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Blogger sued and sent to jail

by Jillian Slack
3 replies
Wow!

Another blogger sued by Anna Nicole's mom sent to jail | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

This blogger was sued by the mother of the late Anna Nicole Smith.

A judge will ask Stephens, whose blogging name is Butterfly according to the lawsuit, to show why she should not be found in contempt for failing to follow court orders to turn over her computer and to appear in court to explain why she didn't do so.
The really alarming info about this story came not in the news story itself, but in the comments underneath the story:

Unfortunately, your computer isn't protected like your residence, even though the items that would be protected in your house are on your computer.
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Turning over ones computer in these modern times is like baring ones soul. Your letters, financial records, your private associations, and a pretty good record of how you live your private life is open to examination.
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Your right to feel secure in your own home is irrelevant. And if the plantiffs lawyers are untrustworthy, they might reveal or threaten to reveal anything they find.
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I have noticed that most judges do no understand the full role of computers by the majority of the populace. They view them as tech used as an adjunct to certain specific activities. They don't understand how intertwinned in one's personal life they are.
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I use my computer and internet access to maintain and moniter my banking, pay bills (I don't get paper bills fotr the most part), I schedule work and communicate witth coworkers and friends, reserve for pickup and renew library books, communicate with my daughter's teachers, conduct the exploratory phases of romantic possibilities, etc, et al. I could do most of that without a computer, but it would cost real money in terms of postage, gasoline, and real time out of my life. The latter is the biggest thing to me. If I had to deal with snail mail and actually going places to get things done, my life would be much poorer.
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I don't think the current generation of judges and the laws the work with recognize these modern facts of life.
#blogger #jail #sued
  • Profile picture of the author SageSound
    I've posted requests here numerous times asking for people to post legal concerns they might have surrounding their online activities, and not one person has posted anything.

    Nobody in this forum seems to have any legal concerns about doing business online, making money online, promoting themselves or their businesses online, outsourcing, buying or selling stuff without any "provenence", etc. Every bit of which is controlled and constrained by laws, that nobody really seems to care about unless it involves someone else.

    So I wouldn't expect to see too many comments about this. IMer's obviously think they're immune from legal concerns.

    OTOH, the link you posted and the quote above really say nothing other than a judge ordered someone to deliver some personal property to him/her in court, released them on bond under the agreement that they'd produce that item by the appointed deadline, then that person failed to show up in court. Are people supposed to be surprized that the judge ordered a bench warrant for Contempt of Court?

    This stuff happens all the time! Is there something special about "bloggers" that requires special attention?

    Personally, I don't get the issue. Bloggers post stuff on servers. The judge is asking to see a PC, not the server. One would think the contents of the PC are subject to protections under the 1st, 4th, and 5th Amendments of the Constitution (at least) without reasonable cause on the part of the Court.

    The comments "underneath the story" are irrelevant from a legal standpoint. Is this person trying to make the reader believe he/she cannot access any of that online data from any computer other than their own? They're obviously not a lawyer, and nothing said really makes much sense from a legal standpoint.

    (I'm not a lawyer either, but ... once you understand that the laws give us certain rights and remedies, you don't go around whining about how this and that will be an inconvenience and why judges should be prohibited from inconveniencing you. Rather, you call a lawyer and discuss your rights and remedies! Vergie has certain rights and remedies under the law, and her lawyer is doggedly going after people who he thinks violated Vergie's rights. Those people, unfortunately, seem to be acting on their own behalf, and are digging themselves some pretty deep holes by playing a game of "chicken" with the courts rather than getting a lawyer to fight for them.)

    What's not said in any of this is whether the bloggers have lawyers. It appears they do not, because they're certainly not demonstrating a whole lot of legal smarts. Again, this part is not discussed.

    Why is a Judge going to even ask for someone to present their computer to begin with? And what would YOU do if it happened to YOU?
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  • Profile picture of the author The Leader
    There will be no hiding by usernames soon so we'll have to behave ourselves!
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  • Profile picture of the author bgmacaw
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