Barely Legal Substance: Die Spam Die

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April 06, 2005

Die Spam Die

After spending twenty minutes deleting 65 comment spams upchucked by louts who are catering to a particularly loathsome form of cretin, I'm hopping mad and ready to fight. Here's my beef and my idea.

I'm not mad because these are offensive comments per se. Moderating the conversations that occur on this blog is part of the game, and I enjoy or at least tolerate that admin duty.

What I am angry about is that certain parties are attempting to use my work, this blog, and my name for their own profit, without my permission, and further that their actions affect my reputation and cause me emotional, mental, finanical, etc., harm.

These spammers are hijacking my digital identity, swipping my google juice, and impinging my good name. See, I have spent a lot of time and effort constructing the reputation and character of this site, and by extension my person. These comment spammers are defaming me and libeling me by manipulating search engines to suggest that I am either involved in or engaged in uncommonly vile activities. My good name is violated by this.

If, as I believe, blogs are a way of participating in a conversations, and one of the conversations that this blog is a leader in is my name, and if comment spam can be demonstrated to be defaming, libelious, or something else bad, then don't I have a civil case to make in court?

Can I sue comment spammers?

How does the copyright issue of blog comments affect me?

Are there other legal strategies that work towards the same goal?

Is this a matter that the Bloggers Legal Defense Fund would like to assist in? Seems up their alley. Blawggers, IANAL, but you are. Thoughts? Help?

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Posted by Noel at 08:24 AM tagged as: