Reddit Subpoenaed In Wrongful Death Lawsuit 303
redletterdave writes "In March, a 51-year-old Reddit user named 'Black Visions' wrote his last post on Reddit. He had been writing frequently about depression and suicide, but in his last post where he also threatened his own suicide, others decided to egg him on even further. That turned out to the be the last straw: Seattle news soon reported Jerry had jumped eight stories from a hotel room in the Double Tree in Tukwila, Washington. Reddit announced on Wednesday that the user's sister Sandy has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against nine Reddit users who egged him on, and Reddit has also been subpoenaed in identifying the information of another three individuals."
Shouldn't be a crime (Score:5, Interesting)
On the internet, nobody knows if you are who you say you are. You could really be a depressed person, or you could be a 7 line perl script. You could be talking to a real 15 year old girl, or it could be an FBI agent. Then there's products like Siri, cleverbot, etc., that blur the line even further. But even if that problem could be 'solved', there is no way to know whether an internet identity is a single person or a group.
So given that identity is not provable online, why should people act like it is? Also, if you don't mod this post +5, I'm going to hang myself with a power cord.
Re:It's despicable, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
But I can't see how it's any more illegal than
It's not illegal. A 'wrongful death' lawsuit is a civil action, not a criminal one. In this country, you can be sued for anything. I can sue you for pointing out that suing people for stupid shit is stupid, or because you have a lower slashdot ID than I do. I'm perfectly serious here; citation [wikipedia.org]
Free Will vs. Raw Humanity (Score:0, Interesting)
While this is sad, on several if not all fronts, online forums are not an outlet for therapy. That is, unless that forum is dealing with therapy itself.
Simple fact is, he chose to go to reddit. He chose to air his problems. Yes I realize that when in depressed states people can think they appear to have no choice at all, but that all goes back to state of mind, regardless of exterior influence by people on reddit. Even moreso if he felt that was a place he felt a part of.
Now I don't browse reddit often, I should say maybe once a month, but if it's like every other open community on the net, the range of personalities extend to the full of humanity. See 'Greater Internet Dickwad Theory' for examples.
I feel for the girl suing, I really do, but nothing good is going to come out of this. Closure does not come out of a courtroom or through the Internet. It might seem like it can, but the physical and the virtual are 2 vastly different places. Especially when the death of a loved one is involved.
Re:Shouldn't be a crime (Score:5, Interesting)
This may be more appropriate than you realize. From a Reddit thread:
From this thread. [reddit.com]
Re:Shouldn't be a crime (Score:3, Interesting)
So... if you break up with your girlfriend and she jumps off a bridge because of it, then you're an accessory?
Re:It's despicable, but... (Score:2, Interesting)
Why would anyone want to stop the suicidal anyway? Our planet is vastly over populated and already straining for adequate resources. If someone wants to kill themselves, let them do it. Geeze!
Skeptical (Score:5, Interesting)
Comments on Reddit point out that
-- This has happened before in other places with a fake sister
-- the suicide was committed by jumping off a building, while the user threatened to commit suicide by shooting himself
-- the suicide happened several days after the nasty replies were deleted
-- the user's real name was supposedly Jerry, but the name of the man who killed himself was William.
Furthermore, carefully reading the Reddit link itself, Reddit has not received a subpoena. Rather, Reddit has been *told by the supposed sister of the user* that they *will be subpoenaed* in the future; at no point does Reddit claim to have actually received the subpoena. As a bonus, the man's supposed sister claims "We were told by our lawyer not to give any other information out such as our full names or the people to be named in the lawsuit", which makes her claims immune to verification.
It's quite likely that some troll saw a suicide in the newspaper and decided to claim that the suicide was connected when they were really just trolling. Ruling that out would require having the subpoena, not just having a claim that one was sent.
Re:It's despicable, but... (Score:4, Interesting)
This isn't a criminal charge, but a civil suit. I wouldn't be surprised if shouting "Jump!" at someone on a rooftop could expose one to such liability as well.