Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : InfoSpace (INSP): Where GNET went! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peach who wrote (25531)	3/7/2001 5:06:01 AM
From: levy	Respond to of 28311

posting warning shows up on the ucked infospace thread (post 186)......so who posted that on the infospace thread ?.....and I know of at least one post on that thread that seems to have been removed. F*ed Company: A Post New-Economy Revenue Model? By Marc Grodin Following a recent court action requiring the release of IP addresses for posters to the Fed Company "Happy Fun Slander Contest" Internet bulleting board, Phillip Kaplan, the owner and operator of Fed Company, has not only turned over the IP addresses of one company's bulletin board participants, but has quietly begun to offer to sell other employers the internet addresses of posters critical of their company's operations. Kaplan, who also goes by the alias 'Pud' (based on a Dungeons and Dragons character he identifies with), may have a history of 'gray' dealings on the Internet. It has been suggested that he is also Kim Tobias, the architect of several wide ranging multilevel email marketing campaigns, abandoned after the adoption of tough anti-spam laws. His recent venture may also be in danger of running afoul of the law. Threats of industrial sabotage, admissions of theft, and allegedly libelous assertions combined to cause Maryland-based webdot.com, an Internet startup currently undergoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, to obtain a court order for Kaplan to release the identities of the board's users. As part of the settlement, all mention of webdot.com has been removed from the F*ed Company Web site. Because legal action may be pending against many of the posters, some of whom are reportedly investors and former employees, representatives of webdot.com were unable to comment for this story. "In a free market, information-based economy, everything's for sale," asserts Kaplan, also the owner of New York-based PK Interactive. "Most of them (the board's users) are technology workers, and they should be smart enough to know that their postings can be easily traced. From there, it's only a small leap to figuring out that there's a very good market for that information. I've been advised by my attorneys that any of these companies can get a court order for me to turn over the information--I'm just offering to sell them that information for less than their attorney's fees." Aaron Levy, a San Jose attorney who specializes in Internet speech issues, offered an opinion. "This is categorically not a privacy issue. Libel is libel and slander is slander--it is just as actionable on the Internet as it is in print or any public arena. A forum of this sort is not afforded the protection of a confessional or doctor's office." IP addresses are 12-digit numbers specifying the location computers on the Internet. With the proper knowledge, a technician can pinpoint the organization and often the specific machine or Internet account that originated a message. fuckedcompany.com