back to article Ashley Madison lawsuit drops GoDaddy and Amazon as defendants

Amazon and GoDaddy have been dropped as defendants in an ongoing lawsuit over hosted data from have-an-affair site Ashley Madison – as the plaintiffs try and force offending websites to delete the data ahead of any future trial. As we reported last week, three John Doe plaintiffs filed a complaint against Amazon Web Services, …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Extremely funny, companies with a lot more legal and monetary firepower than these clowns have being trying to silence uncomfortable data on the web for years without success.

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Yeah, well when you're too stupid to put the money in properly securing your data, it seems to be a reflex to put it down in trying to plug leaks. It's useless, obviously, but hey, if they were intelligent they would've done a better job of the security in the first place, so . . .

      Of course, this remark has nothing to do with the 17 other defendants who do not appear to be AM manglement. Maybe they don't know that there is no way to put the cat back in the bag on the Internet. Maybe they've never heard of the Streisand effect. Maybe they do know and still have a good reason to go through with this useless action. I do wonder why they're putting themselves in the same basket as those who are responsible for their problems in the first place, though.

      But I find it hilarious that AM management is now claiming "irreparable damages". All those emails joking about security improvements must be haunting their nights now. And that's a good thing.

  2. Ashton Black

    Isn't the cat already out of the bag?

    The harm is already done, as it were. Just from a quick search (not google) shows it doesn't take that long to get access to the data and it's in a place not mentioned in this case (granted it could be one of the 16 Roes). They will only create a longer trail to get access, not shut it off completely. Oh, and then there's the Streisand effect to consider.

  3. sjaddy
    WTF?

    irreparable injury?

    Is that the irreparable injury that will be caused by their spouses taking them to the cleaners for signing up and trying to cheat?

    I know this is a stupid thought but if you are going to do something like this then you have to be ready for the consequences.

    What would have happened had they been with their partners and an email alert popped up on their screen saying they had a match (if that's how it works?). Would they then have wanted to sue Apple/Android for having notifications pop up on the lock screen.

    Why can't people take responsibility for their actions?

    1. fajensen
      FAIL

      Re: irreparable injury?

      #ERROR ${people} & ${actions} && ${responsibility} UNDEFINED. That's "Why".

      One would assume that having millions of (innocent-of-any-crime) people's data shat across the internet because of incompetent wankers charging them for providing a broken service besides lying about deleting peoples accounts (and allowing, no, actually encouraging, fake accounts since they also lied about the wimmen) is *really* the problem here?

      Who knows "what would have happened" maybe they are swingers or something - it's peoples own, private, business "what happens / what should happen" and what they do with their floppy parts.

      1. sjaddy

        Re: irreparable injury?

        So it isn't about people trying to earn a quick buck and suing everyone?

        I am not condoning the way that AM conducted their business but go after them - not the people hosting the data.

        1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

          Re: irreparable injury?

          Quote

          So it isn't about people trying to earn a quick buck and suing everyone

          That is SOP in the USA. Make a part for a car and it crashes due to a defect Then be prepared to be used even though your bit of the car might not have failed.

          Gotta keep all those lawyers busy now!

    2. CarolZu

      Re: irreparable injury?

      Anyone suing is known to their spouse. Most of the spouses know at this point, plenty of people have made it their mission to ensure that. It's the community damage people are trying to control at this point... and how much it follows them for the remainder of their life on the clear web. What's the appropriate life sentence for going onto a morally shady website?

      Considering the number of females named in the data whose cards were used to fund MALE accounts (remember, females could chat up males for free) is it really hard to believe there may be people named and damaged within their communities who didn't actually deserve community shaming? What about the guy who voyeuristically perused it for a laugh and then paid to delete without ever buying credits? Should he be shamed at the same rate as the guy who bought an affair guarantee? What about the couples who were on there together and didn't really want their kids to know?

      Owning up is done and over, now it's about how long everyone has to pay for it.

      1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

        Re: What's the appropriate life sentence for going onto a morally shady website?

        People are starting to realize that there is only one time zone on the Internet : Now. Everything you do, everywhere you go, everything you post is something that can be recorded and, once recorded, will never disappear.

        As such, when acting on the Internet, you have to keep in mind that you might need to defend your acts at some point in the future, and you cannot count on anyone to keep whatever shady stuff secret. Some do, but it's a bad idea to count on it.

        It is a harsh lesson, and some will pay more dearly to learn it than others, but this AM business will at least serve as an additional warning to people : your data is not secret on the Web.

      2. Hans 1
        Happy

        Re: irreparable injury?

        >Anyone suing is known to their spouse. Most of the spouses know at this point, plenty of people have made it their mission to ensure that.

        Yes, and what do the spouses know ? That their loved one was fooled into signing up on a cheating website where he had absolutely zarro chances of finding a match ? I would think that is rather funny, would you not ?

        Good laugh and off to bed ;-)

        1. toughluck

          @Hans 1: More fool them.

          It doesn't matter whether they had 0 chance or 100% chance. Intent counts, and it doesn't matter if the user got laid or not, they still need to explain themselves, but that's between him/her and his/her spouse.

          If you hold somebody at gunpoint, you don't need to pull the trigger for a cop to stop you.

  4. Velv
    Facepalm

    If they actually manage to win anything, their lawyers in this case will take a chunk then their partners lawyers will take the rest in the divorce settlement

  5. Adam 1

    I have some photos of Barbara Streisand's house they may be interested in...

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