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Pastimes : Legal proceedings via SI -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (220)	3/26/1999 10:34:00 PM
From: Cheeky Kid	Respond to of 242

What happens if you are in Italy and you call someone in USA a dirty rotten SOB, etc, etc.... Say you have his real name. How would you sue them? Who is actually going to make the real money? Did we get into the wrong profession or what? If I was a lawyer I would be driving a brand new Hummer.

To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (220)	3/26/1999 10:34:00 PM
From: Tom Swift	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 242

I think not. However, a slick lawyer might be able to make a case.

To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (220)	3/26/1999 10:48:00 PM
From: The Philosopher	Respond to of 242

That is, in fact, a damn good question. Collecting any money for defamation requires some proof that you have actually been damaged. If nobody knows who you actually are, how have you been damaged? OTOH, I suppose you could sue for trade name disparagement. Even though TIDE is a fictitous name for a detergent, if I say false things about TIDE I could be sued for damages, for devaluing the name. So I suppose one could try to claim that she had established a valuable persona through the screen name and that that name was devalued. However, since all of us pay to post here, and none of us are paid to post, so don't lose money when people skip over our posts because they are persuaded we are dishonest, what are the damages? But if, for example, you had a commercial web page (or simply a web page with commercials) and promoted it on SI through your profile or even through postings on threads, you could argue that the defamation caused SI posters not to go to your site, or to give it less credibility, and thus to diminish the value of the site. Don't you love the way lawyers can make complications and argue both sides of the same question? But the question is not, it seems to me (though I freely admit I am not an intellectual property lawyer) not conducive to an easy answer. Your bill for this consultation will be sent in a PM! <g>