Constitutional Law

Harvard Law School & Court case concur with KingCast & Brian Jesseman: Joe McQuaid and Union Leader must provide IP address of Jesseman impersonator.

By Christopher King

1. KingCast lacks standing.
2. Jesseman has no case.

The Court ordered briefs and said:

1. Maybe KingCast has standing.
2. Maybe Jesseman has a case.

KingCast will brief the standing issue later, but for now Harvard Law blog says Jesseman has a case because just as KingCast said, it's a case of identity theft.

Since I only graduated from Case Western Reserve University (The Harvard of the Midwest) I'll allow my purportedly superior brethren to explain, saying exactly what I've been saying all along -- read this post very carefully. It's all about that tool who assumed Brian's identity to proclaim that he supported HB 1428 Bruce McKay Highway for a rogue cop who endlessly harassed Liko Kenney and other youth and adults in Franconia until Liko shot him out of fear after McKay violated town protocol.

I successfully sued to obtain the original VHS cruiser tape and will be reviewing that soon, thank you. And Judge Vaughn held that NH AG Kelly Ayotted acted ILLEGALLY in withholding Homicide investigation protocol from KingCast as well.

According to this news story in the local Paris paper, Essent has sued the anonymous bloggers behind the site for defamation, alleging that the site suggests the hospital is culpable for Medicare fraud and other wrongdoing. The blogger(s) use various pseudonyms, including, at one point, ?Frank Pasquale.? The state court judge in the case has ordered a local ISP to provide the real name and address of the site?s proprietor.

This sort of thing occurs fairly frequently online. On political blogs you often see commenters signing the name of elected officials, usually to parody them by making sarcastic or ridiculous remarks in their name. You also see it all the time on sites like AutoAdmit/XOXOHTH, where part of the style of so-called joke is to use other people?s names (or screen names) and turn them into sock puppets. If obvious enough as humor, those may or may not be misleading, but I have little doubt that this sort of impersonation also happens in many contexts that are outright deceptive.

Speaking completely hypothetically, does Frank have a cause of action against the bloggers too?
I think he does. It could be defamatory to attribute comments to Frank that he did not make, at least if they harm his reputation as a trustworthy scholar and blogger. And in states that recognize the tort of appropriation, the unauthorized use of someone else?s name for your own benefit is unlawful.

New Hampshire recognizes misappropriation and false light invasion of privacy. That having been said, I'll pretty much be on my way to address the standing issue, thank you.

Because if Brian Jesseman has no case, then we're all going wind up in situations kinda' like the one I describe herein, where folks can simply post up to KingCast, Daily Kos or wherever they plase that Union Leader Publisher Joe McQuaid said "Chris King thinks he's the Head Nigger in Charge!"

Related case: Fuzzy Zoeller sued Wikipedia one and two after some tool issue material lies about his actions, so even anonymous Defamation is not always protected. Chicken and collards for everyone!

Related post: Speaking of dishonest liars, didja' know Gregory W. Floyd's son Gregory P. Floyd is apparently a lying scumbag thief just like his father? Oh, yah read this post to see the rap sheets past and pending plus I know "Lady M" whom Gregory P. Floyd was basically stalking for a time; gave her the willies so bad she moved away for a bit. Can't wait to see her next time I visit Franconia to discuss this one.

I'm going off to sell some motorcycles today but I'll have the MacBook to check on the reaction to this post, and to cross-post it just about everywhere I can. Brian, I got your back, man. 'Cos I'm the head guy in charge.

Full post as published by Chris King's 1st Amendment Page on March 15, 2008 (boomark / email).