Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Undoing an Internet Smear Campaign?
An anonymous reader writes "My fiancee is a professional writer. She has a great industry reputation and everyone that knows her loves her. But her ex-husband has maintained a number of websites in her name (literally, the URL is her name) that are filled with insane ravings and defamatory content. Have you ever had to deal with an internet smear campaign? The results float to the top of every Google or Bing search of her name. He currently lives abroad and cannot be served with legal papers. His websites are hosted overseas as well, and do not respond to conventional letters or petitions. Because of his freedom of speech rights, few U.S. courts will assert that his websites are truly libelous, either, and it's still difficult to prove any real 'damages' are done by it. Still, we'd like to see them go away. I'm turning to the best community of geeks in the world: how do I deal with this given the limited options at my disposal?"
And obviously neither is the OP: "He currently lives abroad and cannot be served with legal papers. His websites are hosted overseas as well, and do not respond to conventional letters or petitions. Because of his freedom of speech rights, few U.S. courts will assert that his websites are truly libelous, either,
For God's sake begin by hiring someone who actually knows about this stuff instead of relying on what you learned from daytime TV.
Three Squirrels
mmmm... I wouldn't bother. Seems like you'd be feeding the troll. Why spend time and effort on that?
Honestly, the only thing I could say is just endure and tell people the truth of the situation if they ask. If this guy maintains this for any huge length of time, he just looks sad.
That's what matters. Maybe she can trademark her name and seize the domain as being confusingly similar, but it's still throwing time and attention at somebody who clearly craves it, for dubious gain.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
claim trademark to her own name
I agree, this sounds like "I don't like what he's saying about me, and I can't do anything about it legally". The answer is man-up (or woman-up) and ignore it, or as others have said, or create a website to refute his claims, etc.
One step away from a personal army request...
Hasn't stopped the RIAA from claiming copyright on songs they don't own or represent, to include public domain works.
And if you know that your fiancee's ex is a raving lunatic because she was perfectly nice every date you went on with her while she was still married to the guy, just accept your fate.
Your modders say "Funny". I say "Insightful".
My other account has mod points!