course, as I don't like posting info about myself in public places.

Because of this thread, the DNF member Keyser is threatening to exacerbate this libel issue, because I called him out on destroying an appraisal thread I started several days ago, highlighting my concerns above. I assume what his threats mean, is he's going to spread the false accusations around some more. The mods refuse to ban him so far, so I may not post too much info about myself here, until that issue is properly resolved. We'll see...

The internet is a wild and crazy place for people that don't hide their identity, and don't put up with bullsh!t.

[Gerry]

Sorry to hear (read this).

But, three years ago I knew nothing about this.

Now I do.

Why bring this up to give it more rankings and awareness?

I am quite sure this thread would get indexed and just add more pages to the Google results.

g

[tomsa]

Found the blog posts about you.

Some of your comments were unappropriated in my opinion (I mean about her physical aspect). The matter was escalated due to those irrelevant comments.

The best thing to do if you want to resolve this is to speak with the blogger and to tell her what she wants to hear (it seems pretty clear in her post).

Good luck!