Harassment Advice ...

[allsmilesagai]

I am interested to know if I have any legal rights concerning an issue I am having with a number of people online. Here is the short of my story ...
I posted that I disliked a website in my online journal in a public post. Someone showed the post to a moderator of the site and he posted a comment in my journal. We commented back and forth, then he posted an article about myself and my fiance' on the website. He provided links to my journal, specific entries, my fiance's journal, my website, and a photo. His comments were much less than flattering, and he ended the post by inviting others to check out all the links he had provided. As you can imagine, I received a huge number of comments to my journal. The website the article was posted on allowed comments and they went even further. I and my fiance' were wished death and suggestions were made to crash our wedding. Many quotes from my journal were posted. Then, there were numerous posts made of screen captioned images of entries from my journal which were protected so that only friends were allowed to view them ...
So that is where things stand. To say that I am upset is an understatement. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Originally posted by all_smiles_agai:
I am interested to know if I have any legal rights concerning an issue I am having with a number of people online. Here is the short of my story ...
I posted that I disliked a website in my online journal in a public post. Someone showed the post to a moderator of the site and he posted a comment in my journal. We commented back and forth, then he posted an article about myself and my fiance' on the website. He provided links to my journal, specific entries, my fiance's journal, my website, and a photo. His comments were much less than flattering, and he ended the post by inviting others to check out all the links he had provided. As you can imagine, I received a huge number of comments to my journal. The website the article was posted on allowed comments and they went even further. I and my fiance' were wished death and suggestions were made to crash our wedding. Many quotes from my journal were posted. Then, there were numerous posts made of screen captioned images of entries from my journal which were protected so that only friends were allowed to view them ...
So that is where things stand. To say that I am upset is an understatement. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Hard to say without seeing everything. It seems like everyone is entitled to an opinion. Did this person post a photo and where did they get it? While comments are merely comments, if something were to happen at your wedding I might argue that this person's web site was knowingly used to prepare for an unlawful activity and that he was a coconspirator and facilitator in the offense. Practically what does all this mean? You might wish to send a cease and desist letter (certified return receipt if you have a physical address) stating that you will hold him responsible for any actions that may occur as a result.

Unless there are some serious issues which we are unaware (and we might) it would seem that the comments might just be puffing. After all, who would care to go through with an effort as described if they aren't even related to the situation at all?