I’m Kamihikoki, a male member.
Papuwa and Mac, thank you for letting me step outside and take a few deep breaths! (*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)
This is also a duplicate post.
I hope it goes back to displaying normally soon! I hope this uneasy feeling goes away too!
I’m Mack, a columnist. Sorry for posting this twice.
For Papuwa’s benefit, let me explain a few things. Sōretsu says this is “obstruction of business by force,” but in this case I believe it would actually be “obstruction of business by deception.” Look up the difference if you’re interested.
Since it’s a criminal offense, you would report it to the police. It could be done through a lawyer, or directly by Universe’s representative—the method doesn’t matter. The appropriate department is the cybercrime division of the police station with jurisdiction. If Papuwa is in Aichi, that would be the Chū Police Station. Not every police station has such a department, so remember that.
That said, reporting it doesn’t necessarily mean the police will accept the case. The threshold is fairly high, and the cybercrime divisions are busy. They’ll act quickly on serious cases, such as bomb or murder threats, but something like vandalizing a message board is unlikely to be accepted, and even if it is, that may be the end of it. It’s the same everywhere: if you know someone on the inside or have connections, they’ll move, though.
At the same time, you could pursue a civil claim for damages. With 2channel, the servers may be overseas, which makes things complicated, but since this question box is an original Universe service, identifying the poster’s IP address should be relatively easy. Once you identify the IP address, you can request the user’s information from the ISP. However, ISPs don’t automatically disclose information just because someone requests it. You need a court injunction or judgment.
That means the legal fees keep piling up. Normally, people weigh the expected damages against the legal costs and decide it isn’t worth pursuing. But wealthy people can be frightening. They have time and money, and if they decide to go after someone, they may pursue it relentlessly without worrying about the expense. Once a lawsuit is filed against you, you have to respond, and even responding costs money, time, and stress. So some people will file a lawsuit purely to harass you, even when they know they’ll lose. It’s best not to pick a fight with wealthy people. Remember that.
If you report it to the police and they investigate and identify the person, you may be able to save the costs of obtaining an injunction or judgment to compel the ISP to disclose the sender’s information. In that sense, if the police accept the report, you could consider yourself lucky.
PS
When it comes to posts on community message boards such as 2channel, getting a case accepted as obstruction of business by deception is difficult. But the fact that this question box is located on Universe’s website is important.
If there are an unusually large number of “questions” submitted to this question box on the Universe website, and the content clearly isn’t really questions in the ordinary sense, I feel the police might accept it as obstruction of business by deception.
PPS
Also, identifying the poster’s information is a bit like opening a safe. What I mean is that if the person turns out to be a wealthy individual with a prominent social position, the fact that they were vandalizing a dating-club question box would be embarrassing. So they may agree to settlement negotiations to avoid the case reaching a judgment, since a judgment would make all their personal information, including their name, public.
There may even be people who would agree—or have no choice but to agree—to a settlement worth tens of millions of yen. Even after deducting attorney and litigation fees, that could still make the whole thing worthwhile as a business proposition. Mr. Kida, what do you think? (笑)
I’m Paper Airplane, a male member.
The club itself is already such an unconventional, outrageous place, far removed from ordinary social norms, so I suppose it’s only natural that the anonymous questions would be the same.
That said, there are readers who genuinely expect serious content from the question box, so I think it would be enough for the club to delete those posts.
Why don’t they delete them, I wonder…
P.S. It’s really a huge nuisance when someone makes you so uncomfortable during a date that you can’t relax at all. Club staff, please delete those posts for them.
