October 11, 2007 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Web hosting provider AIT has filed a defamation lawsuit against Fayetteville Publishing Company (FPC), it was announced recently. The lawsuit also covers FPC reporter, Mr. Paul Woolverton, and a number of “John Does”.
The action is based on the allegation that Mr. Woolverton and FPC “were the authors of false and defamatory publications concerning AIT and its employees posted via the websites aitsucks.com and aitsucks.net.” AIT were awarded ownership of these sites as a result of legal action and on reviewing the sites’ server logs, established “as many as seven different authors posted false and defamatory comments concerning AIT using a unique IP Address owned by FPC”. According to AIT, the authors were making defamatory postings “in retaliation to a click fraud complaint filed with law enforcement as well as a lawsuit filed against FPC” which alleges “FPC committed online click fraud against local, classified and national advertisers”.
“We received the logs from web hosting company AIT, and it appeared to us that this traffic is repetitive and manufactured,” explained Scott Boyenger, CEO for Click Defense, a company dedicated to trying click fraud cases. “The type of click fraud alleged in this lawsuit is new and very clever. The traffic patterns and IP addresses blend with the ISP’s address space and make it appear like legitimate traffic.
In 2005, AIT led a class action lawsuit by online advertisers against Google that was settled for $90 million. The company worked with the FBI and Senate Judiciary Committee regarding click fraud and its potential ties to funding organized crime and terrorism.
