News Article Brian Burke sues internet commenters for defamation

[sarsippius]

I should have put this in the OT forum, this story interested me for non-hockey reasons

http://aol.sportingnews.com/nhl/story/2013-04-26/brian-burke-sues-internet-commenters-maple-leafs-dave-nonis

Brian Burke likes fighting—"pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence," etc. He's picked a worthy opponent.

Burke, fired earlier this year as GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs, filed a defamation suit in British Columbia against 18 internet commenters who alleged that he was let go because of a relationship with a female sports reporter.

Burke, obviously, denies the allegations.

"The Defamatory Statements were made with the knowledge that they were false or with a reckless disregard for their truth,” the suit reads, according to metronews.ca.

“The Defamatory Statements have been published, republished, downloaded, viewed and commented on by persons in British Columbia and Ontario and throughout Canada and the United States by various means, including through email, internet bulletin board postings, Facebook pages and Twitter messages, and have harmed the Plaintiff’s reputation in, amongst other jurisdictions, British Columbia, Ontario, and other parts of Canada and the United States.”

The usernames listed in the claim are priceless: “NOFIXEDADDRESS”, “CAMBARKERFAN”, “LAVY16”, “MBSKIDMORE”, “TULOWD”, “LOOB”, “NAGGAH”, “MOWERMAN”, “AARONP18”, “STEVE”, “KABOOMIN8”,“THEZBRAD”, “SLOBBERFACE”, “POONERMAN”, “ISOLATEDCIRCUIT”, “KANADA KEV”, “NCOGNITO” AND “SIR PSYCHO SEXY”.

None of the 18 are mentioned by name, though they probably should be. Especially "SIR PSYCHO SEXY."

For what it's worth, Canadian libel law regarding public figures is stricter than American libel law; it's not necessary to prove malice, as is the case in the United States.

[AlaskaFlyerFan]

The usernames listed in the claim are priceless: “NOFIXEDADDRESS”, “CAMBARKERFAN”, “LAVY16”, “MBSKIDMORE”, “TULOWD”, “LOOB”, “NAGGAH”, “MOWERMAN”, “AARONP18”, “STEVE”, “KABOOMIN8”,“THEZBRAD”, “SLOBBERFACE”, “POONERMAN”, “ISOLATEDCIRCUIT”, “KANADA KEV”, “NCOGNITO” AND “SIR PSYCHO SEXY”.

LOL @ POONERMAN

[DaGreatGazoo]

I think this is pretty much insanity at it's finest, but I'm also sure Homer and Bryz are gonna sue ALL of us, if they get wind of this.

Since being let go by the Maple Leafs on the eve of the 2013 season, the reasons for Brian Burke’s dismissal have been the subject of much gossip.

One story in particular that wound its way through social media accounts sparked the former general manager and team president to file a lawsuit with B.C. Supreme Court on Friday. Burke claims he was defamed in online comments accusing him of having an extra-marital affair with sports reporter Hazel Mae of Rogers Sportsnet. The actual names of the 18 defendants are not not known to Burke, but the social media handles that the comments were allegedly made under include Poonerman, Slobberface and Sir Psycho Sexy and are on the court document.

One of the comments entered in the suit suggested Mae was pregnant.

“Contrary to popular belief, the reason for Burke’s firing was not his willingness to pull off the Roberto Luongo trade,” it read. “Well it didn’t take long for Brian Burke and Hazel Mae to hook up. In the summer of 2012, Sportsnet removed her from the glass desk because she wouldn’t fit, insisting that she stand while on air.”

It went on to call Burke “the lucky Dad”.

Burke’s lawyer Peter Gall said in a stement on Friday that the comments are false and defamatory, and have harmed both Burke’s and Mae’s families.

“Brian has decided that it is time to stop people who post comments on the Internet from thinking they can fabricate wild stories with impunity,” Gall said. “Brian is determined to find the authors of the lie about him and those who have circulated the lie.”

At the time of his surprise firing in early January, it was clear that incoming ownership of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment was upset with the team missing the playoffs four straight years and Burke’s abrasive style and feuds with the media were not winning him any friends on the board of directors.

Talk of “leadership style” and the need for “a different voice” and “changing gears” came up in the press conference that day.

“This didn’t happen overnight,” said MLSE president Tom Anselmi. “It’s a decision the board and I have discussed for a couple of months. It included a lot of things, including how the team is doing and how it finished up last year.”

The court documents say Burke is suing for losses and damages to his reputation. He is also seeking to have each of the 18 defendants restrained from publishing the statements on the Internet.

None of the claims have been proven in court and a statement of defence has not been filed.

Burke, who is married to CTV News Channel anchor Jennifer Burke, is now a pro scout for the Anaheim Ducks.

[sarsippius]

@DaGreatGazoo

That's what I was thinking, we all better lawyer up if lawsuits for internet chatter are coming!

[DaGreatGazoo]

Sorry for the duplicate thread, guys..I missed Sars original post!

[flyercanuck]

I think this is pretty much insanity at it's finest, but I'm also sure Homer and Bryz are gonna sue ALL of us, if they get wind of this.

Well except we just need to show a video of Bryz in net or look at some of Homers moves.

I doubt there's video of Burkes exploits or we'd likely have seen it (if there were in fact any said exploits that he would not like publicized in case they involved said sexual relations with a certain said Asian-Canadian sportscaster. Of course this is all speculation and does not involve fc or anyone involved with fc in any way shape or form))

[ZeZel25]

I might go solo here but so what if I am. It's about time people have to pay a price for being just idiotic in comments made. Free speech has some responsibility too it. Some of these clowns on talk radio should be fired and never be allowed to work in the field again. Defaming someone is all fun and games until it ruins a persons reputation. Ask the guy who was blamed for bombing the Atlanta Olympics how innocent chatter goes. Time for people that are on sport chat forums, or media, to do the unthinkable, stop bringing someones personal life into any talk, none of anyone's business.

[radoran]

I might go solo here but so what if I am. It's about time people have to pay a price for being just idiotic in comments made. Free speech has some responsibility too it. Some of these clowns on talk radio should be fired and never be allowed to work in the field again. Defaming someone is all fun and games until it ruins a persons reputation. Ask the guy who was blamed for bombing the Atlanta Olympics how innocent chatter goes. Time for people that are on sport chat forums, or media, to do the unthinkable, stop bringing someones personal life into any talk, none of anyone's business.

While I agree with the basic sentiment wholeheartedly, I would offer a caveat that if a personal life affects one's position (say, David Petreaus) it is certainly relevant to the public discussion.

This is not to say that Petraeus' decision to resign due to his personal pecadillos was or was not the right one, merely that it was precipitated by complications in his personal life.

Toronto did not say they were firing Burke because of his personal life. And looking at the results of his tenure, one can't say it wasn't justified on purely professional grounds.

[sarsippius]

While I agree with the basic sentiment wholeheartedly, I would offer a caveat that if a personal life affects one's position (say, David Petreaus) it is certainly relevant to the public discussion.

This is not to say that Petraeus' decision to resign due to his personal pecadillos was or was not the right one, merely that it was precipitated by complications in his personal life.

Toronto did not say they were firing Burke because of his personal life. And looking at the results of his tenure, one can't say it wasn't justified on purely professional grounds.

I enthusiastically concur with your basic sentimental wholehearted agreement. I'm really not sure how I feel about punishing internet spewings as libelous, but then again why should it be any different in a legal sense than writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper? In this p[articular case I think the claim has no merit insofar as there don't appear to be any real damage done to professional reputaion or earning power (read: he already did that to himself). But as @ mentioned responsibility, I'm sure we've all encountered internet jerk-offs that we'd wished had to answer for their douchebaggery.

[hf101]

@DaGreatGazoo

That's what I was thinking, we all better lawyer up if lawsuits for internet chatter are coming!

B.C. Supreme Court allows legal notice to be served online in Brian Burke defamation case

A unique court order that allows lawyers representing former Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke to serve legal notice over online messaging boards may not produce any practical outcomes, legal experts said on Wednesday.

The B.C. Supreme Court has permitted Vancouver lawyer Peter Gall to serve papers via private messages on online forums to seven out of 18 individuals who anonymously posted what Mr. Burke says are defamatory comments about him.

Usually, courts will allow plaintiffs to serve notice by other means only if they can prove they have exhausted efforts to serve the defendants personally. While some people have been notified by e-mail or through social media such as Facebook and Twitter, Mr. Gall said doing so through an online forum appears to be unprecedented and is a way for the law to catch up to the realities of the Internet.

But Vancouver media lawyer Dan Burnett questions whether the court order would have an impact on Mr. Burke’s civil suit, particularly if the recipients do not respond.

“Let’s say they go through that process, and they prove to the court they have complied with all the substitutional services requirements the judge imposed to properly serve Slobberface [one of the defendants], and Slobberface doesn’t respond, so what does that mean?” he said in an interview Wednesday. “You get a default judgment against someone named Slobberface? We know that’s a fictitious person, so what good is that?”

Prof. Burnett said that in most circumstances, when a person does not file a defence within a given time, the suing party is entitled to a default judgment, which can mean they can collect compensation from the defendants.

“You usually collect on it by garnishing their wages or by seizing their property,” he said. “But obviously their wages and their property wouldn’t be in the name of Slobberface, it would be in their personal name.”

