Slashdot Mirror
UK Court Order Served Over Twitter, To Anonymous User Posing As Another
SpuriousLogic spotted this story on the BBC, from which he excerpts: "The High Court has given permission for an injunction to be served via social-networking site Twitter. The order is to be served against an unknown Twitter user who anonymously posts to the site using the same name as a right-wing political blogger. The order demands the anonymous Twitter user reveal their identity and stop posing as Donal Blaney, who blogs at a site called Blaney's Blarney. The order says the Twitter user is breaching the copyright of Mr. Blaney. He told BBC News that the content being posted to Twitter in his name was 'mildly objectionable.' Mr. Blaney turned to Twitter to serve the injunction rather than go through the potentially lengthy process of contacting Twitter headquarters in California and asking it to deal with the matter. UK law states that an injunction does not have to be served in person and can be delivered by several different means including fax or e-mail."
So what about all the other Mr. Blaney's? Or am I missing something about specifically what copyrighted material is being infringed?
claiming to be this guy in various contexts. Streisand effect here we come.
Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
Time for me to delete my social networking accounts methinks, it's lost all the glitter and sparkle as my eyes have been gradually opened to the loss of privacy they effect and the risk of identity theft they engender. I've watched facebook degenerate into an oozing fest of self indulgence and crappy quizzes about peoples aura/star sign/some other mystic crap or how good they are in bed, and too many of my friends now use it to grandly announce every mundane detail of their life to the world as if they're some sort of celebrity and we're all supposed to be deeply concerned about them cutting their pinky finger or enraptured by their new haircut, etc etc. A friend related similar sentiments to me earlier today, saying people were using it as if it were twitter.
:P)
What concerns me the most is the loss of privacy entailed in having an account with any of these sites, knowing that cops and employers can pull up all this info instantly... it's a worry. Enough ranting for me, I'm going to delete my facebook account and my twitter account (which I created once and used never
This post was made in complete sincere seriousity; as such any attempts to derive humour are doomed to instant failure.
IANAL, but if the person in question is not a UK citizen, does the UK law, which says the injunction can be sent by fax or email, apply?
Three cheers for finally serving a court order against that anonymous coward bastard. He's always cluttering up slashdot with horse porn stories, trolling posts and all sorts of objectionable and inflamatory shite. Maybe now the Internet-web-thingie will be easy to use and headache free and we'll only ever have truth posted! Yay!
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
If the real Mr. Blaney has a problem with this, he should consult the person himself. That's not say he has a case anyways, as your name, as long as it isn't being used illicitly, is free for anyone to use. For example, the was a real James Bond, and Ian Flemming simply used his name for a character in his books and movies. The real Bond sent him a letter telling him it wasn't right, and Flemming replied with "Feel free to use my name for anything you wish." Flemming was not in the wrong, because for all intensive purposes, he wasn't portraying the real person. Regardless of this, Blaney cannot complain because, regardless of the fact he's in politics, no one listens to these fools posing as other fools. I still remember the Jessica Alba page on Xanga...
"Chance favors only the prepared mind." -Archimedes
I wasn't aware you could copyright your own name. This looks like yet another attempt to grossly extend the reach of copyright by dinging a guy who is genuinely guilty of a crime and trying to change that crime to copyright infringement. Blizzard would be so proud.
Pinocchio and Rumplestilskin are said to be quaking in their boots.
In all honesty if you can't be bothered going through the motion of finding out who this anonymous poster is, what are the chances that there will be any consequences to face if he doesn't abide by the order? This seems like a waste of court time and money. But it doesn't surprise me. We don't have one sane legal system on the planet that isn't steeped in medieval nonsense. Well at least we've gotten over trying donkeys for adultery.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_trial#Commonly-tried_animals
http://www.hedweb.com/animal-trials.html
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
This seems like an appropriate time for one of those delightful FAIL images.
Stop posting as me or i'll sue! I have already sent the injunctions out cease and desist!
Disclaimer : IANAL , But I'm smarter than some so called legal professionals who put disclaimers at the end of the text NOT the beginning - duh!
I believe its a discretionary power of the court and as such is done by application typically with supporting evidence that normal methods have been tried without success or that they are less applicable due to the location of party.
(I had occasion to help provide the supporting evidence which led to such a succesful application)
"The order demands the anonymous Twitter user reveal their identity and stop posing as Donal Blaney, who blogs at a site called Blaney's Blarney." it turns out the Anonymous poster was named Donal Blaney. Well then his copy write to the name is nothing more then toilet paper to said person
What if Donal Blaney is his real name? Or better yet, since names can apparently be copywrited, what if the Twitter Donal Blaney is older than the Donal Blaney at Blaney's Blarney? Can the Twitter Donal Blaney sue the other one to force him to change the name of his blog?
I think from now on, instead of asking "Can it run Linux?" we ought to be asking "Can you do it over Twitter?"
His blog. http://donalblaney.blogspot.com/
Now go comment internet and Donal. May anonymous never find offense with what you are doing, or this might just be throwing water onto scalding oil.
