Court sets standard for online anonymity protections

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: No-Name <labmanager () gmail com>
Date: March 2, 2009 1:38:37 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Court sets standard for online anonymity protections

Court sets standard for online anonymity protections



Web sites involved in defamation suits are not required to immediately  
hand over the identities of readers who leave anonymous comments, a  
Maryland court has ruled, laying out guidelines for future suits  
involving online anonymity.

The Maryland Court of Appeals on Friday overturned (PDF) an earlier  
ruling that would have forced Independent Newspapers, which runs the  
online forum NewsZap.com, to turn over the names of three unknown  
Internet posters who posted negative remarks regarding the cleanliness  
of a Dunkin' Donuts in Centreville, Maryland. The owner of the Dunkin'  
Donuts, Zebulon J. Brodie, claimed the anonymous posters defamed his  
store.

The appeals court decided Brodie was not entitled to learn the  
identities of the posters because in his complaint he misidentified  
the forum participants responsible for the critical comments.

The court used its ruling to set for trial courts a "standard that  
should be applied to balance the First Amendment right to anonymous  
speech on the Internet with the opportunity on the part of the object  
of that speech to seek judicial redress for alleged defamation."

In a defamation case involving anonymous speakers, the ruling said,  
courts should first require the plaintiff to try to notify the  
anonymous posters that they are the subject of a subpoena. That  
notification could come in the form of a message posted to the online  
forum in question, and the posters must be given sufficient time to  
respond.

The plaintiff must then hand over the exact statements in question, so  
the court can decide whether the comments are obviously defamatory.  
Finally, the ruling says, the court must weigh the anonymous poster's  
right to free speech against the strength of the defamation case and  
the necessity of disclosing the poster's identity.






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