In November 2007, Internet Solutions Corporation and its President and Director Ayman Difrawi (a.k.a. Alec Difrawi) sued Les Henderson, Daniel Bruce Scalf, Jeremy Scalf, Conrad Longmore, and a number of anonymous defendants for defamation, false light invasion of privacy, and other torts. The plaintiffs subsequently amended the complaint, dropping Longmore from the lawsuit. Henderson and certain other defendants operate websites aimed at increasing consumer awareness about Internet scams and so-called "phishing" activities.

The complaint, filed in federal court in Florida, alleges that the defendants published false and misleading statements about Difrawi and Internet Solutions on a variety of websites and other fora, including comments to the "Money Talk" blog on Tampabay.com. According to court documents, the defendants accused Difrawai of engaging in "on-going criminal activity in the performance of his marketing and consultant business" and suggested that "[Internet Solutions Corporation's] business interests are all fraudulent based on any association or business relationship with Difrawi," among other things.

Henderson and Daniel Bruce Scalf, who are representing themselves, filed separate motions to dismiss the complaint for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction. These motions are currently pending.

Update:

5/1/2008 - Judge ordered Difrawi to show cause why Jeremy Scalf and John Does 1-5 should not be dismissed from the lawsuit.

5/20/2008 - Judge dismissed Jeremy Scalf and John Does 1-5 without prejudice based on Difrawi's apparent lack of prosecution and failure to serve defendants in a timely fashion.

1/21/2009 - Case referred to mediation

5/28/2009 - Mediation set to begin Sept. 1, 2009.

In November 2006, BoingBoing reported that its Canadian-based ISP received a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice from Michael Crook requesting that BoingBoing remove a screengrab of him from a Fox News channel program "Hannity and Colmes" that BoingBoing posted on its blog. Crook had appeared on the Fox program to talk about a website he created, "craigslist-perverts.org," that contains responses sent to fake personal ads posted on Craigslist.

Crook's takedown notice appears to be self-created, and alleges (by all appearances, erroneously) that Crook owns the copyright in the screengrab, which BoingBoing had taken from a program produced and broadcast by Fox News.

BoingBoing characterized the takedown notice as "bogus" and refused to remove the image from its blog. It says that all copyright in the image resides in Fox, which has expressed no concerns about its reuse of the image, and in any event BoingBoing's use of the image falls squarely within fair use. Prioritycolo.com, the upstream provider to BoingBoing's ISP, replied to Crook that it considered the notice to be illegitimate.

This is not the first DMCA takedown notice Crook has sent. The Electronic Frontier Foundation launched and settled a legal action against Crook for sending an allegedly vexatious takedown notice to the ISP for 10 Zen Monkeys complaining about that website's use of the same image. As part of the settlement, Crook agreed to recall the takedown notices, take a copyright law course, and record a video apology. (For more information on the case, see the CMLP database entry for Crook v. 10 Zen Monkeys.)

On July 27, 2007, Khalaji's lawyers sent a letter to Derkhshan, his domain registrar (GoDaddy), and his hosting service (Hosting Matters, Inc). According to the letter, Derakhshan's posts alleged that Khalaji was working for a right wing think tank that openly supported the policy of 'regime change" in Iran and was "giving ideas to the cruelest and dirtiest enemies of Iran and humanity." The letter also took issue with a claim that Khalaji was "the only Iranian who has worked for both Khameni's office and Dick Cheney's, who intends to bomb Khalaji's former office building plus thousands of men, women and children living in the surrounding area." Derakhshan disputes the accuracy of Khalaji's translations of these statements.

As well as demanding that the hosting company and domain registrar take down the defamatory statements, Khalaji sought an apology and $10,000 in settlement. After a lengthy back-and-forth between Derakhshan and Hosting Matters about what material Derakhshan would take down from his blogs, Hosting Matters terminated Derakhshan's accounts in August 2007. Days later, Derakhshan's blogs were back online with a different hosting service, 1&1 Internet, apparently with the disputed posts still in place.

Khalaji filed a lawsuit against Derakhshan in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in October 2007. (For more information, please see the CMLP's database entry, Khalaji v. Derakhshan.)

Over a two-year period, Jessica Beaumont wrote and published over 1000 posts on a white supremacist forum called Stormfront White Nationalist Community, using the pseudonym "Jessy Destruction."

Here are some illustrations of her alleged postings: Regarding blacks moving to western Canada, she wrote, “It could get worse, lets just cross our fingers and hope they all die off from AIDS.” Regarding mixed-race relationships, she wrote, "Ever seen a tar black negroid and a chink? That’s a pretty sick/funny site," and she recalled witnessing a white man “with a veiled muslim that looked fresh off the boat, with the mud baby in the stroller!” Regarding Jews, she wrote, "I don’t understand why someone would attack helpless dogs [as] opposed to going after those dirty Jewish animals directly," and, "I believe that Jews are literally spawn of Satan himself." In one post she summed up her feelings for non-whites as follows: "I just don’t feel the need to be-friend non-whites, as they can do nothing for me, nor would I like to associate with them. I am fine with my own kind, and always will/have been. Theres my f*cking answer. Good enough?"

In January 2006, Richard Warman, an Ottawa-based lawer who specializes in human rights law, filed a complaint against Beaumont before the Candian Human Rights Tribunal. He alleged that, by publishing discriminatory statements on the Internet, Beaumont had exposed individuals and minority groups to hatred and/or contempt in violation of the Canadian Human Rights Act. The Canadian Human Rights Commission, of which Warman formerly was a member, participated in the litigation.

After a hearing, the tribunal found for Warman, and entered an order prohibiting Beaumont from communicating similar hate messages through the Internet in the future. The tribunal also ordered her to pay special compensation of $3,000 (Canadian) to Warman for discriminatory statements written against him, including calling him "that retarded jew warman." (Although Warman is not Jewish, the tribunal reasoned that "it is obvious that Ms. Beaumont perceived him as such.") Additionally, the tribunal levied a $1,500 (Canadian) penalty against Beaumont, payable to the government of Canada.

During the hearing, avowed neo-Nazi Paul Fromm testified on Beaumont's behalf, and while not a lawyer, provided Beaumont with assistance.

(Candian Dollar amounts were converted into U.S. Dollars for purposes of the "Verdict or Settlement Amount" field.)