This site being sued

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It's nothing to do with Sanity, alas. The problem is that we live in a culture that teaches that when tragedy strikes, you have to make everyone pay. They probably didn't choose to sue WP; that decision was likely made by a lawyer. It goes in line with suing the gun store owner, whose only crime was selling a weapon to someone that passed a background check.

Just out of curiosity, is the Something Awful forum being sued? I found him on Wikipedia and it says that he was talking about buying ammo on the site. Here's the article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Freund

The article also says he posted about his plans here. From what I heard he only mentioned suicide on WP, but I wasn't around at the time so I am just taking other people's word for it.

*scratches head with ruler*

okay, here's what we need to do! when someone posts plans for killing people, realize that they are plans for killing people! i wish i could see what he posted.

Unless Alex or a mod deleted the thread, it'll be here somewhere. I'm not going to go searching, though.

interesting.

now I wish I could get my name on Wiki.

That can be arranged.....

That's all very well, but what, exactly, can we do?

I tried, and it looks like they were deleted.

Edit: According to Wiki SomethingAwful deleted his threads as well. Are they being sued, too? Anyone? Anyone?

Yeah, yanking them was the smart thing to do, legally. Though my curiosity abounds.

Mine too. Although there are threads that make references to his posts. From what I've heard, he only talked about suicide - not homicide. But his suicidal threats were apparently disturbing enough that some WP members tried to track him down with no success.

i have no clue! i make plans and then i realize that they're logically impossible alot.

thas why I have friends in the military, if I need smething, they can help. of course I haven't asked for anyone to be destroyed yet.

But how far do we go with that?

*waves R.E coursework about* "Does this paper on abortion count as plans for killing people?" *contiunes to wave R.E coursework about like a maniac.*

NO.

Alex's lawyers may have something different to say on the matter, but I am going to try an answer this from a common sense standpoint.

I think that if a person is making some vague statement like "My sister broke my iPod and I could kill her right now" we are fairly safe to assume that there is no threat. However, if this person started to say, "I am sick of my sister breaking my stuff, so I bought a 9mm. Now I just have to figure out where I am going to get the bullets. After that the b*tch will pay," I would think that the specific nature of the threat should make us concerned.

Likewise, a statement such as "I had a fight with my mother and I wish I were dead" would not strike me as a suicide threat. However, a specific threat such as, "I am so sick of life. I ordered valium from an online pharmacy and when it comes I will take all of it and my pain will be over," warrant some concern.

Well, the problem is threefold:

1) There's the fact that everyone on the net speaks in hyperbole, particularly on message boards. I've been doing message boards since the days of dial-up BBS machines, and if I stopped to call the police every time I saw a threat, I'd have no time for anything else.

2) Assuming that you know that a threat is real, what can you do about it? Seriously. The ISP isn't going to tell you who it is, and without that info, you don't even know which police department needs to be contacted.

3) Let's say you do manage to get that information and notify the police. Unless some proof that you were right comes through, you as the person who set everything in motion will be risking a lawsuit.

The only time I've ever been involved with a message board going to the authorities was back in the BBS days, and I made an inappropriate joke about Tipper Gore. Somebody called the Secret Service. That was entertaining, to say the least.