Judge Wants Univ. Web Critics Known [Orders disclosure of web site posters' ID in defamation suit]

AP ^ | October 23, 2001 | Alan Sayre, AP Writer

[summer]

Top Stories - Associated Press - updated 5:41 AM ET Oct 24

Tuesday October 23 7:30 PM ET

Judge Wants Univ. Web Critics Known

By ALAN SAYRE, Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A Web hosting company must reveal the anonymous people behind an Internet site that has called the administration at the University of Louisiana-Monroe incompetent and accused top officials of lying, a magistrate ordered.

The information must be provided to Richard Baxter, the university's vice president for external affairs, who wants to file a defamation lawsuit. The magistrate also ordered Homestead Technologies Inc. to provide computer logs of all people who have posted, published or provided any content to the site.

An unopposed motion asking for the information was filed last week in federal court. The order, which was signed Thursday, was made public Monday.

Baxter declined comment about the court order. Michael Rhymes, who represents the people behind the Web site, did not return a call seeking comment Tuesday.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, the operator of the site, who asked not to be identified, said the lawyer is preparing an appeal.

In his petition asking for the order, Baxter cited examples of what he called ``extreme, outrageous and malicious content,'' including allegations that university officials misused funds and lied.

Homestead spokeswoman Jody Kramer said the company's membership and privacy agreements with its customers clearly spells out that Homestead will abide by all court orders.

``We deal with a lot of these,'' Kramer said. ``It is an absolutely stated policy that we will cooperate with the authorities.''

Kramer said the company had not received the order. Homestead will inform the site operators immediately if it does, Kramer said.

[summer]

Interesting article.

[summer]

A friendly flag:

I just thought you might be interested in knowing about this article, and perhaps letting others at FR know. :)

[summer]

A friendly bump, for an interesting article.

[summer]

I meant to include you in my friendly flag! :)

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Well if free speech upsets the Louisiana-Monroe people so much, then this is really going to make their day;

NCAA to review Division I-A requirements ( Louisiana-Monroe is among the possible losers )

[Orual]

Can you or anyone provide the web site address?

[summer]

I would just like to politely point out the following fact:

The petitioners in this civil lawsuit, in the AP article, are in the following field:

EDUCATION.

IMO, the reason "educators" are likely to file defamation lawsuits when they believe they have been defamed is because constant defamation ruins their opportunities for employment.

I realize some people can not grasp that fact. However, a good reputation is required for employment in education, believe it or not, and an educator has the legal right to preserve and protect a good reputation.

Again, I already know some people are not bright enought to understand this -- so, they continue to defame. But, if such people get hit with a court judgment -- and a large financial order against them, then, maybe they will understand.

[Ispy4u]

Ahh. Education the bastion of free speech and liberty in America. The final haven of creativity and enlightenment.

I hate to disagree with you but one's reputation is only as good as the truth. If the school is right and they have been defamed with lies and innuendo, then they have every right to be compensated.

As for my experience with educators of higher learning, mostly lying snakes who would say anything to save thier skin and quasi-, if not full fledged, communists. Can't stand em, could care less what happens to them or their career. JMHO.

[summer]

LOL....I appreciate your post. I would just attempt to highlight to you the fact that a person applying for a job as, say, a "Used Car Salesperson" is NOT required by any law to provide "character references" nor professional references of any kind.

However, an educator -- including an educational administrator -- IS required to provide that, as part of the application for employment.

In addition, in states such as FL, a K-12 public educator must also provide fingerprints and undergo a FBI background check. So, a good reputation is literally "property" owned by an educator, and when someone attempts to detroy such property, through defamation, it would not surprise me that an educator might sue to protect and preserve such property.

[djf]

We have nothing but a bunch of educators judging and ranking educators. Can you spell c o n f l i c t o f i n t e r e s t ? And who are the most vocal opponents of non-public education? I'll be nice. You can have ten guesses.

[summer]

Well, I would guess the ones most vocaly opposed to non-public education tend to be the ones who believe they have the most to lose by it: people currently in public education. They are sensitive to that issue because they feel it threatens and hurts them.

And, come to think of it -- in the same way, educators may be a lot more sensitive than others to any matter involving their good reputation or good name, because without such: they really can be hurt.

[summer]

vocaly = vocally

[djf]

If your average high school graduates were Fords or Toyotas, Nader would have shut the factories down long ago. And while I'm at it, which group consistently opposes any tests on teacher competency?

Interesting you should mention how sensitive they are. What is this apparent fetish you guys have with all this "esteem" bullsh*t?

[1rudeboy]

There have been a number of cases where corpoprations have successfully sued folks who make negative comments on investment bulletin boards. I can't see this being that much different.

People need to understand that they have limited anonymity on the internet, not carte blanche to do and say as they please.

[summer]

And while I'm at it, which group consistently opposes any tests on teacher competency?

Well, I don't oppose any such tests. And, I have taken many such tests here in FL.

You sound like you really hate all public school teachers. Maybe you should volunteer in a public school to increase your undertanding of how difficult a job it really is to teach in today's public schools. Good luck.

[summer]

BTTT to your post #14 -- excellent analogy.

I would also add this: let's say I someday write a book and publish it under the name "summer" -- and, in addition to stating I am a FL certified teacher, I give a nice PR plug to FR, in my bio, as to the origin of my name. In that instance too, I would imagine, it would matter very much as to my reputation on this forum. And, "disagreement" with other posters on this forum is not what concerns me at all.

But, someone like the male poster who recently publicly called me obscene names on a pulled thread, and publicly threatened to continue harassing me and posting obscenities at me so everytime I post -- that's the reason I stopped writing my Jeb Bush editorials, even though that poster is in FL, and that's the kind of person who concerns me -- and, who I belive I might need to sue if he did carry out his threats of persistance defamation.

And, FYI, I had sincerely hoped he was just being hot-headed that one time -- but, I never received an apology from him, much to my surprise and dismay. And, he is a writer too. Very sad.

[summer]

so everytime I post = everytime I post

[summer]

persistance = persistent

[summer]

Re your post #6 -- I posted the link to the article, but, no, I so not know the subject web site and the article did not mention its URL.

[summer]

I so not know = I do not know (sorry for the typo!)