chatroom lawsuit

January 12, 2006 4:50 PM

We gave him crap. I'm not going to deny it. "An AOL chatroom named 'Romance — Older Men' was the scene of unbearable humiliation for one chatter, according to a new lawsuit."
posted by vetiver (35 comments total)

My favorite: "It's just the Internet, for God's sake. It's nothing important."
posted by booknerd at 4:57 PM on January 12, 2006

Also: legal commentary and local coverage.
posted by vetiver at 4:59 PM on January 12, 2006

Remind me...at what point was he forced to log into the chat room and rendered unable to leave, exactly?
posted by Jimbob at 5:05 PM on January 12, 2006

Metafilter: It's just the Internet, for God's sake. It's nothing important.
posted by snofoam at 5:20 PM on January 12, 2006

My favorite: "I have never been to Ohio and I have absolutely no desire to go to Ohio," Marlowe said. "There is nothing there — the Cincinnati Bengals are there, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame maybe, and that's about it."
posted by youarenothere at 5:22 PM on January 12, 2006

Next: Ohio sues Marlowe.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 5:29 PM on January 12, 2006

This went on for four years? Why didn't the complainant just take his keyboard and mouse and go home? Or change his screenname or...

Oh wait. This is an AOL user we're talking about. Nevermind.
posted by Zinger at 5:46 PM on January 12, 2006

"We live in a rough society, as compared to Europe"

Fucking pansies over there, man.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 5:48 PM on January 12, 2006

Remind me...at what point was he forced to log into the chat room and rendered unable to leave, exactly?

That's exactly what first went through my head, until I started drawing parallels with non-virtual situations. I'm not making any conclusions here, I'm just sayin'.
posted by moira at 5:52 PM on January 12, 2006

Moira: Can you draw parallels with non-virtual situations? No "real life" social situation comes with a little red x in the corner to make it all go away if you aren't enjoying yourself. If there were people in the chatroom he still wanted to communicate with, there are hundred of ways of doing so other than logging into that same chatroom and putting up with the abuse. Log off and your problem is gone. Those harrassing him lived hundreds of miles away.

I'm curious as to what parallels you drew.
posted by Meredith at 5:57 PM on January 12, 2006

Yep... that face pretty much how I have always visualized a chat-room troll.
posted by SwingingJohnson1968 at 6:00 PM on January 12, 2006

dios is a lawyer, we r fked.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 6:02 PM on January 12, 2006

You're crusing for a lawsuit SwingingJohnson1968!
posted by Manhasset at 6:02 PM on January 12, 2006

Can you draw parallels with non-virtual situations?

Someone in a bar is giving you shit and trying to start a fight. Every time you go there.

You have the option of being dragged into it, or walking out of the place. You also have the choice about whether or not to come back to the place, or to find a new drinking hole.
posted by Jimbob at 6:04 PM on January 12, 2006

What Jimbob just said. Or, your corner store. Or, the local school.

I was mostly playing devil's advocate to my own kneejerk thinking. Hell, I'd hit the little x in a second. I don't understand not doing that. Doesn't make the harassment a socially acceptable thing, however, and in 'real-life' situations, there are (supposedly) consequences for harassing a person.
posted by moira at 6:14 PM on January 12, 2006

And now for
my closing statement....
posted by CynicalKnight at 6:15 PM on January 12, 2006

Swing: d'ya think?

posted by dhartung at 6:23 PM on January 12, 2006

oh, that's good
posted by puke & cry at 6:28 PM on January 12, 2006 [1 favorite]

dios is a lawyer, we r fked.

Let it be noted that I have never harassed (I think) said MeFi member online.
posted by ericb at 7:19 PM on January 12, 2006

MetaFilter: It's just the Internet, for God's sake.
posted by Robot Johnny at 7:43 PM on January 12, 2006

I only have one thing to say.
posted by poorlydrawnplato at 8:12 PM on January 12, 2006

Remind me...at what point was he forced to log into the chat room and rendered unable to leave, exactly?

If any of the following is true, then I think the above doesn't capture the situation at all.

The complaint states that Marlowe actually drove from Alabama to Ohio to photograph the plaintiff's home, which he then posted on the Web. He also allegedly went to the courthouse in Medina to dig up personal dirt on Gillespie, which he then also disseminated over the Internet.

