While visiting the SDMB today I was presented with an excessively obnoxious pop-up ad. I’ll have to describe it as I don’t know to link to such a thing:
It’s a photograph of Hawking and made to look like official news story with Anderson Cooper reporting. “Stephen Hawking Says Michigan Smart Pill Is Proven To Double Question,” it reads.
Assuming neither of the two would actually associate with such an obvious scam I wonder how a business gets away with this? Can they somehow legally use those images as long as the subjects are paid? Are they just trying to get away with something until they receive a cease and desist letter? Can they be punished?
How an a fly land on a horse’s ass and bite it when obviously that violates the horse’s right to bodily integrity?
Oh, yeah. The fly doesn’t care and does what it can until it gets flicked off by he horse’s tail.
The anonymity and rapid responsiveness of the internet means that you can do a lot of pop-up shit and get away with it, because the effort to pursue it is far beyond cost effectiveness. It would take a very special kind of bat-shit determinator to chase down this kind of “defamation” unless somehow it became viral and persistent.