How to uncover the identity of the person cyber libeling me?
March 14, 2011 7:16 PM Subscribe
Catch-22: lawyer won't take NYC cyber libel case without knowing identity of the person libeling me; university where the libelous IPs are coming from won't give up the person's identity without a court order
I've been the victim of extended internet libel (years, sometimes almost every day) by an anonymous perpetrator. For various reasons, I am 99% sure it's not someone I know.
His/her MO is to create multiple libelous blogs and then post the links all over various forums to Googlebomb me. I've mostly been ignoring it and quietly using my own SEO tactics (which is mostly futile, because I don't write nearly as often as this person does about me).
I've been hoping this person would get bored and move on, but the opposite has happened - he/she recently began emailing/tweeting my friends lies about me, as well as also smearing/libeling them. The perp is pretty savvy in general - posting on Blogger, which requires a court order to file for defamation; using anonymous email services to contact my friends; using proxies to surf my site; posting on forums that don't keep IP logs; always staying just a shade shy of criminal harassment (NYPD has confirmed this).
So, I hired a cyber investigator, who has been able to track the activity to one university (I also have a few corroborating IPs, all from public computers at the university), one that I have zero ties with. At this point, I am stuck: I cannot afford a lawyer (the investigator is expensive enough), and the school won't give up the person's identity without a court order. Meanwhile, as time passes, I'm sure the school's user logs grow stale and risk being erased.
Is there anything I can do? Does anyone know pro bono defamation lawyers in New York?
I've been the victim of extended internet libel (years, sometimes almost every day) by an anonymous perpetrator. For various reasons, I am 99% sure it's not someone I know.
His/her MO is to create multiple libelous blogs and then post the links all over various forums to Googlebomb me. I've mostly been ignoring it and quietly using my own SEO tactics (which is mostly futile, because I don't write nearly as often as this person does about me).
I've been hoping this person would get bored and move on, but the opposite has happened - he/she recently began emailing/tweeting my friends lies about me, as well as also smearing/libeling them. The perp is pretty savvy in general - posting on Blogger, which requires a court order to file for defamation; using anonymous email services to contact my friends; using proxies to surf my site; posting on forums that don't keep IP logs; always staying just a shade shy of criminal harassment (NYPD has confirmed this).
So, I hired a cyber investigator, who has been able to track the activity to one university (I also have a few corroborating IPs, all from public computers at the university), one that I have zero ties with. At this point, I am stuck: I cannot afford a lawyer (the investigator is expensive enough), and the school won't give up the person's identity without a court order. Meanwhile, as time passes, I'm sure the school's user logs grow stale and risk being erased.
Is there anything I can do? Does anyone know pro bono defamation lawyers in New York?
What has your interaction with the school been?
If you haven't actually spoken to anyone at the university, you could try to present your evidence to the office of university counsel and see if that gets you anywhere. It probably won't--they probably can't legally open an investigation without some kind of formal complaint, but there may be a way for you to file a complaint with the school without getting lawyers involved. Even if the person libeling you isn't breaking a law, they may be breaking a university regulation, and that may be sufficient cause for the school to open an internal investigation. The university counsel can advise you about this. Be sure to have all your documentation to support your claim.
But if you really want to see this through, a lawyer's advice will be necessary. Many law schools have legal aid clinics for their third-year students, supervised by practicing attorneys, who may be able to help you at no cost. (Obviously, the law school associated with this university is not a good first choice because of conflicts of interest.)
posted by thinkingwoman at 8:04 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
If you haven't actually spoken to anyone at the university, you could try to present your evidence to the office of university counsel and see if that gets you anywhere. It probably won't--they probably can't legally open an investigation without some kind of formal complaint, but there may be a way for you to file a complaint with the school without getting lawyers involved. Even if the person libeling you isn't breaking a law, they may be breaking a university regulation, and that may be sufficient cause for the school to open an internal investigation. The university counsel can advise you about this. Be sure to have all your documentation to support your claim.
But if you really want to see this through, a lawyer's advice will be necessary. Many law schools have legal aid clinics for their third-year students, supervised by practicing attorneys, who may be able to help you at no cost. (Obviously, the law school associated with this university is not a good first choice because of conflicts of interest.)
posted by thinkingwoman at 8:04 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
You may not be able to afford an expensive lawyer, but you can afford a lawyer.* How much can you afford to spend? It may help us lawyers here advise you on the best course of action.
You may be able to file the suit pro se with a lawyer's assistance, do some basic discovery (interrogatories, requests for production) and get the person 's name that way. Then give it to the attorney you're talking to.
*Think about it this way ... You've already paid someone to help you solve this problem and it is clearly very important to you, so yes, you can afford a lawyer. You surely pay for all the other goods and services you consume.
posted by jayder at 8:50 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
You may be able to file the suit pro se with a lawyer's assistance, do some basic discovery (interrogatories, requests for production) and get the person 's name that way. Then give it to the attorney you're talking to.
*Think about it this way ... You've already paid someone to help you solve this problem and it is clearly very important to you, so yes, you can afford a lawyer. You surely pay for all the other goods and services you consume.
posted by jayder at 8:50 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
I'm sorry to hear about your situation.
Do you have any idea what this person's gripe is about or do you think its some kind of illness?
