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

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (10)	5/25/1999 12:32:00 AM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12465

Slammed in chat rooms, brokerage files lawsuit Thomson Kernaghan Katherine Macklem Financial Post Yahoo! Inc., operator of one of the world's most popular Web sites, is being sued for libel by Thomson Kernaghan & Co. Ltd., a privately held Canadian investment dealer. The lawsuit claims Yahoo! and a string of other defendants were "reckless, malicious, vicious, callous, reprehensible, shocking, oppressive and high-handed." The suit is one of the first filed in Canada against Yahoo! It is significant because it delves into the largely uncharted territory of Internet libel and the responsibility of both the individuals who write defamatory messages and the operators that provide the forums, such as chat rooms, for discussions. Silicon Investor Inc., which operates financial bulletin boards, is also named in the suit, as are a handful of individuals known only by the pen names they sign to postings on the World Wide Web, such as "Black John," "Tech," and "Danimal 2002." Thomson Kernaghan says a press release and other messages posted on the Web were malicious and portray both it and Mark Valentine, a second plaintiff in the suit and a Thomson Kernaghan vice-president and director, as acting illegally. The case, filed in Ontario Court, general division, is the latest in a volley of lawsuits involving Thomson Kernaghan and Mr. Valentine regarding controversial investments made by the firm. Most of the other lawsuits aim in the opposite direction, with Thomson Kernaghan as the target, and claim the brokerage and Mr. Valentine have illegally manipulated stock prices. It is these allegations of manipulation that triggered the libel suit, which singles out a press release posted on the Web (and also disseminated by newswire services) by Texas-based Restaurant Teams International Inc. <snip> Two of Restaurant Teams' principals and its stock promoter are also named in the Thomson Kernaghan suit. The libel suit claims a total of $5-million and asks the court for "the imposition of punitive, aggravated and exemplary damages against the defendants." The brokers will ask Yahoo! and Silicon Investor to disclose the true identities and addresses of people who have posted messages that it deems offensive. To date, only a handful of libel suits have been launched concerning material posted on the Internet. People falsely believe they can hide behind anonymous messages, said Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa who specializes in Internet law. They need to have a better sense of what happens when they post messages, he said. "Just as there are limitations on the right to free speech, there are on the right to anonymity," Mr. Geist said. Spokespeople for both Yahoo! and Silicon Investor said they do not comment on lawsuits. In the past, Yahoo! and other chat-room operators have complied with court orders to provide information on their users' identities. In addition to the Restaurant Teams lawsuit, Thomson Kernaghan has been named by about a half-dozen companies in other lawsuits accusing it and the funds it manages of short-selling stock after investing in convertible debentures in the companies. In an interview in November, Lee Simpson, Thomson Kernaghan's chief executive, denied any wrongdoing. Full story: nationalpost.com - Jeff

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (10)	5/25/1999 12:40:00 AM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Respond to of 12465

Presstek lawsuit emphasizes importance of skepticism by Scott Bernard Nelson Last Updated: Friday, September 19, 1997 5:04 p.m. EST Don't believe everything you read in the online chat areas dedicated to "stock talk," a New Hampshire printing-press maker reminded Web surfers this week. Presstek, Inc., of Hudson, N.H., filed a lawsuit accusing three men of using online bulletin boards to intentionally drive down its stock price. The lawsuit claims the men spread allegations that Presstek was the subject of a grand jury investigation, that it was losing money during various reporting periods and that an internal auditor was about to resign—all false, the company says. Presstek says Mark Hollingsworth of Hampton, Va., Ivan Lustig of Greenwood, Colo., and Parag Patel of Hamilton Square, N.J., were short sellers of the company's stock, which trades on the Nasdaq exchange. Short sellers profit when a stock price drops, so Presstek lawyer Robert McDaniel says the trio had incentive to spread damaging lies about the firm. "We'd like to have a lot of speech about our company [in the investment chat areas]," McDaniel says. "We only ask that people tell the truth." Hollingsworth, Lustig and Patel all say they will fight Presstek's lawsuit. They don't deny posting the messages or selling Presstek's stock short, but they say the opinions they championed amount to Constitutionally protected free speech. The federal court in Concord, N.H., will decide whether that's true. In the meantime, though, users of the online chat areas are left wondering: Who in the online world can you believe? The quick answer is nobody, says Chris Johnson of Vector Internet Services in Minneapolis. A veteran of two decades working on the various evolutionary stages of the Internet, Johnson says the medium's anonymity makes it a fertile breeding ground for people out to make a quick buck at your expense. "When people are not dealing face-to-face with others, they're much more likely to lie," Johnson says. "The stock advice you get [in the online chat areas and bulletin boards] is worth exactly what most people pay for it—nothing." But the Web can be a fabulous source of information for some things, such as the latest quarterly statements from a company or even investment advice. The trick is to approach online stock tips with the same skepticism you would if you heard them from a stranger at a cocktail party. For more information and links to some of the more popular investment bulletin boards, read "Safe Surfing: Don't Trust, Verify" from the November issue of Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine. kiplinger.com More: news.com

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (10)	8/16/2000 11:33:36 PM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Respond to of 12465

Re: 8/15/00 - [PHYC] PhyCor reports big loss, to be delisted from Nasdaq Recall in May of '99 PhyCor sued 50 John Does for libel for calling attention to problems at the company on its Yahoo message board (see referenced post). Looks like the John Does were right. ===== PhyCor reports big loss, to be delisted from Nasdaq NEW YORK, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Medical clinics and physician networks manager PhyCor Inc. (NASDAQ: PHYC) reported a $426.8 million loss on Tuesday after writing off assets worth more than $400 million, and said its shares would be delisted from the Nasdaq stock market, effective August 25. The company's loss amounted to $5.80 per share, compared to a profit of $15.3 million, or 1 cent a share, in the same quarter a year earlier. For the first six months, the loss totaled $452.4 million, or $6.15 per share, compared to a profit of $3.7 million, or 5 cents a share, in the first half of 1999. Nashville, Tenn.-based PhyCor said it is talking almost all its multi-specialty clinics to restructure or terminate its service agreements and reduce its investment in the assets of the clinics. It said most of the clinics will probably repurchase some of the related assets. PhyCor said it expects to record additional restructuring charges as it ceases operations in certain markets and restructures more of its operations. After the restructuring, the company said it will no longer satisfy the minimum net tangible asset listing requirements of the Nasdaq stock market. The company said it has been informed its common stock will be delisted as of August 25 and it expects that the common stock will begin trading on the OTC Bulletin Board. Shares of the company fell 1/32 to 7/32 on Tuesday, off a 52-week high of 5-1/8 and up from a year-low of 5/16. PhyCor had warned investors about the restructuring and possible delisting at the end of last month. siliconinvestor.com (Thanks to Les French at johndoes.org for pointing this out)