Douglas Berger & Meguro Counseling v. John Doe & Reddit, Inc. (2018) -

[Feline Darkmage]

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/2...ditors-criticizing-his-therapy-services.shtml

While there may be some actionable statements in the Reddit-Berger dogpile, a majority of the comments are critical opinions. The problem is the suit targets everything Berger doesn't like, rather than just the edge cases where defamation may have occurred. Given his past attempts to silence critical Redditors, this looks like an escalation meant to deter future negative comments, rather than seek retribution for the few times he may have been legally wronged. The problem with this tactic is it so very rarely works. If Berger doesn't like the current state of Reddit, he's going to find it much more unbearable once the backlash begins. Reputation management begins at home -- or rather, at the office. Unless all of these Redditors are lying, Berger's psychiatric offerings seem to have been consistently subpar. Seems like the smarter move would have been providing better service rather than seeking to silence unhappy patients after the fact.

Dr. Douglas Berger is a psychiatrist currently working in Japan, despite not being licensed to practice by that nation. He is licensed in America and works with the Meguro Counseling Center in the American state of Florida, which is also included as a plaintiff in this lolsuit.

Reddit, Inc is the corporation that owns the website reddit.com, which is a social media/news & link aggregate forum.

Dr Berger alleges that several John Doe/Anonymous posters used reddit.com posts to defame him because the accounts in question posted highly negative opinions of him. He wants to force reddit to hand over the identifying information (including full legal names, email addresses, birthdays, and location) of these users so he can include them in the case.

The redditors have raised defense funds from a GoFundMe campaign and hired Attorney Marc Randazza to represent their side of the case.

Attached is the PDF file for the entire suit, provided by techraptor.

 

[Null]

Randazza

I have a very strong suspicion I'm going to meet this man one day.

Though the flaw right off the bat with his case is you don't name the publication as a co-defendant. You just subpoena them during discovery. Like, idk, maybe I don't know as much as I think I do but I'm pretty sure that's how it works. Not suing a big company is also a great way to get what you want and actually win without pissing off a bunch of virtue signalling slacktivists.

 

[usernames can change now!]

The information he's trying to get from Reddit is, uh, interesting. Considering Reddit probably doesn't have half of it (first name, last name, fucking postal code? does he think reddit does shipping to the door for downvotes?) and the rest would be considered overreaching and only useful for harassing and threatening people, or is downright useless (yeah reddit traffic goes through ports 80 and 443 who knew right).

I feel like his "information request" is meant to be Big Scary Menacing rather than effective. Can a judge slap him for that?

 

[Feline Darkmage]

The information he's trying to get from Reddit is, uh, interesting. Considering Reddit probably doesn't have half of it (first name, last name, fucking postal code? does he think reddit does shipping to the door for downvotes?) and the rest would be considered overreaching and only useful for harassing and threatening people, or is downright useless (yeah reddit traffic goes through ports 80 and 443 who knew right).

You can even make a reddit account without giving them an email. And even if you do give them an email, that and the username is about the only thing users give them directly. They could probably get IP addresses and session times depending on how their servers are set up. But even in that case, who's to say they aren't just using a proxy/VPN?

In short, Dr. Douglas Berger is literally retarded and I would not use his counseling services.

edit: found his twitter, doesn't seem to be talking about the suit on it though. But he does use it to shill a bunch of his webpages, probabl to get better SEO for his name.
https://twitter.com/douglas_berger1?lang=en

 

[mindlessobserver]

What is with the Randazza law group and representing exceptional people over internet crimes?

 

[Feline Darkmage]

What is with the Randazza law group and representing exceptional people over internet crimes?

Randazza is defending the redditors from this retarded law suit and previously defended ED/Zaiger from JonMon.

 

[Done]

Randazza is defending the redditors from this exceptional law suit and previously defended ED/Zaiger from JonMon.

LOL, I think mindlessobserver's statement still holds just fine with the individuals you mentioned, even the anonymous redditors are probably into something idiotic.

This is a very strange case though, I understand the aim of the "practitioner", but why would the redditors even bother to show up in court? They probably gave very little info to Reddit while registering. Plus Reddit will probably contest the case on its own and win anyways.

 

[mindlessobserver]

Randazza is defending the redditors from this exceptional law suit and previously defended ED/Zaiger from JonMon.

Ahh, my mistake. I do know every time there is an internet lolsuit, there is at least a 1 in 4 chance Randazza is involved somehow.

 

[HG 400]

What is with the Randazza law group and representing exceptional people over internet crimes?

Randazza is defending the redditors from this exceptional law suit and previously defended ED/Zaiger from JonMon.

Yes. So, what's with Randazza representing exceptional people over internet crimes?

 

[Wallace]

Mike Randazza is very pro-free speech; he's a guest writer at Popehat. He's defended a lot of people against butthurt exceptional people.

 

[AnOminous]

Yes. So, what's with Randazza representing exceptional people over internet crimes?

He digs it. It's his life mission to defend Internet retards using the magic of the Constitution.

Also he sometimes makes money doing it.

 

[Splendid]

Randazza = @AnOminous?