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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

#111

Post by mindcrime »

What the actual fuck?

This is so wrong on so many levels. First, what kind of shitty human being would do something like this in the first place? I mean, no, seriously??? HOW does anybody think that doing shit like this is OK? There is, like, no universe in existence (even if you believe in infinite parallel realities or whatever) where it's OK to mail people dead pigs and send them funeral wreathes, just because you don't like their freaking NEWSLETTER.

And then beyond that, even among the (hopefully small) subset of people who have no moral qualms about this, who the hell could be stupid enough to think that they could do this and NOT get nailed for it, either by being fired by their employer, or getting in legal trouble?

Everything about this just screams out to me as one more reason to embrace misanthropy. :-(

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

#112

Post by sidewndr46 »

kulahan wrote: post #7
arcastroe wrote: post #6

Curious, how were the executives caught? How was it proven that the harassment came from the executives?

eBay cooperated fully with the investigation and had no interest in protecting the ones who were caught. Maybe none of them, iunno the eBay office culture at all.

I think it's highly more likely that eBay executives had an agreed upon story and fall guy. The other option is they are so phenomenally stupid that they hired a group of people who thought it was OK to fly across the country to stalk people.

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

#113

Post by pc86 »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #77
cqqxo4zV46cp wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You are free to leave at any time.

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

#114

Post by chasontherobot »

wannacboatmovie wrote: post #73
thebruce87m wrote: post #5

> 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)

I don't know if it still exists but there used to be a company that advertised public lice as a service

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

#115

Post by walterbell »

From the impact statement, https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2024/1/170...

> After today's announcement, we remain determined to push for answers and do whatever we possibly can to ensure that no corporation ever feels that the option exists for them to squash a person's First Amendment rights ... Judge William G. Young, with nearly four decades on the federal bench, told the defendant, "This is one of the most important cases upon which this Court has ever sat. This out-of-control group of which you were a central part is, if not stopped now and stopped completely, an extraordinary danger to our country. Make no doubt about it, the skills that you employed to go cyberstalking are an extreme danger, and when you put those skills to service of some large corporate entity with economic power to go after individuals and squash down their speech, we are all at risk. All of us."

Documentary premieres at SXSW, March 2024 in Austin, TX, one year before the trial date for the civil lawsuit, https://variety.com/2024/film/global/ebay-cyberstalking-docu...

> This film is a jaw-dropping story about one of the most revolutionary companies in Silicon Valley. One of our goals was to understand how did these events happen in the first place and what is a corporation’s moral responsibility when things go wrong.

U.S. Department of Justice resources for cyberbullying and cyberstalking, https://www.ojp.gov/feature/internet-safety/cyberbullying-an...

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

#116

Post by glenstein »

MOARDONGZPLZ wrote: post #81
low_tech_love wrote: post #34

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…

The crux is that all crimes have a list of elements which must be proven before the whole thing is a crime, or tort. Breaking this one down hypothetically using California’s Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress law, the plaintiff must prove that someone did something outrageous, that the defendant intended to cause emotional distress, that there was emotional distress, and that the emotional distress was from…

I don't think that they were confused or in denial about whether it was necessary for purposes of a legal requirement. It seems that they were agnostic on that, and saying that it would be better if the law itself didn't require that emotional distress be asserted and proven.

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

#117

Post by andsoitis »

walterbell wrote: post #115

From the impact statement, https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2024/1/170... > After today's announcement, we remain determined to push for answers and do whatever we possibly can to ensure that no corporation ever feels that the option exists for them to squash a person's First Amendment rights ... Judge William G. Young, with nearly four decades on the federal bench, told the defendant, "This is one o…

> no corporation ever feels that the option exists for them to squash a person's First Amendment rights

But the article states: "The employees in question were fired by eBay shortly after the incident."

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

#118

Post by peteradio »

dylan604 wrote: post #11
thebruce87m wrote: post #5

> 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 wonder what the rules on sending live specimens through the post are. Knowingly not using the right markings on the package can cause issues. When they ask you if you have any of "these" things in the package and you then say no would be a federal crime. Messing with the postal inspectors tends to be wildly underappreciated at the repercussions they can inflict.

Also, let's not forget - let's not forget, Dude - that keeping wildlife, an amphibious rodent, for uh, domestic, you know, within the city - that aint legal either.

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

#119

Post by Arainach »

andsoitis wrote: post #117
walterbell wrote: post #115

From the impact statement, https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2024/1/170... > After today's announcement, we remain determined to push for answers and do whatever we possibly can to ensure that no corporation ever feels that the option exists for them to squash a person's First Amendment rights ... Judge William G. Young, with nearly four decades on the federal bench, told the defendant, "This is one o…

> no corporation ever feels that the option exists for them to squash a person's First Amendment rights But the article states: "The employees in question were fired by eBay shortly after the incident."

Fired for getting caught, not for what they did.

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

#120

Post by dharmab »

codetrotter wrote: post #37
thebruce87m wrote: post #5

> 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 wonder where the execs got hold of those things. Did they buy it on eBay and have it shipped from a seller? Or did they go and put a dead pig in a box themselves? Messed up either way, and good that an end was put to their harassment of the bloggers.

Live insects you can buy at any pet store that sells reptile supplies. Fetal pigs are sold to schools for dissection in biology class.
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