What recourse do I have?

S

speakermoto

New Member
Hello, looking forward to being a participant of this forum! I do have one question. What can be done about annoying people who act like asses on a forum who keep getting banned over and over again? They're not really being destructive or anything, just harassing other members. First their accounts are banned, but they keep coming back and re-registering with "free" email accounts like yahoo, gmail, hotmail, etc. Then their IP addresses get banned, but some have dynamic IP addresses and re-set them to register again. Is there any legal recourse against this or do we just have to put up with these jerks? How could I get their personal info from their IP address without a warrant or subpoena and would it even be worth the effort? I could see if they were trying to hack the site or something, but, as I said, they're not being destructive, just annoying. Thanks for the help in advance!
 
Just ignore them, let them come back and then ban them. Don't even reply to their post that will annoy them more than anything ;)

There is nothing you can do against them...
 
webbenji said:
Just ignore them, let them come back and then ban them. Don't even reply to their post that will annoy them more than anything ;)

There is nothing you can do against them...
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Thanks, but are you sure? I saw on another forum where two members got into a tiff and one got banned. He re-registered and got into another tiff with the same guy, who also happened to be friends with one of the mods. Somehow, this member got the IP (from the mod?) or something of the other guy and even went so far as to post his personal info, including his address, cell phone, etc. They threatened him with a lawsuit for wasting their time, etc. How is it that they could get his personal info? I thought anything more than the IP address had to come from the IP via subpoena, warrant, etc which is highly unlikely because the guy didn't do anything illegal. Would a lawsuit even stand up because someone was simply being "annoying"?
 
speakermoto said:
Thanks, but are you sure? I saw on another forum where two members got into a tiff and one got banned. He re-registered and got into another tiff with the same guy, who also happened to be friends with one of the mods. Somehow, this member got the IP (from the mod?) or something of the other guy and even went so far as to post his personal info, including his address, cell phone, etc. They threatened him with a lawsuit for wasting their time, etc. How is it that they could get his personal info? I thought anything more than the IP address had to come from the IP via subpoena, warrant, etc which is highly unlikely because the guy didn't do anything illegal. Would a lawsuit even stand up because someone was simply being "annoying"?
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A couple things to pick up on, legally you can only gather personal information if you have power from the courts (subpoena..) of course anyone is free to go and lift details from facebook.myspace and other online profiles (if hes dumb enough tp put it all on there).

Secondly, you cant take someone to court for wasting your time, unless you are a registered authority (fire service, police dept etc..)

Thirdly, arguing on the itnernet isnt illegal

Fourthly, try banning the IP range, ISP's are assigned a "pool" for their IP's for them to distribute to their custoemrs as they wish, dynamic IP's are all chsoen from the ISP's pool, typically, the first two segments will be the same for the entire ISP (for example aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd, aaa.bbb are unique to the ISP) the third section (ccc) is usually used to segregate areas (geographically), the fourth bit (ddd) is the unique identifire for each client in that area, refreshing their connection should only ever change ddd and POSSIBLY ccc if you're unlucky

Point being, if you put an IP ban on aaa.bbb.ccc he might have a hadr time coming back, just dont put a ban on aaa.bbb, you'll end up banning almost everyone on that ISP (or at least a large fraction of it)
 
Thanks for the info guys, but I have to ask one thing and I hope this doesn't come across as rude as I don't intend it to be. At ages of 18 and 19, how do you know the intricacies of the law? There's no way you have even started law school yet, nor know the laws in the US. Perhaps I should have been more clear that I'm in the US. Sorry. :o
 
Well it comes from common sense...

When someone annoys you anywhere, can you bring him to court?

Man every time there is a problem with Americans you always want to bring it to court... ;)
 
Well, I, for one as an American, would like to go to their houses and kick their asses, unlike folks in the UK who get prosecuted for even defending themselves. But, I choose not to do that and would like some way to get these annoying bastards to stop.
 
Hmm I'm not from the UK sorry ;)

Anyway just let them be, it's not like they're destroying your life ;)
 
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