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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?"

4 of 338 comments (clear)

  1. IANAL by rueger · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  2. Re:three letters... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  3. Re:four letters... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    claim trademark to her own name

  4. Re:I'd argue he should wait by Everything+Else+Was · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Your modders say "Funny". I say "Insightful".

    --
    My other account has mod points!