Curious If Anybody Can Confirm This

A lawyer friend of mine said that he knows of cases where plaintiffs sued anonymous posters for libel and had subpoenas served on the owners of websites to turn over emails and ip addresses.

Can anybody confirm or deny this? Wasn't some housewife slammed because her kids were downloading songs illegally?

If ATS is served with a subpoena to turn over emails and IP addresses I'm guessing they would comply rather than face contempt charges. There is probably a gray area regarding whether site owners are libel for defamatory posts made by their members.

Food for thought next time you're wrecklessly making defamatory accusations in forum posts. This is a great site. There's no need to cause uneccesary legal headaches for the owners.

reply to post by sconner755

22a) Disclosure: TAN also reserves the right to disclose any known personal information when required by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to conform to the law or comply with a legal process served on TAN, protect and defend the rights or property of the TAN domains, or visitors to these domains, identify persons who may be violating the law, the legal notice, or the rights of third parties, and cooperate with the investigations of purported unlawful activities.

ATS Terms and Conditions of Use

reply to post by Hefficide




Thanks! That's what I would expect.

Suddenly the idea of anonymous posting doesn't seem so anonymous anymore!

Originally posted by sconner755
Suddenly the idea of anonymous posting doesn't seem so anonymous anymore!

I'm afraid it never truly was.

Perception of reality my friend.

- Lee

In that case, I know alot of members here who are criminals, probably 35-40% of the ppl here! Lock em up Sconner! Those ppl are like pokemon, you gotta catch em all!

Really though, those "laws" should only really be used for stalkers and bullies, not for arguements that went too far. Mods deal with those.

Originally posted by XL5
In that case, I know alot of members here who are criminals, probably 35-40% of the ppl here! Lock em up Sconner! Those ppl are like pokemon, you gotta catch em all!

Really though, those "laws" should only really be used for stalkers and bullies, not for arguements that went too far. Mods deal with those.

I was thinking it more likely that sooner or later somebody involved the th SH case is going to be pissed and cross paths with a publicity seeking lawyer like Gloria Allred.

If somebody feels they were slandered it's up to them to decide what action to take, not the mods. The point being that hiding behind an anonymous screen name does not shield anybody from the consequences of libelous statements.

Problem with that is that Bush and Obama have great lawers, ATS should be shut down by now. I honestly don't think some one or a group of people expressing their opinion is grounds for lawers when it is on a site not even connected to any of the people involved. Now if a lynch mob was forming on ATS or a bunch of ATS members found the facebook of the victims families, sure, get lawers. Otherwise, if any one is mad that they found some one on the internet that doesn't like them for a good reason, big deal, its the internet. If the hate is because of a misconception, there shoud be open discussion to dispel anything unfounded.

Attacks are not opinions!

Hefficide has stinky farts. Come at me lawyers!

Originally posted by XL5
Problem with that is that Bush and Obama have great lawers, ATS should be shut down by now. I honestly don't think some one or a group of people expressing their opinion is grounds for lawers when it is on a site not even connected to any of the people involved. Now if a lynch mob was forming on ATS or a bunch of ATS members found the facebook of the victims families, sure, get lawers. Otherwise, if any one is mad that they found some one on the internet that doesn't like them for a good reason, big deal, its the internet. If the hate is because of a misconception, there shoud be open discussion to dispel anything unfounded.

Attacks are not opinions!

True. Celebs rarely pursue libel actions, and when they have it's been against publishers.

That said, baselessly accusing somebody of being a pedophile probably crosses the line. "Big deal, it's the Internet," is not a valid defense. In fact, that makes it worse because the libelous statement has a much broader reach.

Yeah it does travel farther, but every one knows its the internet, it may as well be early grade school. Baseless claims should be discussed and proved otherwise. The great thing about ATS is that many here have trust/paranoia issues (for good reason), so if I say Obama and SO (ATS site owner) are working together to keep all us nuts in one place, ATS will find out through discussion. However if no discussion happens, there can be no one to prove otherwise and people become sheep.

Originally posted by XL5
Problem with that is that Bush and Obama have great lawers,

obama OWNS 150 firms of lawyers to use at his whim with even more teams collectively known as monsanto and this body is made up of 7 heads whoms arms reach 10 nations and their armies collective these armies are known as the u.n military and the nations military. and the head of this great beast at the time where knowledge be renewed shall be barry.

Originally posted by Domo1
Hefficide has stinky farts. Come at me lawyers!

I was going to use the term poo-head.



Beat me to it!



But seriously, I guess this is why mods and admin take their jobs so seriously. Not just to protect site integrity but to protect the posters from themselves!

Originally posted by beezzer
Not just to protect site integrity but to protect the posters from themselves!

Sounds like our government!

Nanny ATS.

reply to post by sconner755


I would be even more weary of this now that Obama has signed over the
security of the Internet to the NSA. This means that they would no longer
need a court order for the information, they have it when they desire it.

Criminalization of Libel goes against the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

But you guys don't really care for the UN anyway.

In the US, Libel can get you fined and jail time, even from something posted on the internet.

A publisher like TAN would immediately turn over any names and information. They can't possibly have the money , clout, or inclination to protect its usership. This is a business, and the business will stay in business a LOT longer if they silently give away the names, ban the users, and let everyone feel like everyone is just fine.

Originally posted by Domo1
Hefficide has stinky farts. Come at me lawyers!

I'm coming after you for using an image representing the joker in the batman franchise in your avatar.

Every website has a way of tracking their members even if they use phony login information. That's just the way the world is turning now. I suspect more of this will happen in the future.

Illegal downloading is a totally different issue - that's infringement of copyright laws and usually involves big companies like Warner Bros, Disney, music publishers and artists, etc etc.

Basically, don't do anything stupid or illegal on the Internet because nothing is really truly anonymous.

Originally posted by XL5

Attacks are not opinions!

Couldn't agree more. Those who hide behind fake user names and attack people at random on the Internet, are the ones who deserve to be caught in my books.

reply to post by Charmeine

If stated as fact, it may count as libel, if stated clearly as opinion, than that is not libel.

Yes, they will nail you once they find you and laugh all the way to the bank. I don't see any site on the Net that will protect you and there is no reason for them to jeopardize their well-being for anyone.

Internet Privacy is a big issue and will continue to be as all of us are tracked by governments, corporations and hacker/trackers. There is an alternative to protecting your identity, anonymity and privacy as well as your IP address when logging into ATS, or any web site at all. Jumpto is exceptionally unique in the Internet security field. Freedom of speech and the ability to browse at will is alive and well. The ATS site provides a wealth of information from passionate contributors that isn't found elsewhere and should remain viable Freedom site.