Law-Forums.org

[luther]

Some dbag is threatening me with a lawsuit because he thinks I made a post about him being a jerk on one of those man hating websites. He called me pretending to be a friend in need and told me where to find the post. i read it and we talked about it. Then, he emails me saying "its weird you knew what the post said". In shock, i said, you gave me the link and I read it what are you talking about!!!
The post is gone but hes saying he's going to tell his lawyer about me and get the IP address from the post(which is gone) and track down the author, who he says is me.
With freedom of speech and such, should I be worried?

[bedyw25]

To get the ip you'd need to get a court order for the owner of the site and that's IF the site is hosted in the same country. Unless the message was something illegal (like jail time illegal) there is no chance. After that you'd need another court order to link the ip with a customer from an isp. Even if this was done they'd have to prove it was you who was using the computer. Can you imagine if people did this for everything some idiot wrote on the internet about someone? Basically the bottom line is - NO CHANCE.

[langford59]

If you have interchange emails then he do not need find out IP address from the post.

In most situations is possible to find out who is email sender from received email. Take a look with email tracking technology:
http://www.ip-address.org/tracker/trace-email.php
http://www.ipaddresslocation.org/email-tracking/email-header.php
http://www.find-ip-address.org/email-search/find-email.php

The exception seems to be only email providers that replace email sender IP with their own.

[dana]

First of all, if you didn't write it, you obviously cannot be sued over it.

Secondly, even if you did write it, personal opinion cannot be libellous. To be defamatory, something must be a statement of fact which is false. Opinion is not fact. So "Bob is a jerk" is not defamatory. "Bob is a child molester" would be (if it is not true)

[tate8]

slander lawsuits are very hard to win. it's only defamatory if the person can prove that you knowingly lied and that lie caused irreparable damage to their reputation. so even if it was you who made that post, but you genuinely believe what was posted, it's not slander.

[darik2]

Yes, you can do it.

[jordi]

lol.......You really did it, now you're trying to cover your as5

FAIL.

[chadburne48]

Freedom of speech does not allow you to slander or libel someone.

If it is writing or in media, then it is libel, not slander.

if what you posted is true, irrefutably true, then you have nothing to worry about, if you lied, or posted something derogatory that you CANNOT prove, then you could well have libeled him.

In order for him to win a suit, he has to prove that the libelous comment, caused him monetary damages, if it is already gone, I doubt he could prove that, I wouldn't worry too much about this one. Libel suit are EXPENSIVE to pursue, so unless he has deep pockets, nothing will come of it.

Lastly, I hope you learned your lesson, if you are going to post it on the internet, make sure it is the truth, as I said, freedom of speech does NOT give ANYONE the right to post lies or half truths on the internet with no repercussions.