GOOD BYE, SHORT SELLING BASHERS... 10SB nearly there AND
clipcloppers (CLOPF) face precedent-setting judge's ban...
Global Investment.com Financial Inc....
by Brent Mudry
Although his equestrian promotion is trading at a pedestrian 20 U.S. cents
on the OTC Bulletin Board, Vancouver stock promoter John Henry is making a
name for himself and clipclop.com in the embryonic field of Internet media
law. After a brief court hearing on Tuesday, Mr. Henry's lawyer Darrell
Roberts emerged with a precedent-setting injunction, good for eight days,
which if it stands and spreads, could slow down busy Internet stock chat
sites to a virtual crawl. A sampling of clipclop chatter that has Mr. Henry
up on his high horse is the usual chat room drivel in which posters
routinely call those they do not like, crooks, crooked promoters, stock
manipulators, hypesters, string-pullers, dot.com-crazed followers, public
dupers, yo-yos, pump and dumpers, grandiose planners and evidently any
other insult that comes to mind. In an ex-parte hearing, without any
representation by the defendants, Mr. Justice Peter Fraser ordered
Stockhouse Media and Raging Bull to immediately remove a series of
unflattering messages and forbid the five anonymous posters from making any
further contributions.
After a 45-minute crash course on the Internet, chat sites, stock
promotions and related legal issues from Mr. Roberts, a senior Vancouver
lawyer with the firm Roberts & Baker, Judge Fraser found himself in
virtually-uncharted territory in Internet law. The decision is a first in
Canada.
Mr. Roberts notes the Internet is so new that he was unable to cite any
similar previous Canadian decisions, and he now knows of just two U.S.
cases in which Yahoo Finance was sued last year by companies seeking to
unmask anonymous posters. It is not yet known what the outcome of either
case was.
The suit was filed in court last Friday, the ex-parte hearing was held on
Tuesday morning, and the judge rendered his decision that afternoon. Mr.
Roberts notes that ex-parte cases require a "very stringent test," and
after mulling over the case at lunch on Tuesday and hearing some further
brief submissions afterwards from Mr. Roberts, Judge Fraser quickly handed
down his decision, in the form of oral reasons.
The judge's decision is not yet available in written form, but a notable
quote is. Whoever WaveyDavey is, he feels free to throw around serious
allegations "cowardly hiding behind the screen of an alias," Judge Fraser
told Mr. Roberts and the lawyers' junior, the only counsel present in the
courtroom.
In his decision Tuesday afternoon, Judge Fraser ordered Stockhouse and
Raging Bull to immediately remove messages written on their Web sites by
WaveyDavey, Wavey, garpike, Montero and Cook 81, but by Thursday afternoon
a number of the offending messages remained untouched. The Canadian judge
also ordered the clipclop five to stop publishing messages, especially
unflattering ones, and ordered the two sites to disallow the quintet from
making such postings.
Mr. Roberts notes that Stockhouse was served with his suit on Monday, the
day before the hearing, and it was served with the judge's order late
Wednesday or on Thursday. U.S. service is a trickier feat, however. The
clipclop.com lawyer notes that Boston-based Raging Bull was not served with
the suit prior to the hearing, and service of the court order by a U.S.
agent is in the works.
Stockhouse and Raging Bull may get a chance to tell their side of the story
and explain their version of the exploding Internet soon.
(Stockwatch first reported on the innovative suit on Monday.)
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