eBay and three former executives agreed to pay nearly $56 million in a settlement over a macabre campaign of cyberstalking and harassment that targeted two journalists in 2019.
As we’ve previously written, the case involved deliveries of live cockroaches, a funeral wreath, a book about surviving the loss of a spouse, and a bloody pig mask to the home of a couple who run a news website. There were also harassing messages sent via email and Twitter, and an attempt to install a GPS tracking device on the victims’ car. Criminal charges resulted in guilty pleas and prison terms for former eBay employees.
This is class warfare. The wealthy thought they could get away with targeted harassment just because they’re used to getting their way, and they know there’s two tiers of justice.
I’m glad the journalists won, as they should have, but there is an ever-growing list of regular people who didn’t.
Note that this happened in 2019 and is only finally seeing justice now. My own legal battle cost around $25,000 per year. That’s not something most people would be able to afford for 7 years straight.
I knew the guy that produced the Meatloaf album, signed a distribution deal with SONY, then spent 20 years suing them to get his money.
He finally won, SONY settled, and I saw him less than a week later. I asked him how much he got, of course, and he couldn’t tell me, but said that it was “More money than I ever thought I’d see in my lifetime.”
Then I asked him if it was worth it, and he said it was, but it was still a hard road: “I got divorced, went bankrupt twice, became an alcoholic a few times, and constantly wondered if it was all worth it, but I finally won.”
He seemed pleased at his win, but not celebratory. I think he was happier that it was finally over, and he had something substantial to show for it.
So he got his credits on the album, and a LOT of money, but within a couple of years, he was back to suing SONY, because they STILL weren’t sending him his royalties.
I once knew someone at SONY, and I tapped him for a contact for a friend I knew with a great band, and he said “If this guy is truly your friend, don’t let him sign with SONY. We’ve got two floors of lawyers whose entire job is to fuck people over.”
Damn, that sucks. But yeah, legal battles are so exhausting that even when you win you just feel tired.
My legal fight is paid for entirely by my government, which is great because it’s their fault I’m in it
And there are two tiers, most of them didn’t even get charged with criminal charges.