Internet Slander and Posting of Personal Info

[help_in_TN]

From TN, USA:

I am 19 years old and have lived independently from my parents since November 2004,
in an apartment. I'm working on the internet, and trying to do so ethically in spite
of what I face with my competition. I believe that good hard work will always win out.

I have been slandered online by the administrator of a popular internet forum for users of a
specific medication. I joined the forum, and my membership was approved AFTER being reviewed
by a staff member. In the registration, I entered a link to my own forum in the signature
area. I proceeded to post asking and answering legitimately. The admin then deleted my posts,
slandered me, and posted my personal information for public viewing, just to threaten me
somehow.

They said that just because my website is also a forum for Phentermine users, that
I'm infringing on copyright laws and plagiarising. They said they will take legal action.
The publicly called me a thief and posted my name, address, city, state, zip code,
email address, phone number, and IP address of my computer.

Their privacy policy states that they retain the right to publish any personal info I ever
give to them, without my consent, at any time. However, I didn't give this information to
them. They found it somehwere else on the net, I guess.

I was told by another former member of this forum that the admin did something
similar to her. Apparently, she was told she would be entitled to a certain
prize at after a certain number of forum posts, and she never received it.
After innocently addressing this problem, her account was deleted, and
the admin proceeded to post her personal address and full name all for
public viewing. She is angry also, but I'm not sure if she wants to pursue
a court case.

What can I do? I just though people might be interested in my forum also,
since we discuss more general health and exercise issues than the people
at the slanderer's forum.

The company that owns the slandering forum is most likely very wealthy,
and could probably pay a lot for an attourney. I don't have much money,
but I do have the support of people from the slanderer's forum, and my own
forum.

 

[divgradcurl]

What can I do?

Find another place to discuss your common issues. There really isn't anything you can do about these guys except ignore them, and move on. None of the information they posted -- name, address, etc. -- is private information, it's all public record, so there isn't anything you can do to them for posting public information.

Best bet -- forget about it and move on.