Top Blogger Subpoenaed Over Comment On Blog
Jeremy Schoemaker, a top blogger who blogs at Shoe Money, currently ranked #93 on Technorati’s top 100 and ranked 1,373rd on Alexa, has been subpoenaed for a slanderous comment made on his blog.
Schoemaker hired QuickConnect for some web design work and when he wasn’t happy with the results, he wrote about his feelings on his blog and how he found a new designer. The slanderous comment on the same post appears as follows:
Just learned something new about Quick Connect today. I watch their site pretty closely, and they have a staff page. At one point we courted their lead designer, Duane Teeters. We offered him a ton to come work for us, but he was loyal to Yoder and to his credit was a good employee. Well, he is GONE from their staff page. Yoder hired two kids to replace this talented guy, and their work is not nearly as good as Duane’s IMO.
Oh, and if you want a nice laugh, one of the kids he hired is named Josh. If you visit Quick Connect’s homepage at http://www.helpmypc.com and view the source, you should do a search on the age for the word “Josh.” It looks like Josh has some hidden links on Yoder’s home page to promote his own art business.
This guy doesn’t seem to be able to keep a reign on his own employees! And also, I received a Dunn and Bradstreet report on him yesterday. He was shifted from a “likely to pay on time” category to a “high credit risk” category. That would explain where you $3,000 went. It is gone just like Duane.
This case is an important one for the blogging community for multiple reasons.
First, is it okay to subpoena the blog owner to testify in case based on the comments made on his blog? Furthermore, Search Engine Journal asks:
Are comments made in blog comments indeed slanderous?
And can those comments be tracked back to the person who actually made them? And if not, is the blog owner then responsible?
If these comments were made anonymously, could the plaintiff in such a case subpoena for records to track down the individual who posted the comment?
Search Engine Journal has more.
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>>Are comments made in blog comments indeed slanderous?
No, they are libelous. Slander is spoken defamantion, libel is written.
>>And can those comments be tracked back to the person who actually made them?
Yes, via IP address and subpoena of the ISP.
>>And if not, is the blog owner then responsible?
No.
>>If these comments were made anonymously, could the plaintiff in such a case subpoena for records to track down the individual who posted the comment?
Yes.
By Brian Clark on January 28, 2007 11:18 pm
Brian beat me to the punch. I believe that he is right on every account.
While IANAL, I was threatened about a year and a half ago with a lawsuit by a company that appeared on my blog. I did a bit of research and even contacted legal counsel.
Since I was in the right, the company in question only ended up wasting my time and didn’t pursue legal action. On the bright side, I did get a quick-and-dirty education in “blogging law” with regards to trademark and libel issues.
As a starting point I would definitely recommend the EFF’s legal guide for bloggers.
By doug on January 29, 2007 1:34 am
> Are comments made in blog comments indeed slanderous?
>> No, they are libelous. Slander is spoken defamation, libel is written.
POSSIBLY libelous. I’m not a lawyer, but I know that libel is subject to fairly broad interpretation. That’s what the Court is for.
Good summary, though.
By Chris Baskind on January 29, 2007 3:42 am
Chris, you’re right… I was too busy correcting the terminology to mention that truth is an absolute defense, and opinion is usually protected as well as long as you don’t cross the line into affirmative assertions of fact.
By Brian Clark on January 29, 2007 7:09 am
[...] 901am.com reports that top blogger Jeremy Schoemaker of Shoe Money has been subpoenaed for a slanderous comment made on his blog. Read the full report at901am.com. Make sure to read the comments as well. [...]
By The Blogging Times » Top blogger subpoenaed over blog comment on January 29, 2007 9:33 am
Brian: your points were well-taken. ;-)
I was accused (spuriously so) of libel last year, and ended up learning more than I cared to on the subject.
This isn’t legal advice, but bloggers should probably keep a few things in mind whenever they’re in front of a keyboard:
* Will what I’m about to publish potentially damage the reputation of some person or entity?
* Is there any chance that something I’m writing is not factually accurate?
* Could my actions be reasonably interpreted as malicious?
If you can answer “yes” to any of these things, you might save yourself a lot of grief by consulting a lawyer before hitting the Publish button.
These are general observations, and not directly related to any opinion I might hold about the Shoemaker case.
By Chris Baskind on January 29, 2007 10:25 am
I see Darren over at ProBlogger is reporting that Jeremy Schoemaker has been subpoenaed as a witness, and that a user is the one who has been accused of libel.
By Chris Baskind on January 29, 2007 8:22 pm