[Infowarrior] - Charles Carreon: Internet is so mean I can't “keep my cool” in court

[Richard Forno]

Charles Carreon: Internet is so mean I can't “keep my cool” in court

After tangling with The Oatmeal, a lawyer complains about Internet pile-ons.

by Nate Anderson - Jan 3 2013, 4:00pm EST

Lawyer Charles Carreon had a rough 2012. After tangling with webcomic The Oatmeal last summer, Carreon found himself widely criticized online by people "wishing me an ill fate, including that my career would collapse, that I would be raped to death by a bear, and other unpleasantness," as he recently told a federal judge.

The insults—some of which Carreon posted to one of his websites—caused Carreon to flip his lid and sue Matt Inman, creator of The Oatmeal, for some violation of "professional fundraising" rules. Carreon then tried to drag everyone from the American Cancer Society to Indiegogo to the National Wildlife Federation to 100 unnamed "Does" into the case. Carreon separately threatened an anonymous critic known as Satirical Charles, warning that "I have the known capacity to litigate for years" and saying that a lawsuit might seek "the maximum cybersquatting penalty of $100,000." He then said he would sue Register.com unless it revealed the name behind the Satirical Charles account (one Christopher Recouvreur), then sent a long letter (PDF) to Recouvreur's employer demanding that it preserve everything from the Internet history of Recouvreur's work computer to telephone records and text messages that he might have sent using company equipment. Carreon even threatened to subpoena Ars Technica and Twitter to expose other critics.....

< -- >

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/01/charles-carreon-internet-is-so-mean-i-cant-keep-my-cool-in-court/

---
Just because i'm near the punchbowl doesn't mean I'm also drinking from it.