They were named as a conspirator in the lawsuit based upon our belief that they were hosting PinkMeth or providing it with services that have allowed its operators to continue to escape justice.įirst off, Tor doesn’t host anything. The TOR Project Inc., (“TOR”) is a slightly different story. After the internet started trying to explain to Van Dyke how Tor worked, he first shrugged that he could dismiss the Tor Project later if he wants, and then issued a hilarious press release in which he tries to both back up his attack on the Tor Project and prime himself to back down against them at the same time. In fact, many of the direct claims against Pinkmeth itself are likely protected under Section 230 as well, but we’ll get to that. Of course, Tor is just a tool, and claiming there was any “meeting of the minds,” let alone any possible liability here, is ridiculous. The specific object to be accomplished by the conspiracy was the publication pornographic images of Plaintiff (and other women) on the Pinkmeth website in such a manner so as to prevent its operators and users from being held civilly and criminally accountable for this unlawful behavior. Pinkmeth and TOR conspired to and had a meeting of the minds regarding the commission certain torts against Plaintiff more adequately described in paragraphs 5.1 – 5.15 above, as well as certain felony offense described in paragraph 4.8 and 4.9 above. Van Dyke, who does not seem to understand how Tor functions, or to have ever come across Section 230 of the CDA, is trying to claim that the Tor project is liable as part of a “conspiracy” with Pinkmeth:
In response, the folks behind Pinkmeth set up the site as a Tor Hidden Service, like many other such hidden services (like the Silk Road). First, it appears that a year and a half ago, Van Dyke was somehow able to get a judge to order the domain put on hold by VeriSign. Let’s start with the most problematic aspects of the lawsuit, though, and that’s lumping Tor into the lawsuit with Pinkmeth. As nice as it would be to get Pinkmeth to shut down, abusing the law is no way to do it. Jason Van Dyke didn’t just stretch the law, he seems to have decided to jump on a bulldozer and plow it right through the law with a legal filing so bad it makes you wonder how Van Dyke ever passed the bar. We’ve been happy to see some of the folks who run these sites arrested - when it appears there are legitimate charges against them - but have been fearful about how others are trying to stretch the law to go after them. We’ve written a bunch about revenge porn over the last few years, and hopefully most of us can agree that the folks who run these sites are horrible people, encouraging others to upload naked photos of unwitting folks, while often running a related extortion-like scam to get people to pay up to have their photos removed. It should be noted, first of all, that Pinkmeth is yet another revenge porn site. And that, it seems, is exactly what Jason Lee Van Dyke has done in filing a lawsuit against the Tor Project and.
Jason Lee Van Dyke is a lawyer in Texas whose own website describes himself as the “meanest lawyer in Texas” (technically it says “meanest lawyers” but the “attorneys” tab on his website only lists him.) Either way, his site promises “a highly practical ‘no bullshit’ approach to the practice of law.” It also notes that the Van Dyke law firm is “unafraid of using novel arguments and tactics if we think that our clients may benefit from them.” Novel arguments and tactics can be a good thing… but it kinda goes the other way when you’re making a clearly bogus argument, ignoring basic existing safe harbor laws, potentially dragging all sorts of totally unrelated parties into court, while seeking a broad injunction that clearly violates the First Amendment.