If the target of this injunction is anonymous, how can the writ be enforced? If he (or she) decides to ignore it, there seems very little that the server can do. It sounds to me like there is a good chance that the law will be shown to be an ass in this case.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Nice rant but the twitterer is being served an injunction and not being sued at all . . .
Stop posting as me,
I'll sue!!!!
you have been warned
My congratulations to the Court for their embrace of technology. I propose that we use social networking to serve legal papers to everybody! Not using twitter? Not a problem! Enough RTs will mean somebody you know can hand you the tinyurl address to the PDF!
I said STOP impersonating me!
Um, 2 things:
1. If he's posting anonymously, how is he using a name (I've quite possibly missed something, being as it is that I don't use twitter)?
2. More importantly, what if said anonymous person has the same name as Donal Blaney?
I am, and that is sufficient.
"Modding down to bury an inconvenient truth doesn't change that truth but does make you look foolish"
Modding is anonymous, no one looks like anything.
What's stopping me from mailing, twittering and faxing a few million people injunctions? I could try to get 1/3rd of London to show up to the courts one day. Either injunctions have some legal power/meaning or it is just an angry letter that is meaningless ("I'm gunna sue you!"). If it does have any meaning in the UK legal system then it is very easily abused. ACs here on /. could reply to this post with an injunction and I'd be legally obligated to do something.
He downloaded the image from my gay porn site and photoshopped some clothes onto it. I'm the real Donal Blaney and I'm a gay retard.
The law firm serving the order is Blaney's own law firm. The whole thing sounds like a publicity stunt. The reason Blaney isn't serving the order in California is because it would be worthless: you can't copyright a name, and people have a right to anonymous free speech and satire. For an anonymous author to use a slightly offensive variation of Blaney's name to make fun of him and his positions is precisely what US free speech laws are about.
I am Donal Blarney
What happens if the poster just lets the twitter account go dark, or deletes it? The lawsuit becomes in permanent limbo?
It's not technically anonymous - your name is stored alongside every moderation you make, this is why when you post all your mods in that thread are undone - it's just hidden from everyone.
I am the REAL Donal Blaney, and I am appalled at these blatant attempts to smear my name and reputation on the Internet. Rest assured that all such attempts are being monitored and recorded and that all those who attempt to act in such fashion will be prosecuted to the full extent of the laws pertinent to the case. The REAL Donal Blarney
(or however you would say that in the British language when you have one of those silly wigs on) ... my client was unable to receive the order because his twitter account was being spammed by tens of thousands of ... (mumbling: what are these called) ... tweets ... per minute from a bunch of ... (mumbling: what were those people from that nerdy website) ... uh ... slashdotters. It seems it had something to do with Ms. Steisand but I'm not sure how she fits into this. Nevertheless, it was entirely impossible to read everything, and since my client is on a 9600 baud dialup connection in a remote village in Nigeria with electric power provided only from kids playing on a merry go round, and not knowing in advance that a court order would be among them, he simply ceased any attempt to read them.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
I expected more from the BBC guys.
This guy isn't posting anonymously, he's posting under a fake name, or impersonating another person. But definetly not anonymously - since his posts do have a name.
See reply to this comment as an example.
so would it be bad for me to set up a twitter account and talk about how much i love the cock?
How many tweets does it take to serve an injunction? Breaking down legal verbiage into 140 character chunks must be a job in itself.
Modding is anonymous, no one looks like anything
You're wrong but thank you for helping me improve my signature anyway. Perhaps you'll prefer this:
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
UK Court Order Served Over Twitter, To Anonymous User Posing As Another
Why would they care if one Anonymous User posed as another Anonymous User?
Also, I am the real Anonymous Coward. All you posers beware... I will sue.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
I need to get an injunction against whoever keeps using name to post on Slashdot. --AC
Just to show how completely out of it I am, I don't know a thing about Twitter.
Is it really possible for a person to make posts that look just like another person's posts? Or is it more like Slashdot where if you don't know their password the best you can do is make a new account with a creative misspelling of their name? Exactly what is this guy doing?
The government can sell that stale old data all it wants, it has little to no marketable value, as far as I'm concerned it's best just for watching trends, and if the government can make any money at all from it, so be it. It's not like it's got all my other data attached to it.
For instance, my car has been registered to the same address for the last (god has it been that long already?) 10 years. I drive my car on public roads, so it's no secret what model I drive (besides I post about it all the time here). My address is also public record. What is useful about that? My wages have on average been doubling every 6 years since I was 18, so has everyone elses. That data is not public, but the fact n is in tax bracket x is available. (ie, median incomes for 90210 zip code)
The "census" style data doesn't have nearly the value of spending habbit data, or consumer interest data, or Credit data. No one is taking that all the way to the bank, and if they are, good for them. I don't see much use for it.
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
But what will the meta-mods think??
Freedom isn't free; its price is the well-being of others.
And http://knowem.com/ will help you in doing it.
Slashdot = Sarcasm
And me too!
We're all Donald Blaney here!
Disregard that, I suck cocks!
Donal Blaney