I enjoyed talking with Anna Devlantes and Corey McPherrin this morning on our local Fox affiliate’s morning program about defamation online and the challenging problem of unmasking anonymous defendants. The video is embedded below, or you can go here if it’s not showing up in the RSS feed.
Archive for the ‘Anonymity’ Category
Ninth Circuit orders anonymous internet speakers be identified
July 13th, 2010
2 Comments
In re Anonymous Online Speakers, — F.3d —, 2010 WL 2721490 (9th Cir. July 12, 2010) Quixtar (which used to be Amway) sued Signature Management TEAM (“TEAM”) for tortious interference and other claims, alleging that TEAM engaged in a smear campaign against Quixtar on the internet. In his deposition, TEAM’s online content manager refused to [...]
Illinois court sets standard for unmasking anonymous commenters
June 17th, 2010
6 Comments
Maxon v. Ottawa Pub. Co., — N.E.2d —, 2010 WL 2245065 (Ill.App. 3 Dist. June 1, 2010) The rules of civil procedure in Illinois permit an aggrieved party to file a petition with the court asking for an order requiring unknown potential defendants to be identified. This is called a Rule 224 petition. A couple [...]
Court scales back Zynga’s attempts to learn about anonymous Mafia Wars infringers
June 2nd, 2010
2 Comments
Zynga Game Network Inc. v. Williams, 2010 WL 2077191 (N.D.Cal. May 20, 2010) Zynga (you know, the creator of Farmville and Mafia Wars) has filed a federal lawsuit against the operators of websites that sell virtual currency and goods for use in Mafia Wars. These websites allegedly give rise to infringement of the Mafia Wars [...]
Anonymous accused Bittorrent user moves to quash subpoena using real name
May 25th, 2010
2 Comments
Worldwide Film Entertainment, LLC v. Does 1-749, 2010 WL 2011306 (D.D.C. May 20, 2009) Some have already commented on their scruples arising from the large economies of scale approach to copyright litigation that’s being undertaken by lawyers with the U.S. Copyright Group to go after Bittorrent movie sharers. See, for example, what Mike Masnick and [...]
Troubling decision in matter involving anonymous bloggers
May 15th, 2010
11 Comments
20/20 Financial Consulting, Inc. v. Does 1-5, 2010 WL 1904530 (D.Colo. May 11, 2010) [Opinion embedded below.] A financial consulting company has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Colorado alleging that certain anonymous web users have posted defamatory statements about the plaintiff on blogs and in message forums. The plaintiff asked the court for [...]
Anonymous sender of beer pong email gets to remain unknown
March 19th, 2010
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A.Z. v. Doe, 2010 WL 816647 (N.J. Super. App. Div. March 8, 2010) Even if you do just a cursory review of cases that deal with online anonymity, you are bound to come across a 2001 New Jersey case called Dendrite v. Doe. That case sets out a four part analysis a court should undertake [...]
Court orders anonymous GQ blogger and accused hacker to be identified
January 19th, 2010
1 Comment
Advance Magazine Publishers v. Does 1-5, No. 09-10257 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 22, 2009) Someone accessing the Internet using an AT&T IP address hacked into Conde Nast’s computer system and acquired and published copies of editorial content and the images that were to be in the December 2009 issue of GQ. Those images were later published anonymously [...]
My Public Radio debut
May 8th, 2009
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Had a great time talking about anonymity and the First Amendment with Sheilah Kast of Baltimore’s 88.1 FM WYPR on today’s Maryland Morning. I talked about the court’s analysis in the recent case of Independent Newspapers, Inc. v. Brodie (which I wrote about here). Listen to the interview here: MP3
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Maryland Court of Appeals addresses important question of internet anonymity
March 8th, 2009
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Independent Newspapers, Inc. v. Brodie, — A.2d —, 2009 WL 484956 (Md. February 27, 2009) Maryland’s highest state court has issued a comprehensive opinion setting out the proper framework trial courts should use when evaluating whether a plaintiff should be permitted to learn the identity of an anonymous (or pseudonymous) internet speaker. After considering the [...]
