Being a member of a few types of on line forums, I have often wondered how long it would take for someone to launch a law suit against people who post defamatory stuff about them on line. Apparently Burke has successfully launched a statement of claim against posters on a hockey related forum. This should be a wake up call for people who Troll forums and say something that can cause a person with significant wealth to send their lawyer after the poster.
http://www.theprovince.com/news/Burke+wins+right+serve+legal+papers/8446892/story.html
Brian Burke has scored in the first period of his fight against online posters who claim he fathered a child with a well-known Toronto sportscaster.
In Vancouver on Tuesday, the former Canucks GM won the right to serve his legal papers against the online commenters via the message boards they used to spread their allegedly defamatory material.
The B.C. Supreme Court ordered that notice be served on the Internet to seven unidentified persons Burke believes have authored and spread rumours about the reasons for his dismissal from the Toronto Maple Leafs in January.
A lawyer for the former Leafs GM appeared in a Vancouver courtroom seeking the order, a month after Burke filed a defamation suit seeking damages.
Burke believes that a total of 18 individuals posted defamatory messages online, some alleging he had fathered the child with the sportscaster. He denies those allegations.
Robert Grant, his lawyer, told B.C. Supreme Court Master Heather MacNaughton that the seven individuals, who are only identified by their online usernames, cannot be reached by any other way than by a direct private message to the Internet forums where the comments were initially made.
While most of the online message boards revolve around hockey, there were also message boards dedicated to other topics such as Mustangs, golf, music and escot/massage reviews. Most of the comments — and even entire message threads — in question have already been deleted. Many of the commenters pursued by Burke have not logged into their accounts since news of the suit surfaced.
The administrators of the bulletin boards or websites have denied requests by Burke to identify the defendants. Many of the original posts or threads have since been taken down or deleted.
“From looking at the postings and websites, it’s exceedingly likely that these individuals are in Canada and not the United States,” said Grant.
He said the individuals would be given 33 days to respond to a message asking them to respond to the civil claim for damages.
The message boards do not allow attachment of the notice of claim itself but the private messages will ask any affected individual to access the website of Grant’s law firm, Heenan Blaikie LLP, which will direct people to a link with the notice of claim, said Grant.
“Presumably these people are all necessarily somewhat web savvy,” he said. “They all understand basic web terms and Internet terms and how to locate links or locate websites.”
The direct messages will contain a warning that failure to respond may result in Burke applying for a default judgment against them in court, said Grant.
Burke’s lawyer told the court that to his knowledge there had been no such prior orders granted in B.C., at least orders that have been reported or in writing.
He said the only alternative to the order being sought would have been to seek an order to third parties, including Internet service providers, to try and track down the IP addresses of the individuals.
“But there’s no reason to believe that those IP addresses will actually identify the individuals themselves given all the ways they can be anonymized.”
After hearing Grant’s submissions, Master MacNaughton said she would be granting the order but added that she would be giving full written reasons at a later date.
“I am satisfied that it is impractical to serve (notice) in any other manner because of the unique circumstances of this case.”
She said that in addition to her order for the direct messages, Burke would be required to advertise in a national newspaper requesting the individuals respond to the lawsuit.
Outside court, Grant explained the move was necessary because it was not possible to serve the individuals in person and he’s hopeful they can now be tracked down.
“We got what we wanted.”
He said for some of the other 11 individuals, they may be able to serve them personally.
“Some of the others, the way in which they posted wouldn’t allow us to serve them this way. We’ll have to find another way to attract them.”
He said the lawsuit was filed in B.C. because high-profile Vancouver lawyer Peter Gall, who is lead counsel, does a lot of work for Burke.
“But also, Brian obviously has a deep and continuing connection with the province of British Columbia. He cares about his reputation in British Columbia.”
Some of the seven defendants “may very well” be living in B.C., he added.
Vancouver media lawyer Dan Burnett said the substitution service order granted by the court was a novel one in his experience.
He said the question now becomes how will the individuals respond if the order succeeds in tracking them down — whether they will file a defence to the civil claim or let Burke seek a default judgment against them.
“Maybe it will work,” he said Tuesday.
The 18 defendants are: NoFixedAddress, CamBarkerfan, Lavy 16, mbskidmore, Tulowd, Naggah, Slobberface, Loob, mowerman, Aaronp18, Steve, KaBoomin8, THEzbrad, Poonerman, isolatedcircuit, Kanada Kev, Ncognito and sir psycho sexy. The first seven listed are those targeted by the court order.
Burke, who is now employed by the Anaheim Ducks and was not in court Tuesday, was president and GM of the Leafs from November 2008 to January 2013.
He was GM of the Canucks from 1998 to 2004 and the NHL team’s director of hockey operations from 1987 to 1992.
-with a file from Stephanie Ip
kfraser@theprovince.com
twitter.com/keithrfraser
First-year journalism student among 18 named in defamation suit
A first-year journalism student is among the 18 Internet commenters listed in a defamation suit by former Leafs general manager Brian Burke.
Zach Bradley, who posts online under the alias “THEzbrad”, spoke to the Toronto Star last month after Burke announced the suit.
The comment listed in Burke’s suit was posted by the 20-year-old Carleton University student from Oshawa on a personal blog he runs called The Trill Times.
Bradley is one of the few commenters involved in the suit who have spoken publicly about it.
“That blog post was merely speculation; just a rumour I heard and had read on hockey forums,” Bradley posted on May 9, following the publication of the Star article.
“For what it is worth, I never originated this rumour. I merely passed it on (I am now aware that this can be equally as bad).”
Bradley then goes on to question what precedent Burke’s suit will set, asking if “everything someone says online (is) subject to lawsuits,” citing scenarios such as comments made on YouTube, Reddit and Facebook.
Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/news/Burke+wins+right+serve+legal+papers/8446892/story.html#ixzz2UhNeRBkp
http://www.theprovince.com/news/Burke+wins+right+serve+legal+papers/8446892/story.html
Brian Burke has scored in the first period of his fight against online posters who claim he fathered a child with a well-known Toronto sportscaster.
In Vancouver on Tuesday, the former Canucks GM won the right to serve his legal papers against the online commenters via the message boards they used to spread their allegedly defamatory material.
The B.C. Supreme Court ordered that notice be served on the Internet to seven unidentified persons Burke believes have authored and spread rumours about the reasons for his dismissal from the Toronto Maple Leafs in January.
A lawyer for the former Leafs GM appeared in a Vancouver courtroom seeking the order, a month after Burke filed a defamation suit seeking damages.
Burke believes that a total of 18 individuals posted defamatory messages online, some alleging he had fathered the child with the sportscaster. He denies those allegations.
Robert Grant, his lawyer, told B.C. Supreme Court Master Heather MacNaughton that the seven individuals, who are only identified by their online usernames, cannot be reached by any other way than by a direct private message to the Internet forums where the comments were initially made.
While most of the online message boards revolve around hockey, there were also message boards dedicated to other topics such as Mustangs, golf, music and escot/massage reviews. Most of the comments — and even entire message threads — in question have already been deleted. Many of the commenters pursued by Burke have not logged into their accounts since news of the suit surfaced.
The administrators of the bulletin boards or websites have denied requests by Burke to identify the defendants. Many of the original posts or threads have since been taken down or deleted.
“From looking at the postings and websites, it’s exceedingly likely that these individuals are in Canada and not the United States,” said Grant.
He said the individuals would be given 33 days to respond to a message asking them to respond to the civil claim for damages.
The message boards do not allow attachment of the notice of claim itself but the private messages will ask any affected individual to access the website of Grant’s law firm, Heenan Blaikie LLP, which will direct people to a link with the notice of claim, said Grant.
“Presumably these people are all necessarily somewhat web savvy,” he said. “They all understand basic web terms and Internet terms and how to locate links or locate websites.”
The direct messages will contain a warning that failure to respond may result in Burke applying for a default judgment against them in court, said Grant.
Burke’s lawyer told the court that to his knowledge there had been no such prior orders granted in B.C., at least orders that have been reported or in writing.
He said the only alternative to the order being sought would have been to seek an order to third parties, including Internet service providers, to try and track down the IP addresses of the individuals.
“But there’s no reason to believe that those IP addresses will actually identify the individuals themselves given all the ways they can be anonymized.”
After hearing Grant’s submissions, Master MacNaughton said she would be granting the order but added that she would be giving full written reasons at a later date.
“I am satisfied that it is impractical to serve (notice) in any other manner because of the unique circumstances of this case.”
She said that in addition to her order for the direct messages, Burke would be required to advertise in a national newspaper requesting the individuals respond to the lawsuit.
Outside court, Grant explained the move was necessary because it was not possible to serve the individuals in person and he’s hopeful they can now be tracked down.
“We got what we wanted.”
He said for some of the other 11 individuals, they may be able to serve them personally.
“Some of the others, the way in which they posted wouldn’t allow us to serve them this way. We’ll have to find another way to attract them.”
He said the lawsuit was filed in B.C. because high-profile Vancouver lawyer Peter Gall, who is lead counsel, does a lot of work for Burke.
“But also, Brian obviously has a deep and continuing connection with the province of British Columbia. He cares about his reputation in British Columbia.”
Some of the seven defendants “may very well” be living in B.C., he added.
Vancouver media lawyer Dan Burnett said the substitution service order granted by the court was a novel one in his experience.
He said the question now becomes how will the individuals respond if the order succeeds in tracking them down — whether they will file a defence to the civil claim or let Burke seek a default judgment against them.
“Maybe it will work,” he said Tuesday.
The 18 defendants are: NoFixedAddress, CamBarkerfan, Lavy 16, mbskidmore, Tulowd, Naggah, Slobberface, Loob, mowerman, Aaronp18, Steve, KaBoomin8, THEzbrad, Poonerman, isolatedcircuit, Kanada Kev, Ncognito and sir psycho sexy. The first seven listed are those targeted by the court order.
Burke, who is now employed by the Anaheim Ducks and was not in court Tuesday, was president and GM of the Leafs from November 2008 to January 2013.
He was GM of the Canucks from 1998 to 2004 and the NHL team’s director of hockey operations from 1987 to 1992.
-with a file from Stephanie Ip
kfraser@theprovince.com
twitter.com/keithrfraser
First-year journalism student among 18 named in defamation suit
A first-year journalism student is among the 18 Internet commenters listed in a defamation suit by former Leafs general manager Brian Burke.
Zach Bradley, who posts online under the alias “THEzbrad”, spoke to the Toronto Star last month after Burke announced the suit.
The comment listed in Burke’s suit was posted by the 20-year-old Carleton University student from Oshawa on a personal blog he runs called The Trill Times.
Bradley is one of the few commenters involved in the suit who have spoken publicly about it.
“That blog post was merely speculation; just a rumour I heard and had read on hockey forums,” Bradley posted on May 9, following the publication of the Star article.
“For what it is worth, I never originated this rumour. I merely passed it on (I am now aware that this can be equally as bad).”
Bradley then goes on to question what precedent Burke’s suit will set, asking if “everything someone says online (is) subject to lawsuits,” citing scenarios such as comments made on YouTube, Reddit and Facebook.
Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/news/Burke+wins+right+serve+legal+papers/8446892/story.html#ixzz2UhNeRBkp
