A brutal, months-long Usenet word brawl that cost jobs and came to death threats ended in a Seattle court Friday when a judge forbade one of the combatants to post new messages on pain of felony charges.

The order, which prevents ski buff Scott Abraham from posting any messages on the Usenet newsgroup Rec.Skiing.Alpine (RSA), is intended to keep the flame war from erupting into the real world. Abraham and most of the disputants live in Seattle and have met offline.

The Usenet prohibition is part of a broader "no contact" order that forbids Abraham to contact his adversaries in the real world, on the telephone, or using email.

But free speech advocates say that adding Usenet to the order may violate the First Amendment.

"Saying that someone can't use a particular communications media is beyond the constitutional limits," said Shari Steele, an attorney with Electronic Frontier Foundation. "It's too broad. A more appropriate order would be one that prohibited threatening language in messages targeted to a specific individual."

Abraham took off on a ski trip after Friday's ruling and was unavailable for comment, but the RSA board was bristling anew. There were dozens of sharp stands, both pro and con.

"I don't agree with some of the posts on RSA. Hell, I positively DISLIKE some of the people here.... Still, I'll defend to the death their rights to be obnoxious assholes on this [board] (it's called "Freedom of Speech")," wrote one poster in part.

The fracas began last spring as a dispute over who should get some free ski-lift passes that Abraham had gotten his hands on (posters to the RSA board frequently meet online, set up trips, and meet on the slopes).

Abraham ran into at least one of the disputants, Anthea Kerrison, at the Whistler ski area north of Vancouver, British Columbia. The two carried the argument online when they returned home.

It quickly turned nasty. Abraham and Kerrison supporters dove in from either side, insults flying like fists.

"They wrote that I sodomized my stepson using mayonnaise," said Bert Hoff, a friend of Abraham's who has posted his version of the Rec.Skiing saga and is pressing Abraham to appeal. "They said my wife was a crack whore."

Hoff fueled the flames by calling Boeing, where David Hobbs – one of his and Abraham's antagonists – was working as a contractor. He complained that Hobbs was posting noxious filth to Usenet on Boeing's time. Boeing yanked Hobbs' contract.

Abraham's foes complained to his employer too, ski-maker K2. Abraham lost his job as a Web site moderator.

That's when the death threats began.

"I don't make idle threats like you, just keep that in mind when you look out the window and want to go for a walk," wrote one anonymous poster to Abraham. "It's tough to ski when one does not have use of his knees. If you don't want trouble, I suggest you disappear. A suggestion to stop your insanity ... how about a bullet to your brain?"

Abraham's rejoinder: "I had hoped that I would never have to carry a weapon again. As I write, I just finished dressing for my normal Sabbath morning trip to synagogue. Suit, tie, and shoulder holster... I hope you are worrying, because I have no intention of forgetting what you have done to me, and no intention of forgiving."

At that point, one of Abraham's online foes hired a private investigator. The PI sniffed around, concluded Abraham had gone beyond the pale and went to the cops.

A detective from the Seattle PD, Leanne Shirey, posted a message on the RSA board urging everyone to calm down.

"We politely asked them to desist, and all but one did," said Shirey. That one was Abraham. His intransigence ultimately led to the court order against him, she said.

Shirey defends the decision to bar Abraham from posting on Usenet, claiming it was the only way to end the battle before it became a blood and bones affair.

"It's just like a neighborhood dispute," and RSA happens to be part of the neighborhood, she said. It's perfectly reasonable to keep Abraham out of the virtual neighborhood if he's going to incite violence.

Hogwash, said Abraham's friend Hoff, a former attorney.

"I want to get the ACLU involved. This is an abuse of the Constitution. I think the judge thought she was making a petty ruling on a misdemeanor, but she unwittingly stepped into the deep doo-doo of Internet censorship."

The ACLU had not yet reviewed the case and declined comment on Monday.

Break It to Me Gently Online

Break It to Me Gently Online