Originally Posted by
accountinquestion
Originally Posted by
PositiveVariance
There have not been very many times what someone says on a forum surprises me. I must say, the above sentence by MDAWG does surprise me. Not so much because what he said, but more so because he is a lawyer, and from every indication, it appears that he has assets that can be taken by means of a lawsuit.
What he wrote is very clear, it can not be interpreted any differently. He is saying there is verification that JK is a male prostitute. The courts would see this statement exactly as intended. Very clear. Very direct.
It is hard for me to believe that a court would ever rule on the side of a 100% anonymous person being slandered. I think you have to prove damaged. Kewl would have to prove his online presence has some value which was taken away. No?
You do bring up an interesting point as far as damages to an anonymous person.
The problem is that he is not 100% anonymous, there are people that know him in real life that also know he is user "KewlJ" on these forums. How many? I couldn't tell ya.
The most obvious example would be if he was dating someone, that person obviously knows he participates as user "KewlJ", he then reads the statement about being a prostitute and causes damages to the relationship or leaves him.
A scummy lawyer can come up with all kinds of stuff.
Even if someone was 100% anonymous, I'm sure it could be argued participating on forums is a hobby, and damages are often awarded when defendants can no longer participate in hobbies due to injury (physical or mental). But yeah, interesting question, There must be some case law on it by now.