The case is not simply "someone conversing in a chatroom" but also involves "harassing someone in Ohio," which gives Ohio courts jurisdiction, according to Gillespie's lawyers.

"Had the defendants stayed in the chatrooms, there would be no jurisdiction here, case closed" Gillespie's attorney Theodore Lesiak stated in the complaint. "Defendant did not."

Marlowe denies this (see the "there's nothing in Ohio" quote above), so maybe this is just a story of someone's paranoia.
posted by Aknaton at 8:29 PM on January 12, 2006

posted by quonsar at 8:37 PM on January 12, 2006

Well, if they were doing it anonymously then they're liable for criminal prosecution under this stinking pile of a law, right?
posted by Jawn at 8:40 PM on January 12, 2006

Plaintiff also alleges:

Gillespie contends one of the defendants, Michael Marlowe of Alabama, journeyed all the way to Ohio to file a change of address form for Gillespie at a local post office, thus disrupting Gillespie's mail service.

There's more to his lawsuit than a chatroom transcript. It may or may not be true, but he does seem to be alleging specific instances of offline harassment.
posted by cribcage at 9:02 PM on January 12, 2006

Someone spent 4 years or more chatting in an aol romance chatroom? I never thought that possible or that people existed who would do such a thing.
posted by cmacleod at 11:22 PM on January 12, 2006

Someone in a bar is giving you shit and trying to start a fight. Every time you go there.

You have the option of being dragged into it, or walking out of the place. You also have the choice about whether or not to come back to the place, or to find a new drinking hole.

To use this analogy, you also have to mention that there are 1,000,000 local bars with just as many fun people in them, the exact same distance away as your favourite drinking hole. Also, you can build your own bar and it doesn't take your friends any longer to get there. And you can kick out any assholes that you want.

As for the rest of the things that allegedly happened (a picture of his house taken, dirt on him dug up at a courthouse), now THAT would be something that's a bit over the top...
posted by antifuse at 3:09 AM on January 13, 2006

Which stinking pile of a law?
posted by mendel at 6:26 AM on January 13, 2006

My favorite:

"He just came in slamming on me, saying all kinds of derogatory crap: that I was a fat, bald, broke old man who sits around in a rusted wheelchair," said Charpentier, who has a chronic back injury. "I don't even own a wheelchair."

Yeah, I'm fat, bald, broke and old, but I don't own a wheelchair!
posted by DieHipsterDie at 6:40 AM on January 13, 2006

Anyone who would bring a court case against someone for mere verbal abuse and mockery - either on the internet or off it - is a disgraceful, bollockless weed. He should be fined heavily for wasting court time and then fined again for being an unutterable pussy.
posted by Decani at 6:49 AM on January 13, 2006

Someone in a bar is giving you shit and trying to start a fight. Every time you go there.

You have the option of being dragged into it, or walking out of the place. You also have the choice about whether or not to come back to the place, or to find a new drinking hole.

You also have the option of getting the barman to ban the guy, or calling the cops if it gets bad enough. Or - if you're feeling naughty - gently taking the piss until he starts something for real, at which point you have the justified self-defence option of decking the bastard. Or - if he decks you - getting him banged up for assault. None of these options compare even nearly with the blissful simplicity and finality of clicking the red X.

There is no RL situation which compares fully with the online chat room experience. That's obvious.
posted by Decani at 6:55 AM on January 13, 2006

Metafilter: I don't know how four years of bantering back and forth led to this insane nonsense


(sorry)
posted by MrZero at 7:09 AM on January 13, 2006

I hope to God that's the last time we ever see the "romanceoldermen" tag used...
posted by blag at 7:11 AM on January 13, 2006

"He is an AOL computer thug, that is all he is,"

For some reason, i found this really funny.
posted by quin at 9:19 AM on January 13, 2006

I hope to God that's the last time we ever see the "romanceoldermen" tag used...

[considers this a personal challenge]

I too was thinking "so just turn off the computer and go for a walk" until I read that the harassers allegedly posted photos of his house and his personal info on the web, etc. If someone did that to me, I would be taking some measures to stop it.

Of course, I can't imagine getting so involved in some internet shitstorm that something like this would happen. At some point I'd be figuring "this person is crazy" and/or "this argument is not worth it" and bail from the situation. If you don't invest yourself in a situation, other people will quickly let it go.
posted by orange swan at 9:27 AM on January 13, 2006