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Sandy Hook Families Seek $2.75T from Alex Jones

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Re: Sandy Hook Families Seek $2.75T from Alex Jones

#31
post #4

> They reached the sum by multiplying the state law’s $5,000 per-violation fine by the 550 million social media exposures Jones’s audience received on his Facebook, YouTube and Twitter accounts in the three years following a school shooting that claimed the lives of 20 first graders and six educators in 2012. Is this defamation calculation valid? Is the calculation based on the number of people who listen or read? If…

I would assume the per violation has nothing to do with his many people witnessed it.

That’s why I quotes the part of the article that goes against my assumption and they estimate based on the readers.

Re: Sandy Hook Families Seek $2.75T from Alex Jones

#32
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would assume the per violation has nothing to do with his many people witnessed it.

From the article: --- They reached the trillion-dollar sum by multiplying the state law’s up-to $5,000 per-violation fine by the 550 million social media exposures Jones’s audience received on his Facebook, YouTube and Twitter accounts in the three years following a school shooting that claimed the lives --- So if you argue that each post to each person is an instance of aa violation as it's an attempted sale of his…

This is a bit like if you stood in the town square, yelled out "Bob's a pedophile, and btw, buy my book" and Bob charged you for each individual person who happened to be in earshot.

But, you know, it happened on the big bad internet, so let's just throw all precedent out and act like it's different.

Anyway, we get the point: 9/11 really was an inside job after all.

Re: Sandy Hook Families Seek $2.75T from Alex Jones

#33
post #3

If so, that's quite stupid. That's more money that the richest person in the world has, and it's incommensurate with the impact of Jones's behavior. It serves nobody- not even the families whose children were killed.

Right: nobody, not even billionaires, can afford to do this ever again. Seems like a win condition to me.

Except that's not what civil court is for. It's for obtaining redress for damages suffered.

$10 million, or even $100 million, and I'd say these victims must have suffered a lot...but very well, maybe they did. $1 billion? This is an abuse of the court system, and is the sort of money large corporations get fined when they do something really bad. Facebook famously got hit for $5 billion over Cambridge Analytica in 2019. OJ Simpson, on the other hand, paid $70 million when a person actually died. Even with inflation, getting to $1 billion is stretching things well past the breaking point.

Re: Sandy Hook Families Seek $2.75T from Alex Jones

#34
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He didn't submit to discovery in 6 years. So default judgment, and he goes to court for damages (default mean he is automatically guilty if i understand right? Us law is weird. In my country the police would've seized then copied everything). From what I've managed to get (from a non English source), his lawyer then submitted too much and did not retract in time, so the plaintiffs have now more evidence than asked du…

> He didn't submit to discovery in 6 years You must be unfamiliar with the case; during the case they were bringing up Jones emails, texts, budgets, transaction history, deposition video. They even accidentally were sharing communications from between Jones and his attorney. Even a search shows multiple articles on this without having to watch a second of court tv or read the docket. https://news.yahoo.com/alex-jones…

Like i said, i don't really follow that much us politics, i only heard of it by a non English speaker who made jokes about that.

Thanks for the information though.

Re: Sandy Hook Families Seek $2.75T from Alex Jones

#35

One can seek $X dollars, but collecting is another story. He'll probably declare bankruptcy at some point, if he hasn't already.

He already declared bankruptcy, they said during the trial — their goal is that he never can work again

I don't follow conspiracy theorists or mainstream corporate news. The problem with eye-for-an-eye is it creates a blind martyr and a blind world. It's curious how hurt feelings translates into compensation. If so, there's an endless line out the door to claim their golden ticket. Freedom of speech in an open society, no matter how reprehensible the speaker, means freedom of listening and turning the channel. Or become like China with top-down censorship and prior restraint. You don't have to agree or be on the side of some conspiracy jackass to recognize that going after him makes him more (in)famous. Ignoring him would been the best move. Freedom of speech means taking the shit with the sugar. I blame greedy lawyers for capitalizing on traumatized people, a frivolous court system that doesn't toss this, and lazy communication majors for exploiting the situation and propping up AJ.

Re: Sandy Hook Families Seek $2.75T from Alex Jones

#36
post #3

If so, that's quite stupid. That's more money that the richest person in the world has, and it's incommensurate with the impact of Jones's behavior. It serves nobody- not even the families whose children were killed.

I mean… if anyone watched the trial this whole thing is a joke. He may have done something bad, but the trial was Soviet level. I followed the trial and this is the way the “trial” went: 1. Plaintiffs / Judge claimed he had evidence (marketing material on sandy hook - claimed he never had marketing material) 2. Jones said he didn’t 3. discovery didn’t prove the evidence ever existed 4. Judge then said “guilty by defa…

I don't understand the fuss apart from the media and lawyers dancing on misfortune to throw salt in someone's wounds. You either have freedom of speech or you don't. He didn't shout fire in a theater and didn't encourage a violent insurrection. There's either a marketplace of ideas or there's a purity test and truth-deciders and approved sentiment-shapers like MSNBC and Faux News.

Re: Sandy Hook Families Seek $2.75T from Alex Jones

#37
post #4

> They reached the sum by multiplying the state law’s $5,000 per-violation fine by the 550 million social media exposures Jones’s audience received on his Facebook, YouTube and Twitter accounts in the three years following a school shooting that claimed the lives of 20 first graders and six educators in 2012. Is this defamation calculation valid? Is the calculation based on the number of people who listen or read? If…

I think the amount they receive can only go down in court, so you want to start with the highest number you can justify in any way. This is just a way to get the initial number up.

it’s cockthumb
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