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How romantic is a romantic chat room?
The answer, apparently, is “not very.”
The cause of the conclusion:
Beacon Journal | 12/19/2005 | Internet, civil liberties collide in unique lawsuit
Medina, Ohio - A Medina County man who says he was humiliated online by two other participants in a romance chat room has sued the alleged miscreants, as well as America Online for refusing to do anything about it.
Wow. But it’s not all over yet. There is intrigue and counter-accusations as well.
Gillespie contends one of the defendants, Michael Marlowe of Alabama, journeyed all the way to Ohio to file a change of address form for Gillespie at a local post office, thus disrupting Gillespie’s mail service.
Meanwhile, the second defendant, Bob Charpentier of Oregon, blames Gillespie for all the problems — saying Gillespie posted a photograph of Charpentier’s home and truck on the Internet and poked fun at the health of Charpentier’s girlfriend by using the AOL screen name, “Removesonyasgoiter.”
That’s “Remove Sonya’s Goiter” for those of you who aren’t proficient at reading screen names. Can’t you feel the love? Really. It’s palpable.
The story points out numerious incidents of name-calling and the like, but the attorneys for Mr. Gillespie say that jurisdiction in the case is settled by the allegation that Mr. Marlowe traveled to Ohio to do research on Mr. Gillespie and just happened to file a false change-of-address card while he was there. I, for one, would be interested to see the proof of this allegation.
But, I guess it just goes to show that all really is fair in love and war.
MickC @ December 19, 2005