Great Britain: Oil firms may sue for false rumors on websites

Two small British oil firms say they are not after legitimate anonymous postings but want to rein in postings on private investor websites that contain “calculated lies”  that manipulate share prices. -db
Yahoo! News
August 9, 2010
By Myles Neligan and Rhys Jones
(Reuters) Two small British oil firms on Monday said they were considering legal action against [...]

Supreme Court rules names on anti-gay petition can be made public

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled for public disclosure of names on a petition to overturn a gay rights law in Washington state. Those for disclosure say it is an important victory for the public’s right to check signatures and to discover who are supporting particular political stances. -db

SeattlePI.com
June 24, 2010
By Chris Grygiel
The Supreme Court ruled [...]

Attorney allowed to sue over allegedly defamatory anonymous messages on Craigslist

A California district Court of Appeal ruled that a Woodland Hills attorney could sue an anonymous poster for accusing him of committing illegal acts. The court said the posts were neither political speech nor in the public interest and did not qualify for protection under the state’s anti-SLAPP law. -db

Metropolitan News-Enterprise
June 1, 2010
By Steven M. [...]

Pennsylvania attorney general dropping subpoena of Twitter for critics’ identity

The Pennsylvania attorney general has decided not to subpoena Twitter for the identity of critics of his successful conviction in a recent political corruption investigation. In asking for the subpoena, Attorney General Tom Corbett was attempting to find out if one of the critics was the man convicted of corruption to determine if the man [...]

Blogger challenges subpoena ordering Twitter to reveal his identity after critical posts on Pennsylvania politician

A blogger on Twitter is challenging a grand jury subpoena seeking his identity after he posted criticism of Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett. The subpoenas are usually limited to criminal cases, and the grand jury did not say what crime the blogger committed. -db
Wired
May 19, 2010
By David Kravets
An anonymous blogger critical of Pennsylvania Attorney [...]

First Amendment: Federal judge protects anonymity of online critic of Pennsylvania corporation

A federal judge not only scuttled a subpoena to out an online critic of USA Technologies but also ruled that the critic’s charge that the company’s pay packages were “legalized highway robbery” was protected  speech under the First Amendment. -db

Electronic Freedom Foundation
Press Release
May 19, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO – A federal judge in San Francisco has quashed [...]

News publications reconsider policy on anonymous online comments

Momentum gathers for changes in policies governing anonymous comments in online publications. Publications are looking more favorably on trusted sources willing to reveal their identities. -db
The New York Times
April 11, 2010
By Richard Pérez-Peńa
From the start, Internet users have taken for granted that the territory was both a free-for-all and a digital disguise, allowing them to [...]

County judge sues newspaper for linking her e-mail account to online posts

An Ohio judge is suing the Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer for $50 million in damages for violating their privacy policy in revealing that the judge’s daughter wrote more than 80 posts on legal matters for their online edition. The newspaper claimed that questions about the propriety of the comments outweighed the privacy interests of the [...]

Cleveland newspaper causes stir by unmasking anonymous poster – a judge

In revealing the identity of a person posting comments on their site under the moniker “lawmiss”, the Cleveland Plain Dealer believed that the public’s right to know outweighed the importance of protecting the privacy of anonymous commentators. The “lawmiss” postings, it turned out, came from the e-mail address of a judge. -db
The Plain Dealer
March 26, [...]

Anonymous speech: Federal court protects identities of posters on news website

A Pennsylvania federal court will not allow a man suing in an employment discrimination case to discover the identities of those making posts on a new website. The man wanted the identities to discredit the testimony of those who fired him. -db

Citizen Media Law Project
Commentary
March 8, 2010
By Sam Bayard

Thomas O’Toole at TechLaw points us to [...]

EFF: Court order to shut down websites sets dangerous precedent

The Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that when a New Jersey court shut down three websites allegedly running defamatory messages, it  disregarded federal law and ignored the First Amendment. -DB

Electronic Frontier Foundation
Legal Analysis
January 7, 2010
By Kurt Opsahl
Over the holidays, a New Jersey court issued an order requiring upstream providers to shut down three anti-H1-B websites [...]

Women’s group sues Google for bloggers’ defamation

The National Association of Professional Women is suing Google and three other Web sites for publishing bloggers’ statements that say the organization is a scam. -DB

Courthouse News Service
December 31, 2009
By Barbara Leonard

MINEOLA, N.Y. – The National Association of Professional Women claims Google and three other Web sites defamed it by allowing bloggers to publish defamatory [...]

Online debate between candidate’s son and unidentified writer provokes another dispute over anonymous speech

Citizen Media Law Project blogger Marc Randazza says that although a comment made by an adult to a teen-ager in an online debate was malicious and juvenile, it was not defamatory and should enjoy First Amendment  protection given court decisions on the right to speak anonymously. -DB

To read Marc’s full comment, go here:

Citizen Media Law Project

Federal judge orders Prop. 8 backers to cough up campaign strategy documents without delay

Backers of proposition 8 were hoping to delay turning over campaign records while appealing  a court order to surrender the documents. But a district federal judge ordered them to relinquish the documents so that Prop. 8 opponents could examine them for anti gay bias. -DB

San Francisco Chronicle

October 26, 2009
Bob Egelko
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge said [...]

University of Colorado denies football press passes to websites that post anonymous comments

INDenver Times no longer runs comments on football stories in their online edition in response to University of Colorado’s policy to refuse press passes to websites who allow pseudonymous posts or anonymous comments. The university is concerned about defamatory and irresponsible comments about players and coaches. -DB
Denver Westword
Denver New Blog
September 25, 2009
By Michael Roberts
A sharp-eyed reader [...]

UC Davis case: Judge suggests avenue to determine identity of anonymous bloggers

Although a Sacramento judge ruled substantially in favor of a blog operator who was trying to keep secret the identities of his bloggers, she also said the plaintiff in the case could hire someone to conduct a search for the identities. -DB
The Sacramento Bee
September 14, 2009
By Hudson Sangree
Those anonymous comments you’ve been posting online might [...]

Don’t ban anonymity urges one legal expert

While siding with Google against the blogger who defamed the model by calling her a “skank”, a First Amendment advocate argues that it is important to protect anonymity of some contemptible speakers to safeguard the freedom of others such as whistleblowers and dissenters in totalitarian regimes to remain anonymous. -DB
Citizen Media Law Project
Commentary
August 26, 2009
By Dan [...]

Blogger of venomous insults sues Google for outing her

Legal experts think that a fashion student’s suit against Google has little chance of success. She had anonymously called a model a “shank” and was subsequently identified by Google. -DB
San Francisco Chronicle
August 28, 2009
By James Temple
The blogger who anonymously tarred a fashion model as a “skank” before being outed by Google Inc. under court order [...]

Blogger intends to sue Google over outing

After Google revealed the identity of an anonymous blogger, her lawyer promised to sue citing the First Amendment right to speak anonymously. -DB
Wired
August 24, 2009
By Kim Zetter
An anonymous blogger unmasked by Google last week following a court order has vowed to sue the internet giant for violating her privacy.
Rosemary Port, who operated a blog called “Skanks [...]

District of Columbia sets bar higher for revealing anonymity of Internet commentators

The District of Columbia high court established new strict guidelines for plaintiffs seeking the identify of online commentators. -DB
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
August 14, 2009
By Rory Eastburg
The District of Columbia’s highest court Thursday announced a demanding new standard that plaintiffs must meet before they can obtain the names of anonymous Internet commenters.
According to the [...]