Here is what I would do but that's just me.
1) Just a one time effort only, tell him/her to stop in a nice way online and tell them you have no idea what you may have done that has wronged him.
Caution: Of course do this as anonymous as possible, perhaps in another city in an internet cafe/library.
That might be enough to absorb the impact of what they are doing...or maybe make it worse but at least you tried.
2) I would go to the university and talk to the computer science department. Tell them you don't need to know the person's name but you can supply information about the type of libel this person is generating.
Someone in the department surely can track the IP address or person down and possibly at least document his/her behavior and possibly reprimand him.
If the department is unresponsive, just ask a few senior computer science students - they probably would love the challenge.
If this person is ill and continues, I would think about changing things in your life, maybe even changing names.
All sorts of people get stalked, even the CEO of facebook recently had to do something about it.
Wish you the best.
Its very interesting to me how someone's mind would work this way and what motivates them.
Hopefully they mean no harm. Maybe they have a weird type of crush? Who knows.
posted by simpleton at 9:25 PM on March 14, 2011
Do you have any idea what this person's gripe is about or do you think its some kind of illness?
Here is what I would do but that's just me.
1) Just a one time effort only, tell him/her to stop in a nice way online and tell them you have no idea what you may have done that has wronged him.
Caution: Of course do this as anonymous as possible, perhaps in another city in an internet cafe/library.
That might be enough to absorb the impact of what they are doing...or maybe make it worse but at least you tried.
2) I would go to the university and talk to the computer science department. Tell them you don't need to know the person's name but you can supply information about the type of libel this person is generating.
Someone in the department surely can track the IP address or person down and possibly at least document his/her behavior and possibly reprimand him.
If the department is unresponsive, just ask a few senior computer science students - they probably would love the challenge.
If this person is ill and continues, I would think about changing things in your life, maybe even changing names.
All sorts of people get stalked, even the CEO of facebook recently had to do something about it.
Wish you the best.
Its very interesting to me how someone's mind would work this way and what motivates them.
Hopefully they mean no harm. Maybe they have a weird type of crush? Who knows.
posted by simpleton at 9:25 PM on March 14, 2011
Have you gone to the police? how about the DAs office? Most places have an ADA that just handles cyber-crime these days.
posted by fshgrl at 10:04 PM on March 14, 2011
posted by fshgrl at 10:04 PM on March 14, 2011
You don't technically need a lawyer to file a lawsuit, it just makes things a lot easier. Doing without is called pro se representation, and while uncommon, it's far from unheard of.
Consider filing the lawsuit yourself and getting the court to issue a subpoena ordering the release of their records. Once you've got that in hand, approaching a lawyer should be easier.
Note that one reason this attorney might be reluctant to take the case is that it isn't entirely clear that you've got one. Libel is a pretty hard claim to make stick in the absence of real damages, and this sort of internet shenanigan isn't something the courts are all that excited about.
IANYL.
posted by valkyryn at 3:34 AM on March 15, 2011 [2 favorites]
Consider filing the lawsuit yourself and getting the court to issue a subpoena ordering the release of their records. Once you've got that in hand, approaching a lawyer should be easier.
Note that one reason this attorney might be reluctant to take the case is that it isn't entirely clear that you've got one. Libel is a pretty hard claim to make stick in the absence of real damages, and this sort of internet shenanigan isn't something the courts are all that excited about.
IANYL.
posted by valkyryn at 3:34 AM on March 15, 2011 [2 favorites]
One thing that's not clear to me from your posting: are you even sure that the university knows who the guy is? I have some experience with these kinds of investigations, and unless there's some sort of access control to the public computers, the university would likely never have had any logs tying it to a particular person in the first place.
You might want to clarify that with your investigator or maybe a friendly, overly talkative person at the university*, before you go and spend a bunch of money and/or time getting a subpoena for nothing.
*simpleton makes a decent suggestion about how to approach this
posted by NormieP at 9:59 AM on March 15, 2011
You might want to clarify that with your investigator or maybe a friendly, overly talkative person at the university*, before you go and spend a bunch of money and/or time getting a subpoena for nothing.
*simpleton makes a decent suggestion about how to approach this
posted by NormieP at 9:59 AM on March 15, 2011
Of Interest
From article: "A Minnesota jury decided a blogger must pay $60,000 in damages to a former University of Minnesota employee who was fired after the blogger's posts exposed the former employee's alleged involvement in a mortgage fraud."
posted by ~Sushma~ at 3:20 PM on March 15, 2011
From article: "A Minnesota jury decided a blogger must pay $60,000 in damages to a former University of Minnesota employee who was fired after the blogger's posts exposed the former employee's alleged involvement in a mortgage fraud."
posted by ~Sushma~ at 3:20 PM on March 15, 2011
Some universities have ombudsman. I had to deal with one in a situation that was once escalating towards lawyerdom very fast, and they made a few things happen for me that helped out in the long run.
(Unsure if ombudsman can deal with university outsiders, though. I was a member at the time.)
posted by bhance at 4:58 PM on March 15, 2011
(Unsure if ombudsman can deal with university outsiders, though. I was a member at the time.)
posted by bhance at 4:58 PM on March 15, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
I cannot afford a lawyer
Which is it?
posted by amro at 7:26 PM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]