IP: Eye on Emerson law suit

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 15:45:23 -0400
> From: "Paul Levy" <PLEVY () citizen org>
> To: <dave () farber net>
>
>
> Perhaps your readers would be interested in the following:
>
> In a brief that was filed in Bergen County Superior Court today, with JC 
> Salyer of the ACLU-New Jersey as local counsel, Public Citizen has entered 
> the case of Donato v. Moldow, the case where a group of local officials in 
> Emerson, New Jersey are suing both the creator of the web site "Eye on 
> Emerson" and several dozen anonymous posters who criticized the officials 
> on Moldow's web site.  Several of the anonymous posters have found an 
> attorney, who has moved to quash the subpoena seeking their identities, 
> but the majority of the posters remain unrepresented.
>
> In our amicus curiae brief, we argue that a plaintiff who seeks to 
> identify anonymous internet speakers must meet the strict standards of 
> Dendrite v. Doe - - basically showing that there is good reason to believe 
> that they have a valid claim against each poster - - before a subpoena may 
> be enforced, regardless of whether the poster has retained counsel to 
> oppose the subpoena.  That is to say, we argue that, like a judge who is 
> considering whether to issue a search warrant, a judge has an independent 
> duty to decide whether there has been an sufficient showing to warrant the 
> exercise of state power to invade the poster's privacy.  Thus, we argue 
> that the judge should consider the claims against each anonymous defendant 
> sua sponte - - especially in a case where the plaintiffs are public 
> officials.
>
> We also argue that the suit against the webmaster should be dismissed 
> under the Communications Decency Act, addressing the issue somewhat more 
> thoroughly than the webmaster's own lawyer has done in his brief.  In this 
> regard, we argue that Moldow's web site represents a gift to the community 
> that other citizens, whether in Emerson or elsewhere, should want to 
> emulate, and if such web site operators know that they will have to defend 
> litigation of this kind anytime critical comments are placed on a web site 
> bulletin board, no sane person would undertake to create such a desirable 
> forum.  Thus, Moldow's site is well within the concerns the Congress 
> expressed about the impact of imposing liability on companies like AOL for 
> any content that someone might place on the Internet using their facilities.
>
> The brief is posted on our web site at 
> http://www.citizen.org/litigation/briefs/IntFreeSpch/articles.cfm?ID=6271
>
> Public Citizen's press release is posted at 
> http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=858
>
> Paul Alan Levy
> Public Citizen Litigation Group
> 1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
> Washington, D.C. 20009
> (202) 588-1000
> http://www.citizen.org/litigation/litigation.html


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