XIRCOM SUES OVER ONLINE COMMENTS; FIRM SAYS UNKNOWN USER HURT COMPANY.Byline: Deborah Adamson Daily News Staff Writer Xircom Inc. has filed a lawsuit against an Internet user Internet user n → internauta m/f Internet user Internet n → internaute m/f who posted messages on a financial chat site that the company considers defamatory def·a·ma·tion n. The act of defaming; calumny. de·fam  a·to ry adj. . But the Thousand Oaks-based maker of computer peripherals for mobile computing Using a computing device while in transit. Mobile computing implies wireless transmission, but wireless transmission does not necessarily imply mobile computing. Fixed wireless applications use satellites, radio systems and lasers to transmit between permanent objects such as buildings doesn't know the real identity of the alleged troublemaker, who identifies himself or herself in Yahoo! message boards as ``A View From Within'' and an engineer at the company. Xircom has subpoenaed Yahoo! for the identity of its accuser ACCUSER. One who makes an accusation. . Yahoo! declined to comment on Xircom's case, but said it has the right to comply with subpoenas or law enforcement requests as spelled out in the online users agreement. In the lawsuit filed last week at the Ventura County Superior Court against ``John Doe John Doe formerly, any plaintiff; now just anybody. [Am. Pop. Usage: Brewer Dictionary, 329] See : Everyman ,'' Xircom is asking for at least $25,000 in damages, claiming that the Internet writer's messages have harmed the company. The company also alleges that the writer, if indeed an employee, has breached an employment contract that calls for secrecy about Xircom's operations, marketing plans and strategies. ``He was critical of the company, attacked key management people, made allegations regarding product defects and said the company was withholding Withholding Any tax that is taken directly out of an individual's wages or other income before he or she receives the funds. Notes: In other words, these funds are "withheld" from your wages. that information and covering it up,'' said Randall Holliday, Xircom's general counsel. In messages posted on April 12 and April 22, ``A View From Within'' said the company is hiding the problems of Xircom's RealPort product, whose connectors are ``extremely fragile and break very easily.'' The writer also observed that ``management seems disconnected from the work force,'' causing workers to be unhappy. Two sales executives are called bozos, and the sales director is called a joke who is ``more concerned with finding his lost hair gel than he is about sales growth.'' Holliday said he regularly checks Internet messages about Xircom because the company wants to know what the public is saying. But the attorney also makes sure that these comments don't ``cross the line.'' Matthew Spitzer, a law professor specializing in telecommunications regulations at the University of Southern California The U.S. News & World Report ranked USC 27th among all universities in the United States in its 2008 ranking of "America's Best Colleges", also designating it as one of the "most selective universities" for admitting 8,634 of the almost 34,000 who applied for freshman admission , said Internet users have to be careful when they post messages that many people can read. While an e-mail written in the privacy of one's home has the illusion of a private correspondence, it's actually a public document when it's posted on a message board for the world to see, Spitzer said. As such, libel and slander libel and slander, in law, types of defamation. In common law, written defamation was libel and spoken defamation was slander. Today, however, there are no such clear definitions. laws apply. ``Don't post messages on the Internet unless you're comfortable about them being published on the front pages of a newspaper,'' he advised. |
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