Professional golfer Fuzzy Zoeller has filed a lawsuit against a Florida company linked to the IP address of the computer used to post defamatory remarks about him on Wikipedia.
Zoeller did enough damage to himself with comments he made about Tiger Woods in 1997, which cost him lucrative endorsement deals. He isn’t going to put up with false statements being attributed to him by someone who edited his Wikipedia entry.
The Miami Herald learned of the lawsuit and reported it had been filed last week under a plaintiff name of “John Doe” against Josef Silny & Associates. A reporter later found out Zoeller was behind the suit and confirmed that with the golfer’s attorney, Scott Sheftall.
Josef Silny, the president of the company being sued, isn’t a golf fan and only knows Zoeller from mentions in the sports pages. The article described him as surprised by the suit, and said he’s having a consultant look into the issue.
The Wikipedia entry has since been cleansed of the remarks, first posted last August, then again in December before being removed January 2nd. However, several sites like Answers.com have copies of Wikipedia entries, and as of press time still had the defamatory content in place.
Those comments refer to Zoeller as a self-admitted drug and alcohol addict, and a domestic abuser. Since Wikipedia can’t be held liable for those comments under law in the opinion of Sheftall, the lawsuit focuses on finding who made them.
“Courts have clearly said you have to go after the source of the information,” Sheftall said in the report.
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