damn the muse

A lawyer in Cali has filed a class action lawsuit against Yahoo for allowing certain members on its messageboards to participate in relentless namecalling.

Galton is a partner in the firm of Galton & Helm, which specializes in insurance law. He registered to use Yahoo message boards in early 2004 in order to respond to a negative late-2003 post about one of his clients, which he did not identify in the suit.

After Galton posted his response, under the screen name "stephengalton," he was subjected to name-calling by various other users of the message boards.

One user, a person using the screen name "mumioler" who had posted the original messages about Galton's client that started the dispute, wrote a series of new messages calling Galton a "shyster" and an "overly robust geezer that makes a living walking behind the elephant with a shovel."

Other users also took personal shots at Galton, and he filed suit in April of this year against them. At the same time, he sought their personal information via a subpoena from Yahoo. The company, the suit said, responded with incomplete or inaccurate information.

Now I've heard about sueing for libel, but this? It reminds of all those times when we were children, and we used to run home to our parents in tears because some bully called us an ugly name. What did they always say in reply?

"Sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never harm you."

Someone needs to send this guy to his mother.