The Defamation Action League was started in January 2007 by professional spammer William Stanley in order to force the shutdown of the websites Ripoff Report

Ripoff Report

Ripoff Report is a privately owned and operated for-profit website founded by Ed Magedson. The Ripoff Report has been online since December 1998 and is operated by Xcentric Ventures, LLC which is based in Arizona...

 and duplicate Badbusinessbureau.com - consumer complaint websites run by Ed Magedson.

Methods

The Defamation Action League claims to be dedicated to fighting online defamation; however, the League has itself engaged in defamation to further its aims. The Defamation Action League's strategy involves "protesting" the companies which host RipOffReport.com and badbusinessbureau.com by setting up "protest sites" and engaging in annoyance strategies such as placing classified ads with the companies' telephone numbers for products they aren't selling or sending mass emails to other customers claiming that the hosting companies support child pornography and are actively engaged in pedophilia.

RICO lawsuit

In return Magedson filed a lawsuit under RICO. June 21, 2007 preliminary injunction was granted against DefamationAction.com and ComplaintRemover.com. Stanley and cohorts were found liable for defamation and making death threats.

On May 11, United States District Judge Neil Wake in Arizona granted a restraining order against Stanley, prohibiting him from sending threats and harassing Xcentric's business partners. The restraining order also applied to the other defendants, Robert Russo (behind DefendMyName.com and verifiedcredible.com), the Defamation Action League, and the Internet Defamation League.

It didn't seem to make much of a difference. In a ruling on June 21, Wake said that "Stanley violated the temporary restraining order by knowingly sending spam e-mails that falsely disparaged...Jaburg & Wilk." Wake also noted that the site JaburgWilkSucks.com was created after the initial restraining order was granted.