[LINK] defamation and net anonymity - not

[Jan Whitaker]

Cyber poison-penner hunted down and sued

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/cyber-poisonpenner-hunted-down-and-sued-20100224-p3n7.html


TONY WRIGHT

February 25, 2010

LEGAL counsel Martin Bennett has a short message for those who allow 
themselves to attack reputations over the internet, imagining they 
are safe under the cloak of anonymity. ''You can be hunted down and 
found,'' he said yesterday.

Mr Bennett has done just that for a Perth client, winning $30,000 in 
damages and costs, an apology, and undertakings from a Colac man that 
he won't post any more defamatory comments.

The hunt for the man's true identity proved the stuff of private 
detective novels updated into the age of blogs.

It is, Mr Bennett said, one of a very few such actions in Australia 
against the author of anonymous postings on an internet forum. He 
predicts it is the tip of a legal iceberg.

''There has been an increasing proliferation of internet chat sites 
where people feel free to hide their identities and make defamatory 
comments about companies and their executives and directors,'' he 
said in a statement released after the case in the Supreme Court of 
Western Australia was resolved.

The action against Graeme Gladman began after highly uncomplimentary 
comments appeared last November under pseudonyms on the HotCopper 
website, a stockmarket forum.

The postings related to technology security company Datamotion Asia 
Pacific Ltd and its Perth-based chairman and managing director, 
Ronald Moir. One posting appeared under the pseudonym of ''witch''.

Datamotion and Mr Moir hired Mr Bennett to launch defamation 
proceedings. But first Mr Bennett had to track down ''witch''. He 
asked HotCopper to reveal the identity of the person registered under 
that pseudonym, plus two others under different pseudonyms, but 
HotCopper refused.

Mr Bennett then took court action, forcing HotCopper to turn over its 
files. ''Unfortunately, the registered membership name appeared to be 
false,'' he said. ''It turned out to be attached to an escort service 
in Geelong.''

But Mr Bennett was not prepared to concede the trail was cold. He 
told The Age he did not wish to reveal the details of his next 
detective steps, but the upshot was a defamation action against Mr 
Gladman alleging that, as a result of his postings, Datamotion and Mr 
Moir had been ''brought into hatred, contempt and ridicule and 
thereby suffered damage''.

It was resolved last week, with Mr Gladman agreeing to pay damages 
totalling $20,000, taxed legal costs of $10,000, and to provide 
apologies and undertakings not to publish further defamatory postings.

Mr Bennett has launched two more cases. Both are pending before the 
WA Supreme Court.



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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