Montreal-based lawyer Allen Mendelsohn, who is representing the owner of one of the blogs on which some of the online comments were posted, said he is concerned some of the intended recipients may not see the legal notice on the messaging boards, and thus will miss the opportunity to defend themselves.

“Some message boards, if you get a private message, you’ll get an e-mail notification that you have a new message,” he said. “In the cases where you don’t get this e-mail notification, if you don’t log on to this message board for a period of months … you would never know that you have this new message. And as a result, you would never know that you have been served.”

According to the notice of application, Mr. Burke’s lawyers said they have contacted the administrators of seven message boards, asking for the identities of commentors who went by names such as Slobberface and NoFixedAddress. The administrators denied their requests.

Mr. Burke, who filed the defamation lawsuit seeking damages last month, said in the suit that online comments that imply he has fathered a child with a sportscaster are untrue.

While Mr. Burke is suing a total of 18 people, Mr. Gall says he believes the legal team may be able to track down a number of them and serve notice to them personally.

“We think we may be able to find out who some of the 11 are, but these seven, this was the only way of affecting service,” he said.

Mr. Gall said if the seven recipients do not respond, he will “take other steps to force our claim against them.”

While Mr. Gall did not elaborate, Prof. Burnett said Mr. Burke’s legal team could obtain a court order to get an Internet service provider to disclose the customers’ names that matches the ones used in the message boards. But they must prove that the court order is the only way to obtain those identifications.

“They may have yet to do that if they ever want to get to the real names,” Prof. Burnett said. “Sometimes that process ends up in a dead end. You finally get the IP address, it turns out to be some Russian server, or you get a local server … and you get the customer name and it turns out to be from an Internet cafe.”

Still, Prof. Burnett agrees with Mr. Gall that Tuesday’s court order is at least a symbolic step towards addressing the current legal challenges that the Internet poses. “People post things, they don’t necessarily have their names attached, people can be hard to track down and so the judicial process can be frustrated,” he said. “So this is an attempt to get a bit creative and confront this new reality, and the judge said ‘OK, let’s go this way.’”

Full written reasons for the court order are expected soon.

[brelic]

This is a pretty interesting case. It will set an important precedent regardless of how it turns out.

[sarsippius]

Un. Freakin. Believable.

I think it will set a DANGEROUS precedent. We're going to serve people online by their internet handles? We're going to force admins to turn over personal info on members of online communities? I don't why I'm surprised.

[hf101]

Brian Burke wins judgment against online commenters

 

Burke has now won a default judgment in B.C. Supreme Court against five online commentators – Beware NoFixed Address, CamBarkerfan, Lavy 16, Tulowd and Naggah – who allegedly defamed him, according to The Province newspaper in Vancouver.

 

The commenters were given 33 days to respond to the civil claim for damages but none have done so.

 

The court also ordered that the defendants pay Burke damages that are to be assessed and to pay the plaintiff legal costs to be assessed.

 

 

original source

[jammer2]

@hf101  Interesting the site was not named as well. While it's impossible to watch/monitor everything said on a site, if somebody is pulling stuff out of the air, with no factual basis for it, should the site not be responsible to take down something that is potentially defamatory?  I honestly don't know the answer for this, just throwing it out there for discussion. I could see our site taking something like down, but when sites are huge, I'm guessing things could potentially slip through the cracks.

 

 On another note, jammer2 categorically denies any inference or mention of a per-martial affair between Hitch and any philly.com posters.  This message may be converted to text, if anyone is interested.

[hf101]

@jammer2

 

Well we do have this noted in our forum guidelines.  

 

13) Libel: Any posts libeling players, prospects, or hockey personnel. It's not acceptable to post that you heard Player X has a drinking/drug/sex/personal problem from a "good" source. Do not post information that can be considered defamatory without a link to a credible media source. Other forums, personal websites, hearsay, and personal testimonials are not considered credible.

[jammer2]

@hf101  Ah, well that just about covers it, huh? Anyone posting garbage without a legit source is in direct violation of the forum guidelines....nice.

[jammer2]

  Rux, if we go to jail, I insist on serving the time in Canada...LMAO!

[blocker]

"Defamation of Burke's character". 

 

Gotta be worth at least a dollar and a half.

[blocker]

Hazel used to work at NESN.  There were people around here who used to spread nasty rumors about her.  Guess that's a price paid by someone as good looking as her. 

 

Too many people with small minds.

[canoli]

interesting how different the law is in Canada - in the U.S. if you can't prove malice you've got no case.

 

what's not interesting is BB getting himself all lawyered-up over internet chatter. Not to mention, if anything this rumor improves his image.