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Re: Harassment and Defamation on the Internet
Posted by Cheryl Martell on 4/04/07

    To Charlene Blake re harrassment and defamation on the
    internet.
    The short answer to your question is 'no', there's little
    legal recourse open to you or anyone else in the situation
    you find yourself regarding responses to your internet based
    consumer advocate efforts.
    The only viable recourse applying in cases like yours would
    be when harrassing comments were emailed directly to you
    personally. This does not seem to be the case.
    My advice toward your posted inquiry is that (a) Your
    advocacy efforts are clearly in the public domain; (b) By
    virtue of your clearly public advocacy, your comments in
    that regard are open to public criticism; (c) Critical
    comments can be made public and directed at what you say in
    your campaigns; and (d) You personally can be subject to
    public criticism for your comments.
    Please note there is an extremely broad definition of what
    constitutes 'public criticism'. Unless the 'public
    criticism' constitutes a physical threat of some sort, just
    about anything goes.
    One other caveat. When attempting legal action in such
    situations, the 'plaintif' is subject to a legal doctrine
    of 'Clean Hands', meaning that the case will not stand if
    the plaintif can be shown to be doing the same things he or
    she is accusing others of.
    I googled your name and email address to learn more about
    your advocacy efforts.
    Your presence on the internet is very common, and is clearly
    public, in spite of your suggestion it isn't.
    Regretfully, my findings illustrate that you do not appear
    to be above reproach in the doctrine of 'Clean Hands'.
    I found a broad spectrum of comments by you, under your
    email address, where you made very demeaning comments about
    others who have criticised you. These can easily be
    considered to be 'harrassment and defamation' in the context
    you describe.
    As regards your public comments themselves, I see they are
    most often very non specific in nature, and as such are open
    to the broadest context of interpretation. In making
    generalized and non specific charges such as you appear to
    do very often, you simply just open the doors of criticism
    more widely. In a sense, you are aggravating the situation
    yourself.
    Last, you are also open to criticism in the area of using
    pseudonyms in your campaign. Without too much effort, I
    found at least ten pseudonyms which appear to be used by you
    in various websites.
    Clearly, you are in a very shaky position even if you did
    attempt to pursue this issue legally.
    There's an old saying: "People in glass houses shouldn't
    throw stones".
    Believe me, this is good advice!


    > I have been doing auto consumer work for the past decade.
    > Since my involvement in the Toyota engine oil sludge (well
    > documented by journalists, consumer agencies, and Toyota
    > owners) matter, some who are attempting to protect the
    > automaker have continued to harass, intimidate, and defame
    > me publicly.
    >
    > The hope is that the distraction and confusion will coax
    > auto consumers to reject my consumer information. I
    > believe the intent is to diminish and/or end the public
    > dialogue about this serious engine problem and to limit
    the
    > effectiveness of my consumer networking.
    >
    > What measures can be taken in such cases? My name as an
    > advocate is out there, but I am not a public figure in the
    > true sense. What legal measures are available to me?
    >
    > The "cyberstalker(s)" have used aliases and even posed as
    > me in order to discredit. One in particular lives in
    > Canada and uses Sprint for his internet access. He
    > impersonated me on a private blog, and the "owner" of the
    > blog revealed this information publicly.
    >
    > Thank you for your input.
    >
    > Charlene Blake
    > cblake@erols.com
    > Toyota Owners Unite for Resolution
    > http://www.petitiononline.com/TMC2003/petition.html

     
     

 
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