Nuxx:MPG.2557d3d14defd5f7989691@news.zen.co.uk

Path: num2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!num1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!number.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!newsfeed01.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!dedekind.zen.co.uk!zen.net.uk!hamilton.zen.co.uk!shaftesbury.zen.co.uk.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID:  From: "Just zis Guy, you know?"  Newsgroups: uk.rec.cycling Subject: Re: My Name's Guy and I'm a Car-Hater Date: Sun, 1 Nov 2009 17:20:54 -0000 References:  <2pcre5dqqm6uj7l2csb6kub8o0784ddq9r@4ax.com> Lines: 36 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit User-Agent: MicroPlanet-Gravity/2.9.13 X-Antivirus: avast! (VPS 091101-0, 01/11/2009), Outbound message X-Antivirus-Status: Clean Organization: Zen Internet NNTP-Posting-Host: 6db36236.news.zen.co.uk X-Trace: DXC=, peter@plgrange.demon.co.uk says... > > On Sun, 1 Nov 2009 15:54:14 -0000, "Just zis Guy, you know?" >  wrote: > > Altogether Now: "Oh No He Didn't". > > Is the subtle misquoting of Guy's email address an attempt to avoid an > "Impersonation" charge, m'lud?

Well presumably it would be a successful attempt, otherwise where do you draw the line? Is "guy.chapman@sduifhuisdfha" acceptable? Or "guv.chaqman@spancop.net"? What about "gut.chaffpang@spackrock.pet"? Exactly how different does an email address have to be to the "original" before it's no longer a "forgery"?

The "Just zis Guy, you know?" part is also allowed, as there is nothing prohibiting one using the same "name" as someone else (otherwise the likes of Ian Smith and "_" (aka the fuckwit Taylor, aka one of the many utter dicks who have been successfully vanquished from urc, for which everyone ought to be grateful) would be in a lot of trouble by now).

Nor can you say "The email address is only one letter different so it's obviously supposed to be an impersonation": what if john.smith@bbc.co.uk and john.smith@bac.co.uk both started posting here? "But 'spancop.net' doesn't exist!" Well actually yes it does, not that it would matter if it didn't. "But common sense dictates that it's an impersonation, damn it!" You'll need more than that I'm afraid.

So someone other than "our" Guy Chapman posting as "Just zis Guy, you know?"  + not claiming in any way that they sycophants may wish it to be. And when Chapman and others claim that such posts are forgeries they are libelling the poster, so *they* are the ones who could face charges if they're not careful.
 * are* "our" Guy Chapman != impersonation, however much Chapman and his