Website hit with $11 million judgment for post

[BridgeTheGap]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A gossip website has been hit with an $11 million judgment for libel and slander after posting false accusations about a northern Kentucky teacher who sidelines as a Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader.

The judgment against Dirty World Entertainment Recordings, which runs the site Thedirt.com, came Thursday after the site declined to answer a lawsuit brought by Sarah Jones, a high school teacher whose picture was posted on the site along with an accusation she had been exposed to two venereal diseases.

U.S. District Judge William O. Bertelsman added an annual interest rate of 0.25 percent to the $1 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages.

An e-mail message sent to the operator of the Arizona-based website, Hooman Karamian, who uses the online name "Nik Ritchie," was not immediately returned Thursday morning.

Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2010/08/26/1407999/website-hit-with-11-million-judgment.html#ixzz0xiqFziqe

[zipplewrath]

1. That's a good way to lose

"The judgment ... came Thursday after the site declined to answer a lawsuit..."

That's a real good way to lose a lawsuit. But it doesn't exactly set a precedent either. Truth is, the decision can be vacated if they get a lawyer and finally "shows up".

[Skink]

2. rec, unrec, alert, FINE.

yeah

[asjr]

3. Isn't that the same website Ben Quayle

started? Sounds like it. I think his was "dirty" something.

[starroute]

7. Yes, it is -- he didn't start it, though, just posted there

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/08/ben-quayle-denies-writing-for.html

After initially denying the allegations, Arizona House candidate Ben Quayle (R), son of former vice president Dan Quayle, admitted on Tuesday that he used to post comments on a Web site called "Dirty Scottsdale" several years ago, Politico reports.

The site's founder, Hooman Karamian, alleged in a Monday post on TheDirty that Quayle was "one of the original contributors" to the site, which featured sexy photos of women and "chronicled the city's clubs and nightlife and the predecessor to the popular gossip website TheDirty.com."

[femrap]

4. That news brightened my day. nt

[Bitwit1234]

5. If a website can be sued for publishing what appears to be a lie

how come Fox can't be sued for what we know and have proved are lies and slander.

[foxfeet]

6. Oh, you dreamer, you. nt