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Police Director Sues AOL For Critical Blogger's Name

Posted by samzenpus on from the tell-us-everything dept.

Pippin writes "Memphis Police Director, Larry Godwin, is suing AOL for the names of the authors of the Enforcer 2.0 blog. The blog is rumored to be authored by a Memphis police officer, and is critical of the department, Godwin, and some procedures. Godwin is actually using taxpayer dollars for this and, interestingly, the complaint is sealed".

35 of 282 comments (clear)

  1. Do, Do let me be first.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    with a Godwin Law violation...

    1. Re:Do, Do let me be first.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I believe this story has Godwined itself.

    2. Re:Do, Do let me be first.. by jimthehorsegod · · Score: 5, Funny

      and I do believe JD's law states that as the length of any discussion approaches infinity the probability of someone missing a joke approaches 1.

    3. Re:Do, Do let me be first.. by c · · Score: 3, Funny

      > Only if the thread is irrational

      What discussion thread isn't? The empty thread?

      c.

      --
      Log in or piss off.
    4. Re:Do, Do let me be first.. by Erie+Ed · · Score: 2, Funny

      so then whats the law for soviet russia, because that gets brought up on /. almost on a daily basis...

    5. Re:Do, Do let me be first.. by hostyle · · Score: 5, Funny

      "When I see professional clowns, mimes, or people who makes balloon animals, I think of their relatives and how disappointed they must be." - Jimmy Fallon

      --
      Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
    6. Re:Do, Do let me be first.. by somersault · · Score: 5, Funny

      I think you mean 'meme'. Unless there's a whole other level of slashdot interaction that I am not aware of, where people mime each meme.

      In any case, I propose a Meta-Meme-Mime Meme: I feel a great disturbance in the air, as if every slashdotter in the world suddenly mimed the meme 'whoosh'.

      --
      which is totally what she said
    7. Re:Do, Do let me be first.. by ArcherB · · Score: 3, Funny

      Try reading the The Godwins Law FAQ

      The point of Godwins Law is that once a thread degenerates into comparisons with Hitler that thread is effectively over, and can be killfiled by the participants without risk of losing any useful information.

      This leads to the tradition that mention of Nazis in a thread by a participant automatically makes them lose the argument (http://www.jargon.net/jargonfile/g/GodwinsLaw.html)

      What if the whole point of the article is about real world Nazis? Is there no point in reading it?

      --
      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    8. Re:Do, Do let me be first.. by somersault · · Score: 3, Funny

      I know you're referring to rational and irrational as numerical concepts, but do you seriously expect to be able to describe any slashdot discussion thread (never mind an infinitely long one) as completely 'rational'? ;)

      Godwin's law is likely to be invoked pretty quickly in any debate where both sides dislike each other, a lot quicker than my law at least: "as any discussion continues to infinity, the probability of a man on horseback lighting jelly babies on fire, tossing them up into the air and catching them in his eyes being mentioned approaches 1".

      --
      which is totally what she said
    9. Re:Do, Do let me be first.. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

      a certain George W

      No, with Bush it's a little different. I believe it's something like "The longer Bush remains in office the probability of his dying in a bunker in Germany approaches 1".

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    10. Re:Do, Do let me be first.. by sm62704 · · Score: 5, Funny

      so then whats the law for soviet russia

      In Soviet Russia, the law breaks YOU!

      --
      mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
    11. Re:Do, Do let me be first.. by somersault · · Score: 2, Funny

      First of all - expecting /.ers to stay on one topic? Even if it's not the topic of the summary/article? You must be new here ;)

      Comparing the chances of something coming up in an infinite discussion (and note that no /. discussion is infinite, they are locked after a week or 2) to the odds of throwing a 6 in one throw is spurious. Out of 6 fair throws it is reasonably probable you will get at least one 6. Out of 12 fair throws it is even more probable you will get at least one 6. Out of an infinite number of fair throws, the chances are very close to one that you will get at least one 6.

      Likewise, out of an infinite discussion (which is kind of beyond our comprehension, becuase even the whole of human discussion in the past, present and future is not infinite, and most people would get bored of a slashdot discussion or feel they've proven their point and move onto another discussion), the chances of any topic cropping up do indeed approach one. The chances of a topic being mentioned at any single moment kind of depend on what is being discussed, but taken over time, the chances of a completely random topic being mentioned do approach one due to the very nature of infinity, and the capacity for humans to ramble on and on. Much like I'm doing now.

