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AutoAdmit Case Ends Not With a Bang, But With a Whimper

autoadmit.JPGIf you were hoping for the AutoAdmit lawsuit to result in courtroom drama, with Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey breaking down in tears on the stand, then we’re sorry to disappoint you. The case has ended, somewhat anticlimactically.

Last week, the plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their case against the remaining defendants. From the Hartford Courant:

Two former Yale University law school students have quietly settled a high-profile lawsuit they brought against about two dozen anonymous authors who the students said defamed and threatened them by posting malicious falsehoods on an Internet message board.

Perhaps plaintiff Brittan Heller felt ready to put down her sword, now that she’s happily married. But note that the dismissal is without prejudice (so check yo self, Pauliewalnuts).

What did the plaintiffs get out of filing their lawsuit?

There were some settlements, according to the Courant:

The terms under which the suit was resolved are confidential, and lawyers representing the former students, Heide Iravani and Brittan Heller, would not discuss them. Court records and lawyers who followed the litigation said attorneys for the women were able to identify eight or nine of the anonymous posters and settled with some of them.

“We settled with a handful of folks,” said San Francisco attorney Ashok Ramani, whose firm, Keker & Van Nest, represented the women at no charge. “Our clients are very pleased with how the case went and I have no further comment.”

So, readers, what do you think? Did the AutoAdmit kids get pwned by Iravani and Heller? Or was the Yale ladies’ lawsuit an epic fail?

Ex-Yale Students Settle Internet Defamation Lawsuit [Hartford Courant]
Doe v. Ciolli: Notice of Voluntary Dismissal of Action [Justia]

Earlier: Prior coverage of AutoAdmit / Xoxohth

Comments

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1 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:05 AM

Thank you, Elie and Kash, for all you do on this site, and the abuse you take.

Oh, and first!

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2 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:07 AM

Second

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3 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:07 AM

I wish Elie wrote this post.

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4 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:08 AM

"So, readers, what do you think? Did the AutoAdmit kids get pwned by Iravani and Heller? Or was the Yale ladies’ lawsuit an epic fail?"

How would we know without the terms of the settlement?

Anyway, the firm did something right by ID'ing "eight or nine" of the people. That's no easy task.

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5 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:13 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TZg3F678xk

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6 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:14 AM

4--yes, it is an easy task. Happens all the time. You sue the ISP. The ISP notifies the poster of the subpoena, and then the poster has the choice of showing up in court to defend him- or herself. When she shows up and says, "Kashmir Hill, defending myself," she's just been identified. If she doesn't show up, the ISP turns over the information.

Is there any doubt that this is how Elie is planning to finance his children's education? You'll all be sorry some day. And you'll know that finally he has put his Harvard education to productive use.

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7 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:15 AM

I would've liked to have seen a public outing. Anonymously badmouthing real non-anonymous people is despicable.

By the way, Elie . . . you're kinda chubby.

-anonymous and inconsistent poster

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8 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:16 AM

6, no, it's not. Most ISPs only keep information like that for 90 days.

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9 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:18 AM

Why is there no mention of the fact that Keker, Rosen, and Irvani are being sued by one of the former defendants in this suit?

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10 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:19 AM

anonymous badmouthing of people is the only way people can do it these days because everything is so PC. cyberslapp should be done away with and is an abuse of system

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11 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:19 AM

Nice simpsons reference 'Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey.' I'm also partial to 'Sandal Wearing Goldfish Tenders'.

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12 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:20 AM

It was public relations pwnage, which is all the plaintiffs really wanted. So, EPIC WIN.

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13 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:21 AM

Considering Keker likely took the case to establish some sort of groundbreaking internet precedent, for them it's an epic fail.

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14 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:21 AM

1--

If I abuse myself while thinking about Kash, does that count as abusing Kash?

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15 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:21 AM

4 - I would assume small settlements (maybe a few thousand bucks each) from the eight or nine defendants.

But it is still a victory for the plaintiffs because they got free legal representation.

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16 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:22 AM

Comment removed by moderator.

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17 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:22 AM

What about the other countersuit with what's his name (the EIC of Autoadmit)? Is that case still going on? How can you talk about this case without doing a little research on that case's status to include in this post?

I expect this from Elie, but not you Lat. I literally had to just scroll up to see because I was about to blast Elie.

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18 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:22 AM

11 - That isn't Lat's reference. It was one of the screen names of the defendant's in this case.

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19 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:22 AM

6 - AutoAdmit claimed not to log IP addresses of posters., which made identification a non-trivial task. If true, it's actually quite remarkable that they found anyone.

