Man Suing Craigslist, Wikipedia for 1 Billion

[znegval]

If this guy gets HALF A BILLION dollars with this, the 4chan crowd will become a bunch of millionaires too, since making up bull**** would obviously turn into a very profitable activity.

 

[f-14]

on wikpedia. haha tying too fast "idiot" good thing i don't post my pic on the net anywhere

 

[Abrahm]

A South Carolina man

That explains it...

 

[matt87_50]

there are valid non-pornographic purposes?

 

[silverblue]

As if Wikipedia has $500m dollars to give away, especially considering it is funded by donations. I'm not sure what's worse, the fact that he thinks he can successfully launch a lawsuit against a non-for-profit organisation or that some lawyers even thought suing a company with a limited revenue stream would yield any returns. What does he think it is, Facebook or something? Just because it's worth, say, $3bn, doesn't actually mean it pulls in masses of revenue. Wikipedia will argue that as long as Florida state law is satisfied, they've done nothing wrong. Regardless, keeping a site of that size in check has got to be an exceptionally difficult and time-consuming job, so they can't get it right all the time.

I don't have an opinion on Craigslist, though I do know they've got a decent revenue stream.

For once, I agree with Kevin putting a personal view in an article.

 

[jj463rd]

Well there is a naked picture of Lena Medina the youngest birth mother ever recorded at age 5 years 7months and 21 days up at Wikipedia (really a medical oddity).

 

[onyx_64]

i guess it doesnt take much for ppl to sue a company these days..
Even im gonna sue google for giving me potentially dangerous instructions for my route from tokyo to seattle:
http/maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=tokyo&daddr=seattle&geocode=FRCUIAIduoZTCCnnVy7whxtdYDGJG1cii2EBLg%3BFcJp1gIdWVy1-ClVM-iTLBCQVDGa1URpRmUlEA&hl=en&mra=ls&sll=38.68551,173.144531&sspn=56.081673,135.263672&ie=UTF8&ll=34.885931,-171.298828&spn=58.472821,135.263672&z=4

 

[Antimatter79]

After he gets off from looking at the kiddie porn, he'll want to sue the carpet industry for making him have to look at the stain. Sue the lotion industry for contributing to the creation of said stain. Sue God since he owns the palm making industry....or would that be his parents? Sue everybody for everything! Russell Dan Smith? You can even tell by his given name, the lack of creativity and higher brain function that he and his lineage obviously possess.

 

[Antimatter79]

And another thing. What's with the hamburglar costume??

 

[shovenose]

guy is a moron...dont sue wikipedia 1D10T its a NON-PROFIT!!!
sue adobe or apple (listen to my advice)
why? so you can get FAILed on by the two biggest companies with the biggest legal teams

 

[thorkle]

Why should he receive any money? He is an opportunistic pig. This guy is worse than those he is trying to condemn; they are just mentally ill, and have a sick compulsion. He is is consciously trying to be a piece of ****.

 

[Darkv1]

When he searches Wiki for dips**t does he see a picture of himself?

 

[yose3]

dam i need some cash im gonna sue toms so i can get some mils lol

 

[segio526]

All they have to do is send an intern to the court to say "DMCA Safe Harbors" and everything is dismissed.
Amongst a lot of the crap in the DMCA, it does have the great and actually well thought out section saying that websites cannot be held liable for the actions of their users as long as the site responds to complaints. For example, if a couple of terrorists were communicating with each other and planning an attack in the comments of Tom's Hardware. What a lot of idiots out there would try to do is pull in Tom's as a co-conspirator in the terrorist plot. This section protects Tom's. Now, once alerted to this, Tom's needs to take actions, typically banning the users and deleting the posts and MAYBE handing over any personal info on the users that they submitted. Now, if Tom's says "no, they can do whatever they want, we're not gonna stop 'em", then they lose they're immunity. This particular situation isn't as black and white as, say, a copyright claim (don't say that to Viacom though), but should serve as a decent example.

 

[lolsir]

dam it, i shoud sue them too cuz i got no job :

 

[JOSHSKORN]

So has there been someone that tried to sue themselves, yet? Just curious.

Really though, Wikipedia and Craigslist? No. Try just about every non-business related social networking website (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Stickam, Formspring), every phone company (for "sexting), every E-mail service (file attachments), every website that allows you to stream your webcam (chatroulette, cam4, oovoo, meebo, etc.) and all the makers of webcams and camera phones. Hell, lets dig up the grave of the guy that invented the camera and sue his @$$.

 

[eddieroolz]

So in essence,

"They promote child porn! So I should get money, as someone who's nuttier than anything you've ever seen!"

 

[thechief73]

Another story that makes me lose more and more faith in the intelligence of the people in this country and the quality of our justic system.

 

[Griffolion]

Smith claims that he unintentionally came across the alleged material simply by surfing the websites for "valid non-pornographic purposes."

Yeah, right.

 

[Silmarunya]

This is insane... Suing Craigslist is odd enough, but Wikipedia? A not for profit encyclopaedia? What's next, suing the Red Cross for 1 billion because they saw you naked while aiding you?

How can an encyclopaedia be complete without some nude images? Biology textbooks are full of them, are we going to forbid those as well? Thank God greedy lunatics usually don't stand a chance...