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by yucky 1344 days ago
Yes because thinking a BILLION dollar fine is absurd for saying dumb shit online, clearly means there should be no torts at all.

What it really means is for this fine to make sense, we need to start fining other people and companies TRILLIONS. I feel like I'm in an Austin Powers movie, or worse, on Reddit.
2 comments
tptacek 1344 days ago
It's not a BILLION. It's a BILLION divided by fifteen plaintiffs, which brings the per-plaintiff number to a high-but-precedented number.

The total number is nosebleed-high because Jones managed to be culpable for one of the most egregious defamation cases in 50 years against more than a dozen people simultaneously.

Also, because he boycotted the trial and lost it by default.

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yucky 1344 days ago
You say it's precedented, can you cite the precedence? The guy is/was a conspiracy blogger, that's it. You would think he destroyed the housing market or droned thousands of innocent children with that sort of fine. Which is what makes it so absurd.
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tptacek 1344 days ago
Can I cite the precedent of an individual plaintiff winning more than $50MM in a civil judgement? Sure. Hulk Hogan won $115MM in the Gawker case.
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yucky 1343 days ago
>Can I cite the precedent of an individual plaintiff winning more than $50MM in a civil judgement?

No, can you cite a precedent for someone being ordered to pay almost a billion dollars for saying a mean thing on a blog. You said it's precedented, I was asking for the precedent.

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thwayunion 1343 days ago
Oof. I'll do the sentence diagramming for you.

OP said: "It's not a BILLION. It's a BILLION divided by fifteen plaintiffs, which brings the per-plaintiff number to a high-but-precedented number."

Th adjective "precedented" modifies "number". In this sentence, "number" refers to the quantity "a BILLION divided by fifteen plaintiffs".

Clearly, it's the per-plaintiff number that OP refers to as "precedented", not the total sum.

Figuring out that "precedented" refers to 1B/15 in the above sentence requires roughly a fifth grade reading level. The fact that InfoWars has an audience is become less surprising by the comment.

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yucky 1343 days ago
Yes, you've defined what makes the judgement absurd. And because it's multiplicative and due solely to "mean words said on blog", then that leaves sane people to see how ridiculous the whole thing is.

Imagine for a minute if Trump decided to sue everyone who called him a Russian agent on TV or in writing. The award would be in the trillions.

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dctoedt 1341 days ago
> No, can you cite a precedent for someone being ordered to pay almost a billion dollars for saying a mean thing on a blog.

You're obsessing with the fact that the total of the individual damage awards is so high. But under the law, if you defame a lot of people, they each get their own individual damage awards; they don't have to share some abstract or artificial dollar amount between them.

So you want examples of high-dollar online defamation awards? LMGTFY: A Nevada guy won a $38 million jury verdict [0]. Three New Hampshire businessmen won a jury verdict of $274 million for defamatory billboards accusing them of being crooks [1]. A South Carolina mayor won a $50 million jury verdict against someone who sent defamatory emails [2]. I haven't looked to see whether these all stood up on appeal; feel free to do your own research.

[0] https://www.robertdmitchell.com/internet-defamation

[1] https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2017-09-29/jury-awards-record-b...

[2] https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/south-carolina/artic...

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kasey_junk 1344 days ago
What if he made 1.2 Billion off of his grift that attacked actual people?

He isn’t going to jail (which seems like it should be in play to me).

He’s just not able to keep any of his ill gotten gains. It’s really hard to feel sympathetic here.

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yucky 1344 days ago
We don't need to ask "what if" because we know he made nothing remotely close to a billion. So now what?
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tptacek 1344 days ago
If the judgement holds, all his liquidatable assets will be seized and his wages will be garnished perpetually until the total amount is paid or he is put in the ground. Not super complicated, I don't think?
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yucky 1343 days ago
I think you replied to the wrong comment, this response does not follow the post that was being replied to.
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pixl97 1344 days ago
Jones will appeal and the amount will be dropped, probably nearly 10 fold, which puts the payout in a range that Jones company has made.

It's like "babies first day in court" in this thread with all the ridiculous crap being said.

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