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20 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:25 AM

9 / 17 - ATL wrote about that case here:

http://abovethelaw.com/2008/03/breaking_anthony_ciolli_goes_o.php

I don't think there are any new developments in it, though.

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21 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:26 AM

I miss Elie. Where'd she go???

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22 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:28 AM

KashI0bs+#r

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23 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:32 AM

Picture of :D, one of the autoadmit posters who had to settle:
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/400/45137997.jpg

24 Posted by MrsLat | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:36 AM

What this crap have to do with law anyway? This brog nothing but a crap now. Too gay. Too stupid. David, you need come home this weekend, meet nice Filipino girl through matchmaker, I introduce you, ok? Then maybe your head get un-gayed, not so crazy no more. I make you your favorite rice cake soup too, just for you, then maybe you have energy, brog better.
- Mom

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25 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:41 AM

I hope they got nothing.

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26 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:43 AM

Whatever they got, they'll probably put towards fighting genocide in Darfur, so they'll get nothing in the end.

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27 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:50 AM

I can't believe that I went to high school with one of the plaintiffs...

Surreal.

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28 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:50 AM

I feel dirty for laughing at Mrs. Lat

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29 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 11:05 AM

when does 23 get banned?

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30 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 11:07 AM

I love Mrs. Lat. If I were her, I would have disowned her cockgobbling son long time ago.

31 Posted by Partner Emeirtus | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 11:08 AM

I must come clean on this, my son JaKe was one of the alleged offenders in this case. Once he was exposed, we did settle. If I had the time I would have gleefully fought this to the supreme court, but as it was, I found the settlement money in my couch the morning of signing the settlement, and therefore it was of not import to me.

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32 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 11:17 AM

When you consider that the first people to be outted were the plaintiffs, further exposing them to public attacks, and that the poor handling of the suit and settlement negotiations with Ciolli resulted in a countersuit, it's tough to see them as the "winners" here.

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33 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 11:18 AM

Well at least we know that Lat reads autoadmit by his usage of epic fail and other tells. I wonder what name he posts under? Could Lat be whokebe?!?!?!

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34 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 11:19 AM

"Partner Emeirtus"

FAIL!!!

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35 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 11:19 AM

Seems to me that Auto-Admit leaves on spirit here at ATL when you have know-nothings (i.e., paralegals) blogging posts filled with comments about "TTT"s... not much of a change in my mind. Dressed up a bit nicer, but largely the same trash.

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36 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 11:21 AM

leaves, lives, same diff

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37 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 11:30 AM

33 epic fail is from a place called the internet, not autoadmit

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38 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 11:37 AM

Who will ever forget the name Brittain Heller?

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39 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 11:53 AM

37 - "epic fail" is from a place called middle school or online Dungeon & Dragons.

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40 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 12:01 PM

Why does Mrs. Lat look Vietnamese if her son is Filipino? Discuss.

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41 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 12:15 PM

38 - you, apparently, since you've misspelled it

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42 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 12:22 PM

@9:

That case has been dismissed w.r.t. Heller, because Ciolli and his aTTTorney were too lame to find her and serve the complaint. And several counts have been dismissed against other defendants as well.

Ciolli is getting pwned like the douche he is in E.D.Pa.

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43 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 12:37 PM

Here's the status of the E.D.Pa. case:

Case dismissed against Heller, because Ciolli can't find her, even though Conde-Nast Portfolio, the New York Times, and Hartford Courant could.

Case dismissed against Lemley and Chanin for lack of PJ.

Most counts dismissed against Iravani and Reputation Defender for lack of PJ.

Motions for judgment on the pleadings are pending with a legitimate chance of success.

IOW, Ciolli = FAIL.

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44 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 12:38 PM

32 ftw

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45 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 12:38 PM

damn you, 23! you're a sick bastard.

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46 Posted by guest | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 6:24 PM

They definitely had STDs

47 Posted by Pacific Reporter | Permalink Thursday, October 22, 2009 6:56 PM

Sorry about your tiny pink settlement, bro.

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48 Posted by guest | Permalink Sunday, October 25, 2009 11:33 PM

Epic win or Epic fail, I just can't feel a lot of sympathy for the plaintiffs in this situation, now that they both have impressive careers here and do not seem to have been harmed by all the postings on autoadmit.

While I do agree that it was wrong for the defendants to threaten and defame the plaintiffs on the website, if the plaintiffs were so concerned about their safety and privacy, they should have filed police reports and tried to have criminal charges pursued against the defendants. Instead, they filed a civil suit that was nothing more than an attempt to make a name for themselves and their attorneys and maybe get a little money. The attorneys that took their case are no better than the typical ambulance chasers that try to make cases out of nothing in an attempt to shake down people and companies they know will pay to settle quickly.

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