MORE BASHERS IN COURT NEWS
Destiny Media files court cases to identify detractors
2013-12-11 13:44 ET - Street Wire
by Mike Caswell
Destiny Media Technologies Inc. has filed two petitions in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in which the company seeks to identify the authors of a series of defamatory forum posts. The company complains that the posts, which appeared on Investors Hub and Raging Bull, accused it or its chief executive officer of manipulation and insider trading. The company says it has no practical way to identify the posters without a court order.
The allegations are contained in two petitions that Destiny and its CEO, Steve Vestergaard, filed on Dec. 6, 2013, at the Vancouver courthouse. The first petition names as a respondent Sherwood Ventures LLC, operator of the Raging Bull website. Destiny quotes a series of messages from the user "Musikmoney" that appeared on the site between Jan. 4, 2012, and Dec. 7, 2012.
One post, dated Jan. 19, 2012, read: "2012 will prove to be epic, with more losses to come maybe another inider buy scam will have to be initiated to make HEADLINE NEWS.............LOL." Another post, dated March 14, 2012, read: "Once the financials hit everyone will realize that the company has no growth, and has no plans for future growth except its class AAA legal team. Pissstreem hasn't produced any real reveune since the company began slurrping the coolaide 5 years ago."
Other messages that the petition quotes appear to have been aimed at Mr. Vestergaard. One, dated May 5, 2012, read: "wuts a ceo weenie to do?? answer: try to find another market tot destroy! YUP!" Another, dated June 4, 2012, stated: "I wonder if Sleeve has finished selling those BVI shares yet.....offshore = no reporting requirements LOLLOLOLOL."
The final message on Raging Bull that the company complains of appeared on Dec 7, 2012. It stated, "looks like all the manipulation in ht eworld cant stop afalling knife? no product, no revenues, no growth, and zero in the pipeline leads to more gagbage coming."
According to the petition, the messages are clearly defamatory. They imply or accuse Destiny and Mr. Vestergaard of deception, misfeasance, dereliction of duty, stock manipulation and insider trading. The messages have also caused the company and Mr. Vestergaard to be regarded with feelings of hatred, contempt, ridicule, dislike or disesteem, the petition states.
The second petition names as a respondent InvestorsHub.com Inc., operator of the Investors Hub website. The company complains about messages by four users that appeared between March, 2013, and November, 2013.
One set of messages, by the user "Anydaynow," criticized Destiny's Clipstream product, which the company touts as an on-line media player. A post dated March 24, 2013, read, "They bungled clipstream again and the only reason the shares are still at this level is because of the Buy Back program which is almost filled." Another message, two days later, stated, "You don't need a PR firm to tell the world you failed." A further message, dated July 15, 2013, said, "And maybe's there some value in this company but after reading the results I now know this is nothing but a hot air balloon waiting to crash."
The company further complains about another set of posts on Investors Hub, by the user "Brooklyn13," which criticized Clipstream and made other accusations. One, dated Nov. 14, 2013, read, "It's a pump job, but believe it if you must." Another, nine days later, read, "net income has been decreasing steadily since 2010 and is now 1/4 of what it was then. let's hear the new round of excuses."
The final posts that the company complains of appeared in November, 2013, written by users "Dow18K" and "Onedayyyyyyyyyy." The posts by Dow18K mostly questioned the company's Clipstream technology, saying that "HTML 5 compliant browsers do it for free."
The Onedayyyyyyyyyy posts criticized the company for not launching Clipstream sooner. "I think by not launching the company is helping the short sellers bring down the pps so that company officials can buy the stock cheaper. Thus management and the short sellers both win. When the short sellers are happy with their gains they get out and buy the stock along with management," a Nov, 27, 2013, post read.
Like the posts on Raging Bull, the company claims that the messages on Investors Hub accused it or Mr. Vestergaard of deception, dereliction of duty, stock manipulation and insider trading. The posts have also caused the company and Mr. Vestergaard to be regarded with hatred, contempt, ridicule and dislike, according to the petition.
In both petitions the company seeks IP addresses, physical addresses, names, e-mail addresses or any other identifying information for the users. Vancouver lawyer Randall Hordo of Hordo Bennett Mounteer LLP filed the petitions on Destiny's behalf.
The company closed at $2.15 Tuesday, down 15 cents.