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eBay pays $3M fine in blogger harassment case

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Re: eBay pays $3M fine in blogger harassment case

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damages shouldn't be subjective but based on the acts committed.

I love “computer people incorrectly try to transfer their ‘expertise’ to law”. Gotta be one of my favourite parts of HN.

Sound to me like they're talking (their) philosophy rather than existing law. I for one agree, harassment shouldn't be considered lesser just because the victim admits to having a thick skin.

Re: eBay pays $3M fine in blogger harassment case

#72
post #56
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if you show your fist to a child or to Mike Tyson it's the same threat?

> So if you show your fist to a child or to Mike Tyson it's the same threat? Based on the meaning of the word threat, yes.

No. Think forward and imagine you escalate on the threat, by punching your interlocutor. Your act is the same in both cases, but the physical injury to Mike Tyson will likely be minimal whereas that inflicted upon the child would be significant, perhaps even severe. To say they were the same would be like considering two similar mathematical operations to be equivalent without considering the quantities involved.

Re: eBay pays $3M fine in blogger harassment case

#73

> The acts of intimidation included sending live insects, a foetal pig and a funeral wreath to the Steiners' home in Natick, Massachusetts. If someone I knew claimed that eBay execs were sending them things like this I wouldn’t believe them. It’s like something from a TV show.

I want to know if the execs were putting the roaches into a package themselves in their mahogany offices or if they paid someone to do it... CaaS maybe? (Cockroaches as a Service)

Re: eBay pays $3M fine in blogger harassment case

#74
eBay was distracted trying to destroy a newsletter and AMZN ended up growing by many eBays.

eBay is now worth $22b market cap, as high as $52b in recent times.

AMZN is now $1.5t, about double since the period of time in question, or about 14 - 34 eBays

(editted out a large portion of what I originally wrote about how many eBays of market cap AMZN has been gaining because I was off by a year in my window of time).

Re: eBay pays $3M fine in blogger harassment case

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(IANAL) The amount you win in a lawsuit has to be based on actual damages so if you want to sue for emotional distress it has to fit the legal definition which depends on the jurisdiction. Since emotional distress isn't bound to any hospital bills or other quantifiable harm, it generally pays quite a bit more.

Damages shouldn't be subjective but based on the acts committed.

You're very wrong ! The suffering of the victim matters more than the ability of the culprit to act within a certain legal budget.

If someone found a small, legal "act committed = no fine" way to victimize someone to the point of suicide, do you think it should be left unpunished ?

Justice MUST be subjective.

Re: eBay pays $3M fine in blogger harassment case

#76
post #40
post #2

Apologies for titling from deeper in article, but to do otherwise would be burying the lede. Also, life mirrors fiction: https://xkcd.com/325/

Do people have to pay for premium shipping to make sure the spiders arrive live?

I don't know how they shipped them, but apparently you can ship some animals through the US Postal Service.

https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c5_007.htm

Spiders and poisonous insects aren't allowed though, except scorpions under certain conditions.

Re: eBay pays $3M fine in blogger harassment case

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damages shouldn't be subjective but based on the acts committed.

I love “computer people incorrectly try to transfer their ‘expertise’ to law”. Gotta be one of my favourite parts of HN.

+9000. I agree. It is so tiring here.

Re: eBay pays $3M fine in blogger harassment case

#78
post #76
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do people have to pay for premium shipping to make sure the spiders arrive live?

I don't know how they shipped them, but apparently you can ship some animals through the US Postal Service. https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c5_007.htm Spiders and poisonous insects aren't allowed though, except scorpions under certain conditions.

I’ve ordered bees through the mail before; it’s quite a common way to get them actually.

Re: eBay pays $3M fine in blogger harassment case

#79

> The acts of intimidation included sending live insects, a foetal pig and a funeral wreath to the Steiners' home in Natick, Massachusetts. If someone I knew claimed that eBay execs were sending them things like this I wouldn’t believe them. It’s like something from a TV show.

Where do people get the idea that 1) This will work. 2) it's a good idea 3) that in US, you won't get sued for it.

This is some weird 1950's mob loan shark tactics.

Re: eBay pays $3M fine in blogger harassment case

#80

The filings said the couple had been left "emotionally, psychologically, and physically" terrorised. I always find it interesting that, when people sue other people/companies for some kind of harassment, they have to claim something like this. Shouldn’t it be obvious? Like, they got weird stuff by mail and got stalked. That should be enough? What if they didn’t actually got scared, what if they laughed at it? They we…

(IANAL) The amount you win in a lawsuit has to be based on actual damages so if you want to sue for emotional distress it has to fit the legal definition which depends on the jurisdiction. Since emotional distress isn't bound to any hospital bills or other quantifiable harm, it generally pays quite a bit more.

Also with any lawsuit you aim high and meet somewhere in the middle. Even if eBay won’t be liable for damages they may just settle this outside of court to get rid of it.
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