Thanks for the link.  I didn't bother reporting the nasty, threatening email
I got because it was sent through an anonymous re-mailer (and quite a few of
these posts are sent the same way).  In those cases, I don't think there's
anything that can be done since the re-mailer host is in another country!

Hugs,

CatNipped

On Tue 12 Jul 2005 05:15:47p, Gabey8 wrote in
rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
(news:65ff17dff5135951bbaa41477ae8cd7f@localhost.talkaboutpets.com)

I think that anyone being harrassed by Mary (who lives in NC)
needs to report her to the FBI.  NC law doesn't accept this type
of behavior.

<http://www.wiredsafety.org/cyberstalking_harassment/us_states/northcarolina.html>

(b) It is unlawful for a person to:

(2) Electronically mail or electronically communicate to another
repeatedly, whether or not conversation ensues, for the purpose of
abusing, annoying, threatening, terrifying, harassing, or
embarrassing any person.

Guess what, genius? When it's a fact, it's not defaming, libeling, or
slandering. Everything I have claimed about Dan Mahoney of
Highland, California is not only true but completely documented
in public records.

Why, yes, I think we might have a few attorneys posting here.:)

What Dan has done in lying to us, derailing the adoption we planned
for Conan, and putting him in a cage for two weeks is fact. My speaking
out against what he has done and urging him to take this cat to the home
we had planned, or to any home, is my legal right and, in my view, a
moral imperative.

So sure, let's go. Bring it to litigation. I haven't spent my mad money
for the past three quarters. :O)

I'm not a lawyer, but my company does work with ISPs and law
enforcement in cases of online abuse and harassment as part of the
consulting services we offer.

There are two ways to go about this: civil and criminal. Criminal is
going to the local police station and filing a report. For criminal
activity there must be a clear threat against a person or actual
physical damage. Monetary damage counts, too, but the threshold is
quite high and not relevant here.

Civil, you need to talk to a lawyer in your area and find out if you
have a cause of action and what the relevant laws are regarding suing
someone outside of the area. Do you need to sue them in a local court,
or can you sue them in a court local to them. If you sue in your
jurisdiction, be prepared for them to file a motion to dismiss because
that court doesn't have jurisdition over that person. That's before you
get to the actual facts of the case.

I've certainly seen worse behaviour that was not legally actionable.
That doesn't mean that what's happening here isn't, and I have
killfiled a large number of people because I can't make heads or tails
of WTF is going on or even who is on which side so I might have missed
more of the more specific problems.

However, it tends to be expensive and take a very long time to run
anything through the courts.

Personally, I recommend to clients that they employ a killfile and do
not get into pissing matches online. Typically (although not always)
there are two sides to the story and often the victim has unclean hands.

I've had 3 or 4 serious run-ins with people online, two involving the police.

In one case, I received an anonymous threat from someone. Not so
unusual, given the business I'm in and some of the free websites my
company runs, but the wording and specificity of this threat really
bothered me. My partner checked his mail and had a similar threat from
the same person. We were in the police station filing a report in less
than an hour. The police subpoenaed the ISP and had a chat with the
person who sent the threat. Problem solved.

I also pissed off an individual on USENET back in '97 or '98. She ended
up harassing me and other members of the HRS chapter I worked with for
months. We did end up putting traces on both their phone lines and
mine. Again, there was a police report, but it didn't help.

In another case, there is someone who believes with all his heart that
I have been spreading lies about him and that I am responsible for the
fact that he has been unemployed since 2001. This was the hardest one
for me to deal with, because he is irrational on this issue as am I. My
word and my integrity are extremely important to me. Anyway, for a
while this person was basically following me around and calling me a
liar and challenging anything I ever wrote. It was difficult, but I
tried to ignore him and "take the high road". I failed at it a couple
times, but even then tried not to engage him or challenge him but just
calmly and professionally tell my side of the story. He still does it,
and I occasionally still get an email from someone saying "Yo!
so-and-so sent me this email behind the scenes." My reply is either
silence or a lighthearted "wow, it's been 5 years since I've been in
that job, he's still hung up on that!?!?" Not easy but I believe, in
the long run, his behaviour has reflected more on him than on me.

Certainly if people are calling bosses and harassing at work then this
is an issue that needs to be dealt with, but, in general, engaging with
them in public is the absolute wrong thing to do.

So, long story short, legal action is almost always the wrong answer
when it comes to dealing with problems (or problematic people) online.

b