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Pastimes : Investment Chat Board Lawsuits -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (1871)	8/16/2001 11:25:45 AM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12465

IMO, BroadVision v. Does 1-9 is a meritless, vindictive SLAPP, plain and simple. - Jeff P.S. Isn't "meritless, vindictive SLAPP" redundant?(g)

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (1871)	8/16/2001 12:43:46 PM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Respond to of 12465

Re: 8/15/01 - [BVSN] JohnDoes.org: BVSN SLAPPs Nine Does; Doe 9 Fights Back doe9doe9 Rookie Poster User # 228 posted 08-15-2001 05:27 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi, Please allow me to introduce myself. I have been sued as Doe 9 by BroadVision, Inc. (BVSN). On July 25, 2001, BVSN filed a lawsuit, BroadVision v. Does 1-9, San Mateo Superior Court No. 417698. The suit is directed against nine Does, based on their posts on the Yahoo! BVSN message board. BVSN's complaint is for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and defamation. BVSN used this lawsuit to get a subpoena issued to Yahoo!, seeking identifying information about the nine Does. August 14 (yesterday) was the date Yahoo was scheduled to respond to BVSN's subpoena. I posted the message for which BVSN is suing Doe 9, so I guess that makes me Doe 9. On August 13, my attorney, from the California Anti-SLAPP Project, filed a special motion to strike the complaint as a meritless SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation), under California's anti-SLAPP law, Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16. When my motion was filed, that automatically "stayed" (blocked or froze) all discovery in the case, including BVSN's subpoena to Yahoo as to all nine Does. In addition, under the California anti-SLAPP law, plaintiff BVSN must now show, with admissible evidence, that it has a probability of prevailing on its claims. If it does not, as it will not be able to, the complaint must be dismissed as a meritless SLAPP and plaintiff ordered to pay defendant's reasonable attorneys fees. BVSN's lawsuit claims Yahoo! BVSN message board posters may be employees or former employees, who are supposedly publishing "confidential and proprietary information". In the case of Doe 9, the offending message, in response to a thread entitled "Re: big layoffs tomorrow?", is: "Round 3 is set to commence. Looking at maybe 50-60 million in revenue this quarter. Not pretty." Mere speculation regarding layoffs and what the quarterly revenue numbers might be is hardly "confidential and proprietary information". Even more ridiculous is the assertion that Doe 2, who posted under the screen name "dr_chen_pehong", is trying to impersonate BVSN's CEO: paragraph 1 of BVSN's complaint alleges that "at least one Defendant has also posed as BroadVision's chief executive, appropriating an insider identity to give his scurrilous postings gravity they would not otherwise garner." I don't know about you, but if I read a message by "mr_gates_bill" or "mr_ballmer_steve" on a Microsoft message board, I wouldn't assume these posters are Microsoft executives. This lawsuit is an attack on all who use Internet financial message boards, except for the BVSN hacks/apologists. BVSN is attempting to deny members of the public the right to speak anonymously by claiming posters "drive down BroadVision's stock price". The stock price is down, not because of message board postings, but because of BVSN's own operational ineptitude, reflected in the $240 million loss in the latest quarter (http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/010725/n7p339530.html). Rather than take responsibility for the stunning decline in BVSN's fortunes, BVSN management seeks to "shoot the messengers" -- or worse, shoot the whistleblowers. For more information about SLAPPs, visit the website of the California Anti-SLAPP Project, www.casp.net. Doe 9 newsop.net