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Technology Stocks : ITEX is a Great Buy at under $6 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bruce Cullen who wrote (559)	3/1/1999 9:56:00 PM
From: Bruce Cullen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 623

ITEX names four message board users in revised lawsuit. Dow Jones News service via Dow Jones Joanna Bennett New York (Dow Jones)- An Oregon-based Internet company that last year's sued 100 "John Does" for allegedly posting defamatory remarks on an Internet message board now is suing only four people. ITEX Corp. (ITEX) has amended the complaint it filed in Oregon state court last year, naming four of the previous "John Does" as defendants, including one former company employee. The suit asks for a minimum of 1.5 million in damages from each defendant, claiming intentional interference with economic relationships, unlawful trade practices and defamation. ITEX, an online trade center where customers barter for goods in services, filed suit a last September, along with chief executive Graham Norris, against 100 "John Does" for posting allegedly inaccurate and defamatory statements on a Yahoo! Finance message board. Those remarks included statements questioning ITEX's financial backing and a rumor that senior ITEX executives were involved in a wrongful termination suit. Federal law protects the identity of Internet users who surf the Web using aliases, a common practice on electronic bulletin boards. Internet service providers and portal sites like Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) are forbidden from revealing the identities of their members unless presented with a subpoena. ITEX officials served Yahoo with a subpoena and obtained the E-mail addresses of some message board users. Using the E-mail accounts, ITEX was able to get another court order that allowed the company to obtain the personal contact information for each message board user from their Net service providers. The defendants named in the revised lawsuit include Nick Lindsey, a California resident with the online nickname "ibc96" and "Orangemuscat" ; Joe White, a Colorado resident and former ITEX broker with the online alias "colojopa" ; Leslie L. French, an Oregon resident with the alias "Whadayaknow" ; and Michael Bilben, a Minnesota resident also known online as "SyndzratITEX." The defendants were not immediately available for comment. ITEX was delisted by NASDAQ on Dec. 21 because of matters related to an ongoing investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and because it hasn't filed it's form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 23 The company now trades on the pink sheets and plans to reapply for listing as soon as it qualifies. - Johanna Bennett; 201-938-5670 (END) DOW JONES NEWS 03-01-99 05:41 PM - - 05 41 PM EST 03-01-99