Anonymous Blogging
>>> Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> 4/11/2005 6:28 pm >>>
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Anonymous Blogging
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2005 01:25:38 -0500
From: Daniel Solove <djsolove@comcast.net>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
References: <4369412C.6040308@well.com>
Declan,
On anonymous blogging, you might find this post of mine analyzing arecently-filed lawsuit to be of interest.
http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2005/11/using_lawsuits_1.html
A company filed a lawsuit in order to unmask the identity of an anonymousblogger, who was a company employee. After obtaining the blogger's identityfrom a subpoena to Yahoo, the company withdrew the lawsuit. The companythen used the information to fire the blogger. The employee has now suedthe company for abuse of legal process, invasion of privacy, and othercauses of action.
Regards,
Dan
Daniel J. Solove
Associate Professor of Law
George Washington University Law School
Website: http://www.danielsolove.com
Blog: http://www.concurringopinions.com
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Court Hears Internet Anonymity Case
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2005 14:21:45 -0800 (PST)
From: Gregory Hicks <ghicks@well.com>
Reply-To: Gregory Hicks <ghicks@well.com>
To: dave@farber.net, declan@well.com
CC: ghicks@cadence.com
Court Hears Internet Anonymity Case
Nov 02 3:19 PM US/Eastern
By ALEX DOMINGUEZ
Associated Press Writer
ANNAPOLIS, Md.
The publisher of a financial newsletter told Maryland's second highest court Wednesday that he should not be forced to disclose his subscriber list and other information sought by an Arizona company seeking those it says made defamatory online comments. The publisher, Timothy M. Mulligan, told the judges "almost everything we publish could potentially be subpoenaed," putting him in the position of constantly appearing for depositions if his request toquash a subpoena by the Arizona drug company, Matrixx Initiatives, isdenied.[...]
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Misuse of judicial process to identify -- and retaliate against -- an anonymnous critic
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 12:08:00 -0500
From: Paul Levy <plevy@citizen.org>
To: <declan@well.com>
I want to call your attention to the newest Internet free speech casethat we have filed.
The case, in which my new colleague Greg Beck will be lead counsel, involves a large company that misused legal process to obtain a subpoena to identify and retaliate against one of its employees. The company, Allegheny Electric, through its attorneys at the well-known firm ofMorgan Lewis & Bockius, filed a John Doe action in Pennsylvania statecourt against a poster on a Yahoo! message board who identified himselfas an employee and criticized various actions of management that wasdriving its stock value down, including, according to the employee, the company's racial sensitivity training which he felt was wasteful. The company claimed that the use of racially offensive language tocharacterize the program violated company policies. However, after thecompany used the lawsuit to subpoena Yahoo! and obtained theemployee's identity, it dismissed the lawsuit but fired theemployee.This case typifies the nightmare scenario the underlies much or ourwork in the Internet anonymity area * we worry that companies andpoliticians are bringing John Doe suits more to find out who theircritics are than for a real purpose of pursuing such cases to judgment.A few years ago, lawyers like Bruce Fischman and others, trolling forbusiness on behalf of those offended by online criticism made no bonesabout the reasons for bringing these cases, but since we startedpointing to the public statements they have become much morecircumspect. This case shows that the problem of bad faith use of Doesubpoenas is a continuing problem. That is why, despite our distress at the offensive way that our clientexpressed himself, we have filed suit in his behalf against both Allegheny and Morgan Lewis, seeking compensatory and punitive damagesfor abuse of process and related torts. We may not approve of ourclient's language, but the First Amendment protected his right to sayit and his right to say it anonymously, and the misuse of the courts byfiling baseless lawsuits for the purpose to economic retaliation is onethat requires a remedy.
Our press release follows:
Paul Alan Levy
Public Citizen Litigation Group
1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009(202) 588-1000
http://www.citizen.org/litigation
>>> Angela Bradbery 10/31/2005 11:07 AM >>>
PUBLIC CITIZEN PRESS RELEASE
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Greg Beck(202) 588-1000
Oct. 31, 2005
Valerie Collins (202) 588-7742
Allegheny Energy and Attorneys Abused Legal Processto Uncover Identity of Internet Critic
Company Subpoenaed Yahoo! to Identify AnonymousPoster and then Fired Him
WASHINGTON, D.C. * Allegheny Energy and its attorneys from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius improperly used the courts to learn the identity of an Internet message board poster critical of the company and then fired him, Public Citizen said in a lawsuit filed in federal court inPhiladelphia late Friday.In July 2003, an Allegheny employee * Fairview, W.Va., resident Clifton Swiger * posted anonymous criticisms of the company in aYahoo! message board room dedicated to discussion of the company. Swiger accused Allegheny, which is based in Greensburg, Pa., of poor managementand used a racist term to describe the company's diversity program,which he called a waste of money. Three months later, the company, represented by Morgan, Lewis, filedsuit against "John Doe" in Philadelphia as an excuse to subpoenaYahoo! to disclose information about the poster of the critical remarks. Allegheny claimed the poster had violated a "duty of loyalty" bycriticizing the company in the message board posting. The company then filed an emergency motion to rush the subpoena from Yahoo!, claiming theneed to prevent the poster from posting additional messages that wouldbreach the employee's duty to the company. Allegheny claimed the writer could be a "high-ranking" employee but did not inform thecourt that the poster had identified himself in the message as a"non-exempt" employee ("non-exempt" generally refers to arelatively low-level employee, paid by the hour). Because he was nevernotified of the lawsuit against him, Swiger could not defend himselfagainst Allegheny's claims. Yahoo! complied with the subpoena and disclosed Swiger's information to Allegheny. After learning theemployee's identity, Allegheny and Morgan, Lewis discontinued thelawsuit.
