It seems this guy worked for IBM for a number of years. One day, he was in a sex chat room during work hours from a work computer and a co-worker saw him and reported it. He admitted to visiting the site and was fired per the company’s internet usage policy.
He sued IBM for wrongful termination, claiming that he suffered from an internet addiction and should be protected under the Americans with Disablities Act.
Like alcoholics or those who abuse drugs, people who are addicted to the Internet use it to change their mood and feel better, says [Dr. David] Greenfield. There are also many who can’t stop using it, despite reprimands from work, disputes with family and friends, and other negative effects such as debt due to compulsive Internet shopping or gambling. “It’s not surprising that it is not defined yet, because these things change very slowly,” says Greenfield. “But when you are in clinical practice and you are dealing with people’s lives, you can’t wait for those issues to be addressed. There is a huge problem with Internet abuse in the workplace, and you can’t pretend that they don’t exist because there isn’t a label.”
Once again, we have a case of a person who can’t take respobsibility for his own actions, so he must blame someone or something else. If he can’t control it, he doesn’t need to be around computers. Society shouldn’t be responsible for carrying this load around just because he has no will power.