Posted on 03/08/2014 7:18:35 AM PST by PaulCruz2016
PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia judge has ordered philly.com to reveal the name of an anonymous commenter, in a defamation suit brought by electricians’ union leader John Dougherty.
An attorney in the case says it could have a broad impact on incendiary online comments and those users, sometimes called “trolls,” who post them anonymously.
The anonymous defendant in the suit, disguised by the nonsense name “fbpdplt,” called Dougherty a name in the comments section of an article on the website, one of the properties in the media group that also owns the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News.
(Excerpt) Read more at philadelphia.cbslocal.com ...
a pekingese!
Anonymous now and anyone by name later.
Inch by inch
The word troll is definitely overused. When I first heard the term, it was defined as someone who posts inflammatory comments with no substance or merit in order to elicit responses. Now, people use the term to describe anyone they disagree with and can’t counter their argument.
And what if they go to a public internet location--a library or internet café? There are many ways to remain anonymous.
On a moderated website, the offended person need only report the offending post and it will most likely be removed. It isn't difficult. No need to try to quash free speech for this.
probably a non-union dog
ahaha very likely..a Scab Dog!
Your IP address doesn’t track back to your street address. It shows your ISPs address or local hub. Someone can get your info from the ISP with an IP address, but they would need a subpoena to do that.
Now that takes me back. I had more that one tussle with that snake.
I’ve been around online forums since the days of dialup Fidonet BBSes. (At a blistering 1200 baud) I’ve found the best way to deal with trolls (they are not a new phenomenon) is to call them out for what they are and then ignore them. You can’t “win” an argument with a troll, that’s all they want, the argument. They just want to vent their bile on anyone and everyone. The only thing I’ve seen that drives trolls mad (or off to someone else’s thread or board) is being ignored. I’ve even seen trolls create multiple online IDs just to carry on the flame war - with themselves. Until the owner/moderator steps in and punts all their accounts. These are sad excuses for people folks.
Credibility needs to be taken into account. IMHO. It’s still wrong to wantonly bad mouth people. The question is should the government be the automatic go-to for dealing with such issues.
Unless "they" were the fedgov, LOL
I think this carries a useful lesson for those on FR. It’s okay to call Obama an anti-American, antisemitic, drug-addled communist. Besides flattering him, those statements would be true. However, we can’t slander him as a pedophile, both because we could lose our anonymity and because it’s unfair - we all know Obama has no interest in girls/women of any age, and that he prefers older men, not underage boys.
“Someone can get your info from the ISP with an IP address, but they would need a subpoena to do that.”
It appears they have a judge’s order. Also, most operations automatically cooperate with the police, no warrant required. A coworker was murdered. The cops called the local phone company and got a list of the phones that had been in the house at the time. They had the culprits in hours. I find it hard to believe they got a warrant.
Her fan boys sling the term with equal ease.
“Scratch that, I confused your comment with another.”
Scratched. I’ve done that, posted a comment on physics to a confused political writer...
That way, those who do not scream the Party Line from the rooftops can be "dealt with", in one fashion or another.
In a milieu that is starved for love, insults create havoc. The question is not whether they should be discouraged or encouraged. It’s whether we want the lion’s paw of secular government invited into the picture. And there could be a real person behind all the bad mouthing, and some skillful dialogue could ferret out what is really eating that real person, then try to actually help him or her. At the least it could show that person to be stubbornly having no class.
Unless you are using Tor or some other proxy, they know your IP address. That's all they need.
They now the MAC address of your computer/cell phone. You can change it in your software, but not many people do.
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