What Should You Do When Attacked Online?

Argylengineotis asks: "Recently, a friend of mine was viciously attacked by an unknown third party over the internet. This is not a typical case of cyber-crime either: the attack is in the form of slander, libel and posting of private information in public forums with the intent of encouraging further harassment. On top of everything, this attack is focused on forcing my friend out of business! Though we suspect certain people of perpetrating this series of crimes, the only way our friend could prove anything is with the resources of certain server logs belonging to the forum where this attack is taking place. This puts the forum in an awkward position, as they don't want to jeopardize their common-carrier status by setting a precedent of forking over server logs when somebody says something someone else doesn't like, be it overly critical or potentially slanderous, and they've referred my friend to their lawyers. My pal's local police force is totally unsympathetic and ultimately incapable of dealing with something like this, and the FBI won't even take a report, because there are no concrete points where there is verifiable damage, just a few mean-spirited posts in an anonymous forum. What, if any, are other possible recourses in a situation like this? Should my friend somehow try to find the money to hire an attorney to try and get the server logs (if they even exist)? Should my friend try and take matters into his own hands, (vigilantism)? Is there anyone we can call or write to that can exert some justice? Or does my friend simply have to resign himself to being the victim of a pretty nasty smear campaign?"

Comments

Hmm, what's this? The real story perhaps?

[IshanCaspian]

An AC posted a link to this site ( http://www.guppylog.com/ ) , but was modded down...on closer examination, look what I found! Okay, I'm weighing in on this. By Scott Lockwood from the What kind of crap is that??? department, Section News Posted on Wed Oct 23rd, 2002 at 03:25:29 PM CDT6CST You will now notice a link at the top of the page in support of the legal defense fund against the SLAPP suits one Robert Novak has filed against people who report having had bad service from his store. Folks, all other arguments aside, as a veteran I find there is nothing more important than our freedom of speech. People like Novak who try to hide alleged shoddy service with $15,000,000.00 lawsuits (yes, that's the right number of zeros!) should go to jail in my opinion. (1 comment) Comments >> Find the related lawsuit: http://petsforum.com/psw/Default.html The story fits with the poster. Libel on an internet message board. I think that's the other side to our story. In which case the poster is probably a wanker.