Craigslist troll nailed with a $75,000 judgment

AN INFAMOUS ONLINE TROLL was handed his head by an Illinois court last weekend, slapped with a default judgment in a civil lawsuit for nearly $75,000.

Jason Fortuny placed a fake advert on Craigslist in a so-called "experiment" back in 2006. The post in the online classified ad network's adult-oriented 'personals' section pretended to be from a woman seeking a "str8 brutal dom muscular male" to engage in sex.

As reported by the New York Times, over 100 men responded to the advert by sending their photographs and contact details. Mr. Fortuny allegedly published all of the responses to his fake advert on the Internet, both on his blog and at an online troll website.

Fortuny must have thought he would get away with this, that his victims would be too shamed by his public exposure of their sexual proclivities to do anything about his abuse.

He was mistaken about that, however, as one of the men he exposed hired a law firm and filed a lawsuit as an anonymous plaintiff, claiming that Fortuny violated his copyright and invaded his privacy by publishing his personal email message and photograph. His complaint (PDF) sought $75,000 in damages and asked for a court injunction requiring that Fortuny take down the materials.

Fortuny chose to represent himself in the lawsuit and sent the court a letter (PDF) in which he challenged the Illinois court's jurisdiction and denied the plaintiff's allegations. The court treated the letter as a motion to dismiss, and in due time apparently denied it.

On Saturday, the court entered a civil default judgment (PDF) against Fortuny in the amount of $74,252.56 for damages, legal fees and costs.

The court also granted the injunctive relief sought by the plaintiff. Mr. Fortuny's website is now completely blank. µ

L'Inq
Citizen Media Law Project