AfterTek

Pro-golfer Fuzzy Zoeller is suing the owner of an IP address for placing defamatory remarks about him on wikipedia. The remarks stated that Zoeller allegedly abused drugs, alcohol, and his family. The allegations were posted on Wikipedia on December 20, 2006, but have now been removed.

Prevented by law from suing Wikipedia, pro-golfer Fuzzy Zoeller is suing the owner of an IP address from where allegedly defamatory remarks were posted onto Wikipedia alleging that he abused drugs, alcohol and his family in what could set a precedent for online defamation cases. The IP address that was used to post the remarks came from an education consultant firm Josef Ailny & Associates. When asked about the incident Mr. Silny stated that he has no idea who could have used their computer systems to post these offending remarks.

Apparently this is not the first incident where someone has been accused of false accusations on Wikipedia. John Seigenthaler, the former assistant to Robert Kennedy, was also falsely accused of being an accomplice in the assasinations of the Kennedy brothers. Wikipedia is now taking precautions to prevent anymore of these things from happening.

However despite the security upgrades which see some pages locked completely, users who earn the right to access files are still able to change pages that have remained unlocked, making the Wikipedia encyclopedia vulnerable to such defamation attacks or other inaccurate information.

According to the Associated Press the following statement comes from paragraph 11 of the lawsuit and includes the alleged remarks: “Later (Mr. Doe) went public with his alcoholism and prescription drug addiction, explaining that at the time he made those statements, he was ‘in the process of polishing off a fifth of Jack (Daniels) after popping a handful of Vicodin pills’.”

The statement continues that: “He further detailed the violent nature of his disease, recalling how he’d viciously beat his wife Dianne and their four children while under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. He also admitted feigning a ruptured spinal disc in 1985 so as to be prescribed a multitude of prescription medication. He has since sought professional help and mended his fractured familial relationships. In May 2006, (Mr. Doe) said in a interview with Golf Digest magazine that he hadn’t beaten his wife in nearly five years.”

These paragraphs have now been removed from Zoeller’s Wikipedia entry, with Silny mystified and engaging a computer consultant to conduct an internal investigation, while Wikipedia claim not to have been informed of the case until it hit the media.

Zoeller was previously the subject of embarrassment over remarks towards Tiger Woods, which cost him endorsement deals at the time, with Wikipedia listing the reported comments from the 1997 Masters regarding the championship dinner as:“Tell him not to serve fried chicken next year. Got it? … or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve”, which was reported to have the potential of being construed as racially discriminatory.