Bandit answers questions on forgeries

Bandit's in effect, folks, so put on your listening faces...

Every so often, I have to answer these same questions I shouldn't even have to field. Namely, how do I account for certain idiotic statements I allegedly made online years ago?

Well, for those just getting acclimated to the politics of the Internets (sic), let me introduce you to something called a forgery.

Until fairly recently, the 'Net used to be kind of a wide-open frontier. Think the Hubba Bubba ads with the Gum Fighter. There's no law and order except when the ol' Fighter blows that bubble and everyone stands around to see if it bursts and covers his face in sticky, pink goo. Well, the Internet was like that.

Not only was it possible for someone to forge your name and e-mail address on an Internet message. It was widespread. In fact, it's still possible.

I admit to using the name of an imaginary person once, but this was just to force a foe to do a little more legwork in tracking me down. Besides, this wasn't an attempt to impersonate a real person.

However, there were countless posts in which someone forged my name or e-mail address in an effort to impersonate me. Some of them appear to be Last Word posts. Several people have pointed out that the archive that Google inherited allowed people to send requests to modify posts after they appeared. I know for a fact this happened with some of my posts.

I don't know the exact history of each post, but some evidence suggests the forgers got an account on my ISP just so some of these forgeries would trace to my ISP. I firmly believe they would have spent the money on an account. In fact, it may have been someone in my area who already had an account there. Remember, this wasn't long after I ran for student government at NKU, so it's not as if I was unknown locally. Plus, I had been harassed and beaten continuously by violent bullies in middle and high school (the topic of my book 'The Fight That Never Ends').

If there was any person of my generation in my county who would have been the target of a vendetta at the time the forged posts appeared, it would be me. I'm not being paranoid. That's just the way it is.

So, to answer your questions: I did not post some of what appears under my name or address. In some cases, I can prove it. In others, it would be my word against my foes'.

I'm going to have to keep answering these questions until Google makes it easier for folks to delete fraudulent posts that others posted under their name. And I don't think Google's going to do this until there's a law protecting our right to delete these forgeries.

The forged posts are open-and-shut cases of fraud. It flourished because authorities made no effort to find out who was behind it. Regardless, there ought to be a law to allow us to delete these forgeries on sight.