A lot of Twitter users are impersonating celebrities, using the social networking service to send bogus tweets on behalf of someone else. That is against the site's policies, and a ostensibly a crime. Now, for the first time, Britain's High Court is setting precedent by ordering one anonymous perpetrator to cease and desist. They simply sent him a tweet.
Andre Walker at Griffin Law said the anonymous Tweeter targeted by the writ will get a message from the High Court the next time they open their online account.
"Whoever they are, they will be told to stop posting, to remove previous posts and to identify themselves to the High Court via a web link form," he said.
Comments (3)
The C&D order might not be legal as the method does not approach a person, just a computer.
It reminds me of the "camouflage training" skit from Monty Python's Flying Circus: please stand up so that we can get you.
So if I'm being served, what makes me believe that this is the real thing and not a phishing scam? Sounds like a fair defense to me: "I had reasonable belief that the court order was a spam/phishing scam, I would have responded otherwise. Therefore I was not duly served".
-dan