No. 13-5946
Jones v. Dirty World Entm’t Recordings, et al.
Page 4
appear on the website as though they were authored by a single, anonymous author—“THE
DIRTY ARMY.” This eponymous introduction is automatically added to every post that Richie
receives from a third-party user. Many, but not all, of the submissions and commentaries
appearing on the website relate to stories, news, and gossip about local individuals who are not
public figures. The site receives thousands of new submissions each day. Richie or his staff
selects and edits approximately 150 to 200 submissions for publication each day. The editing
done to published submissions only consists of deletion. Richie or his staff briefly reviews each
submission selected for publication to ensure that nudity, obscenity, threats of violence,
profanity, and racial slurs are removed. Richie typically adds a short, one-line comment about
the post with “some sort of humorous or satirical observation.” Richie, however, does not
materially change, create, or modify any part of the user-generated submission, nor does he factcheck submissions for accuracy. Apart from his clearly denoted comments appended at the end
of each submission, which appear in bold-face text and are signed “-nik,” Richie does not create
any of the posts that appear on www.TheDirty.com. The bold-face text and signature are
designed to distinguish editorial remarks from third-party submissions. Comments that appear in
bold face and are signed “-nik” are only written and published by Richie.
Sarah Jones is a resident of northern Kentucky. Jones was a teacher at Dixie Heights
High School in Edgewood, Kentucky, and a member of the Cincinnati BenGals, the cheerleading
squad for the Cincinnati Bengals professional football team. From October 2009 to January
2010, Jones was the subject of several submissions posted by anonymous users on
www.TheDirty.com and of editorial remarks posted by Richie.
First, on October 27, 2009, a visitor to www.TheDirty.com submitted two photographs of
Jones and a male companion and the following post:
THE DIRTY ARMY: Nik, this is Sara J, Cincinnati Bengal Cheerleader. She’s
been spotted around town lately with the infamous Shayne Graham. She has also
slept with every other Bengal Football player. This girl is a teacher too!! You
would think with Graham’s paycheck he could attract something a little easier on
the eyes Nik!
Appearing directly beneath this post, Richie added:
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