Craigslist Prankster Sued, Argues DMCA Abuse

destinyland writes "Though Sunday's New York Times dubbed him a spokesperson for internet trolls, Jason Fortuny's just been sued in federal court. Fortuny re-published over 180 responses to a fake sex ad on Craigslist in 2006 — but he's finally been located and issued with a summons. The victim argues Fortuny violated his privacy, and that the photo Fortuny re-published was copyrighted. Fortuny argues he re-published the photo to stand up to the victim's bogus DMCA notice, and that the gullible victim had voluntarily provided the photo. In a motion to the court Fortuny even argues that he helped publicize a privacy risk on the internet, whereas 'bringing legal action against me may punish me, but it won't change or even impact online culture.'"

Comments

Re:Troll? No.

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The comedian was Tom Mabe, the album was A Wake Up Call for Telemarketers

Only place with samples I've found were on Rhapsody. Scroll down to the "Hotel Calls". They're not as funny as some of his other stuff where he just outright leads a telemarketer on, but they're funny in the sense of, you can tell the guys are tired as hell and they're getting a taste of their own medicine.

Here's a press release from before the album was made: http://www.reversespins.com/telemarketing.html

How not to respond to a lawsuit

[Anonymous Coward]

If you look through the court documents, the plaintiffs had quite some difficulty serving Jason Fortuny. They finally had to resort to emailing him, which isn't normally proper service. However, Fortuny took the emailed complaint and posted a story about being sued. That showed that he knew about the complaint, which gave the plaintiff ammunition in requesting that the court accept the emails as adequate service of process.

Fortuny's subsequent letter was not well received by the court:

Jason Fortuny ("Fortuny") sent a letter to the court, and also to counsel for the plaintiff, explaining his position in regard to this case. The court cannot entertain letters. All communications with the court must be by motion or formal pleading, properly filed and served. Although Fortuny states that he does not have the resources for legal proceedings in another state or for a lawyer, that is not a valid basis upon which to seek dismissal of the case. However, the court construes the letter as a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction pursuant to Rule 12(b)(2) and a motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) and directs the plaintiff to respond accordingly. The Clerk shall file the letter in the court's electronic docket as a motion.

The court recommends that Fortuny file a pro se appearance form with the Clerk. If he does not, he will not receive notice of documents filed in the case or upcoming court dates. He can obtain the necessary information about filing an appearance from the Clerk of the Court or from the pro se help desk. In the interim, the Clerk is direct to mail a copy of this order to Fortuny ...

Jason Fortuny is well on his way to losing this case through a default judgment. At they very least, he could have gotten a half-hour of legal advice for only $35 if he had tried looking for a lawyer. A half-hour of advice would have been enough to help him avoid making some serious mistakes from the get-go.