In 2006, Jason Fortuny — one of the so-called "Internet trolls" featured recently in the New York Times Magazine — placed an ad on Craigslist in which he pretended to be a woman seeking sex. Later, he posted photos and emails sent to him by the ad's respondents. Now, one of them — image and response pictured above — is suing him for $75,000. This John Doe claims Fortuny's post caused him to "suffer and continue to suffer from humiliation, embarrassment, lost opportunity of keeping his family together, and emotional distress." The plaintiff claims Fortuny violated his copyright, wrongfully disclosed private facts and intruded upon his seclusion. By way of response, Forturny wrote an eight-page letter to the judge in his own defense . It's much to long for even the most concerned citizen to read, but since its contents so seriously affect the legal system of our nation-state, we've shortened it down to the crucial bits, below.

The trolls will always be with us, because the Internet is full of insane sociopaths. Charming sociopaths, clever sociopaths, perhaps even magazine-profile-worthy sociopaths — but sociopaths all the same. Wired profiled a videogame-heavy set of Internet trolls in January. The New York Times Magazine hunted and nabbed bigger game this weekend — Jason Fortuny and the troll known as "Weev," who was photographed for the story (above). This photo in particular may draw fascinated stares.At one point, Weev says that he's the hacker known as Memphis Two. "Weev says he has access to hundreds of thousands of Social Security numbers," Matt Schwartz writes in the Times piece. "About a month later, he sent me mine." Now Schwartz knows how Six Apart cofounders Ben and Mena Trott feel. Their Social Security numbers, as well as those of other Six Apart executives and investors, were leaked on the Internet last year. At the time, a tipster told us he believed that Memphis Two, working in conjunction with a Six Apart employee, was responsible. While working on an unrelated story, I received a call from someone who identified themselves as Weev; the caller ID indicated the call came from Technorati, a startup located one block from Six Apart's headquarters. How can such a small world contain such a large hate? (Photo by Robbie Cooper/New York Times)

The man who posed as a woman on Craigslist and last week published the 178 replies (including photos and personal info of the respondents) was sexually molested as a child, broke up with his fiancee eight weeks ago, and wrote that he told a woman that he "posted pictures of her fugly kids on a child rape community."