IP: Judge Says Online Critic Has No Right to Hide

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> From: David Lesher <wb8foz () nrk com>
> Subject: Judge Says Online Critic Has No Right to Hide
> To: farber () cis upenn edu (David Farber)
>
> http://www10.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/06/cyber/cyberlaw/09law.html
>
>
> June 9, 2000
> By CARL S. KAPLAN
>
>
>      People accused of anonymously posting libelous statements online may 
> find it harder to keep their
>      real-world identities secret following a judge's ruling in a libel 
> case in Florida.
>
> .............
>      The judge ordered that Yahoo and America Online must comply with a 
> subpoena and unveil the names of the
>      lawyer's clients so that they may be formally named as defendants in 
> a libel case.
>
>      The ruling, if not reversed on appeal, may serve as a precedent 
> supporting the notion that anonymous
>      speakers on the Internet, when informed or notified about pending 
> subpoenas seeking to unmask them in the
>      context of libel trials, do not have much of a chance of quashing 
> the subpoenas on First Amendment grounds.
>
>      It may also serve to chill the overheated climate of financial 
> message boards on the Internet, which
>      feature pseudonymous postings celebrating and castigating public 
> companies and their executives.
>      ......................
>
> --
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