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      which is totally what she said
    12. Re:Do, Do let me be first.. by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Funny

      only for extremely large values of 1

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    13. Re:Do, Do let me be first.. by jimthehorsegod · · Score: 2, Funny

      Or for extremely small values of infinity...

    14. Re:Do, Do let me be first.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      How do you propose to violate Godwin's Law? Do you even know what Godwin's Law is?

      What are you? Some sort of Godwin Nazi?

    15. Re:Do, Do let me be first.. by dgatwood · · Score: 2, Funny

      Guess you were wrong. At this point, we can posit the existence of at least one female on Slashdot. Given the lack of a second downward moderation, however, we can likely bound the number at less than 2 * (1 / p) where p is the probability of a given user getting mod points today, assuming a normal distribution.... :-D

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  2. what? by edittard · · Score: 5, Funny

    is interestingly

    I don't know whether to be amusingly or annoyingly about the quality of the editing round here.

    --
    At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
    1. Re:what? by Stanislav_J · · Score: 5, Funny

      Grammar is for Grandmas -- it's so 20th century.....

      --
      "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
    2. Re:what? by clickety6 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Grammar is for Grandmas -- it's so 20th century.....

      I thought Grammar was for Grampar !

      --
      ----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
    3. Re:what? by Synonymous+Bosch · · Score: 2, Funny

      Perhaps it was sealed in an interesting fashion?

      With ear wax, for example. Or by a team of weaver ants.

  3. 1st... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh I forgot about the First Amendment being repealed and the new laws forbidding freedom of speech... oh wait

    1. Re:1st... by kaos07 · · Score: 3, Funny

      The point of being an Anonymous Coward is so the gangs of thugs don't know who you are...

      Oh, and to troll.

  4. You know who else by Dwedit · · Score: 3, Funny

    You know who else sued AOL for a critical blogger's name?

  5. Re:Great idea. by kaos07 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Godwin's Law meets the Streisand Effect? Meme Meltdown!

  6. Re:You've missed something important by jd · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't know why people keep subjecting Status Quo to American culture. They're a great British rock group and should be left that way.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  7. What's all the fuss about? by omuls+are+tasty · · Score: 4, Funny
    It's signed!

    Posted by Dirk Diggler MPD

    ;)

  8. Re:Anyone else over the internet? by Stanislav_J · · Score: 4, Funny

    Then, obviously, you get the expected three replies to each of those posts and the thread exponentially drifts more and more off-topic until the initial point is lost amongst a haze of Natalie Portman's and gritz.

    But "Natalie Portman's [sic] and gritz [sicker]" is the whole reason why I visit Slashdot.

    --
    "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
  9. Re:Anyone else over the internet? by MrNaz · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's time to create something else that provides free speech? They already did, it's called Europe.

    --
    I hate printers.
  10. Re:Links by __aarcfd8085 · · Score: 2, Funny

    mmmm meta-waffle

    do they come with irony icing and sarcasm syrup?

  11. Re:Anyone else over the internet? by rah1420 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now, Grasshopper, THAT's a true demonstration of how Godwin's law works. :)

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.
  12. Re:Anyone else over the internet? by SkunkPussy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Free speech in Europe? Try promoting Nazism in Germany. Try denying that the Holocaust happened in Austria. Try insulting Ataturk in Turkey (okay, let's not argue whether or not Turkey is in Europe).

    Free speech is more free in the U.S.

    what about free speech in Mexico (okay, let's not argue whether or not Mexico is in USA)

    --
    SURELY NOT!!!!!
  13. What's the sound... by Tsar · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...of a joke going over over a mime's head?

  14. Re:You've missed something important by DavidTC · · Score: 2, Funny

    Pffft, everyone does that.

    --
    If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
  15. Stirring up some dirty dirty water there... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    But congrats on saving face after that wacky Godwin post earlier in the thread.

  16. Re:You've missed something important by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    So, what you're saying is that the status quo is that the Status Quo are British, and you are in favor of maintaining the status quo by keeping the Status Quo in Britain?