some bad feedback on Molycor... may not be the same; but shows disent on another posting board
What the hell is that, running two shows at the same time. He is a PRO in the CON SHOW." (The comments referred to in quotations are reproduced from the statement of claim, representing what appeared on the Bullboards.) Tooper was back at his keyboard the next day, Feb. 5. He posted another rant about Mr. R: "Re: LARRY R. will suck you in. Who are you kidding, they are all CONS, it's just that he is a bigger one. This guys history stinks, check him out if you dare." The next post, made the same day at 13 minutes to midnight, was in response to a news release posted by Adanac about the potential at Adanac's molybdenum project, in which Tooper blared, "POTENTIAL, THAT WILL MEAN NOTHING IN THE END. JUST WORDS TO PUMP UP THE STOCK." On Feb. 6, Tooper posted only one comment: "SEEN THIS PUMP UP SCAM BEFORE. ONE pump up B.S. story, one after another just to keep you HUNGRY, It will be easy for them to say they tried and failed, When all said and done Larry will go back to pumping Molycor, for more suckers, and boy are there a lot here." By Feb. 9, after taking a break over the weekend, Tooper was back at his keyboard. He posted six comments in Adanac's forum, three talking about some sort of pump and dump scam, another alleging that the company was using market makers to move shares between brokerages, and two more casting negative aspersions on Mr. R. Feb. 11's sole posting was a warning from Tooper: "I don't own this stock in anyway. I know what they're up to. And you will get screwed in the END. This people will suck you dry, the STOCK WILL BE BACK AT 10CENTS, they are far from honest. If you get in and out, lucky for you, but you will have to do it on the way down. you will see." Tooper was back at it with a vengeance on Feb. 12. The nameless knave posted over and over about Adanac's stock being pumped up. The day began with a post at 8:25 a.m., saying: "The truth hurts, and so does losing your money. This stock is going to tank, just like it is now. The big run is over, they pumped up the stock and did most of the selling, they will let it sink to gather more shares then pump it up again to sell on B.S. Don't get trapped." Tooper signed off the day at 7:05 p.m. with more of the same. Feb. 13's post read: "SCAM GONE BAD. Two heavy days of selling, now what do they do, no buying on this hot stock, dead in the water. Looks like they will have to put out another BS NEWSRELEASE, don't be fooled, they are PROS, Why there is no buying now, they will see when the bids start to build." By this time, Adanac and Mr. R had been alerted to the postings on the Stockhouse forum. On their behalf, Teresa P, Adanac's corporate secretary, made a complaint through the Stockhouse Web site "report a Bullboard violation" function. No action was taken, and on Feb. 16, Ms. P called Stockgroup's Vancouver offices and was told that they had no record of her complaint. She was told that she would have to use the Web site complaint function to request that posts be removed. Ms. P later received a call from Stockgroup, advising her that her initial complaint had been located and that the posting had been removed. Ms. P was also told that she was going to have to make a separate complaint about every comment that she wanted removed from the Stockhouse forum. Ms. P did just that, making a complaint for each allegedly defamatory posting written about Adanac or Mr. R by Tooper. Stockhouse removed all the complained-of postings by Tooper and suspended Tooper's membership privileges for one week, as was its standard procedure. The lawsuit claims that Stockgroup refused to ban Tooper permanently, unless the plaintiffs could obtain a court order to that effect. One week later, on Feb. 23, with his forum posting privileges restored, Tooper returned, leaning heavily on his caps lock, "AUA, WILL NEVER EVER BE A MINE, NOT ON THIS PLANET, THIS SCAM WILL SOON DIE." Three more posts appeared on Feb. 24, claiming once again that Adanac was a scam, and that shareholders would lose their money if they were to buy the stock. Later on Feb. 24, another individual, identified in the lawsuit as burrowsj, wrote a message in the Adanac forum with the subject, "Tooper may be right! EOM." The plaintiffs state that this posting indicates that others were adopting and endorsing the comments of Tooper. On Feb, 25, Ms. P yet again went through the process of filing complaints about Tooper's latest comments. On March 3, Ms. P contacted Stockgroup and was told that the Stockhouse membership privileges for Tooper had been suspended indefinitely. The lawsuit claims that Mr. Doe/Tooper has threatened and intends to repeat the comments complained of, or to make similar comments. The plaintiffs claim that their characters, credit and reputations have been seriously injured. The lawsuit claims an injunction to force Stockgroup to remove from the Bullboards any defamatory messages from Tooper not already taken down, an injunction preventing Stockgroup from letting Tooper post any more messages, and an injunction compelling Stockgroup to disclose the identify of Mr. Doe/Tooper and his address, as well as any other aliases used by Mr. Doe. The lawsuit also claims damages and costs. Furthermore, say the plaintiffs, "Statements transmitted and published over Stockhouse.ca about particular companies are accessible by millions of individuals including potential investors." The lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia on March 14, 2004, by Vancouver lawyer Ravinder R.S. Uppal of Fraser and Company. The allegations in the statement of claim have not yet been addressed or proven before the courts, and no statement of defence has yet been filed. Returning to the judgment in the above-mentioned Vaquero libel case, Madam Justice C.A. Kent stated: "Because an e-mail is anonymous, a reader is not readily able to discount comments that are made. There is a greater risk that the defamatory remarks are believed." (The judge referred to forum postings as E-mails, in her judgment.) This decision seems to fly in the face of the trend on Internet postings, to give the weight of anonymously posted comments, many of which appear as the illiterate rantings of the uninformed, as much weight as one would give to graffiti. Nonetheless, there was a 2001 decision in Britain that Web site operator Motley Fool Ltd. was required to turn over the identity of an individual who was anonymously posting defamatory information on a discussion board. These two cases may influence the decision in the Adanac case, if it ever gets to trial, although B.C. judges are not bound by precedent set in neighbouring provinces or in England. Adanac closed at 29 cents on March 18, down from 41 cents on Feb. 4, when Tooper started his posting spree. Trading had spiked to a high of 50 cents on Feb. 6, a day of relatively heavy trading for the company.