On Dec. 10, 2003, Swiger was fired for "placing racially derogatory postings on the Yahoo! message board in violation of Allegheny Energy's Positive Work Environment expectations," even though the posted comments were not made at work or posted during work hours. It took Swiger more than a year to find a new job, and then for a salary well below the salary he received while employed by Allegheny.
In the civil complaint, Swiger claims that Allegheny and Morgan, Lewis knowingly abused the court's processes by filing civil proceedings toidentify the poster of the critical remarks and then fire him, not to proceed with a legitimate legal action. Additionally, Allegheny violated Swiger's right to speak anonymously on the Internet and wrongfullydischarged him from his position after more than 16 years on the job.
"Although Swiger's use of racist language is abhorrent, the First Amendment nevertheless protects it, and should protect it in a free society," said Public Citizen attorney Greg Beck. "But the real harm to our democracy is that the company and its law firm abused the court's processes to get information for their private use, employing discovery procedures that should be available only to supportlitigation."
Mark Cuker from the Philadelphia firm Williams, Cuker & Berezofskyserves as local counsel for Swiger.
To read Public Citizen's complaint, visit
http://www.citizen.org/documents/ACF2398.pdf.
###
Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.citizen.org.
_______________________________________________
Politech mailing list
Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Anonymous Blogging
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2005 01:25:38 -0500
From: Daniel Solove <djsolove@comcast.net>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
References: <4369412C.6040308@well.com>
Declan,
On anonymous blogging, you might find this post of mine analyzing arecently-filed lawsuit to be of interest.
http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2005/11/using_lawsuits_1.html
A company filed a lawsuit in order to unmask the identity of an anonymousblogger, who was a company employee. After obtaining the blogger's identityfrom a subpoena to Yahoo, the company withdrew the lawsuit. The companythen used the information to fire the blogger. The employee has now suedthe company for abuse of legal process, invasion of privacy, and othercauses of action.
Regards,
Dan
Daniel J. Solove
Associate Professor of Law
George Washington University Law School
Website: http://www.danielsolove.com
Blog: http://www.concurringopinions.com
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Court Hears Internet Anonymity Case
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2005 14:21:45 -0800 (PST)
From: Gregory Hicks <ghicks@well.com>
Reply-To: Gregory Hicks <ghicks@well.com>
To: dave@farber.net, declan@well.com
CC: ghicks@cadence.com
Court Hears Internet Anonymity Case
Nov 02 3:19 PM US/Eastern
By ALEX DOMINGUEZ
Associated Press Writer
ANNAPOLIS, Md.
The publisher of a financial newsletter told Maryland's second highest court Wednesday that he should not be forced to disclose his subscriber list and other information sought by an Arizona company seeking those it says made defamatory online comments. The publisher, Timothy M. Mulligan, told the judges "almost everything we publish could potentially be subpoenaed," putting him in the position of constantly appearing for depositions if his request toquash a subpoena by the Arizona drug company, Matrixx Initiatives, isdenied.[...]
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Misuse of judicial process to identify -- and retaliate against -- an anonymnous critic
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 12:08:00 -0500
From: Paul Levy <plevy@citizen.org>
To: <declan@well.com>
I want to call your attention to the newest Internet free speech casethat we have filed.
The case, in which my new colleague Greg Beck will be lead counsel, involves a large company that misused legal process to obtain a subpoena to identify and retaliate against one of its employees. The company, Allegheny Electric, through its attorneys at the well-known firm ofMorgan Lewis & Bockius, filed a John Doe action in Pennsylvania statecourt against a poster on a Yahoo! message board who identified himselfas an employee and criticized various actions of management that wasdriving its stock value down, including, according to the employee, the company's racial sensitivity training which he felt was wasteful. The company claimed that the use of racially offensive language tocharacterize the program violated company policies. However, after thecompany used the lawsuit to subpoena Yahoo! and obtained theemployee's identity, it dismissed the lawsuit but fired theemployee.This case typifies the nightmare scenario the underlies much or ourwork in the Internet anonymity area * we worry that companies andpoliticians are bringing John Doe suits more to find out who theircritics are than for a real purpose of pursuing such cases to judgment.A few years ago, lawyers like Bruce Fischman and others, trolling forbusiness on behalf of those offended by online criticism made no bonesabout the reasons for bringing these cases, but since we startedpointing to the public statements they have become much morecircumspect. This case shows that the problem of bad faith use of Doesubpoenas is a continuing problem. That is why, despite our distress at the offensive way that our clientexpressed himself, we have filed suit in his behalf against both Allegheny and Morgan Lewis, seeking compensatory and punitive damagesfor abuse of process and related torts. We may not approve of ourclient's language, but the First Amendment protected his right to sayit and his right to say it anonymously, and the misuse of the courts byfiling baseless lawsuits for the purpose to economic retaliation is onethat requires a remedy.
Our press release follows:
Paul Alan Levy
Public Citizen Litigation Group
1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009(202) 588-1000
http://www.citizen.org/litigation
>>> Angela Bradbery 10/31/2005 11:07 AM >>>
PUBLIC CITIZEN PRESS RELEASE
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Greg Beck(202) 588-1000
Oct. 31, 2005
Valerie Collins (202) 588-7742
Allegheny Energy and Attorneys Abused Legal Processto Uncover Identity of Internet Critic
Company Subpoenaed Yahoo! to Identify AnonymousPoster and then Fired Him
WASHINGTON, D.C. * Allegheny Energy and its attorneys from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius improperly used the courts to learn the identity of an Internet message board poster critical of the company and then fired him, Public Citizen said in a lawsuit filed in federal court inPhiladelphia late Friday.In July 2003, an Allegheny employee * Fairview, W.Va., resident Clifton Swiger * posted anonymous criticisms of the company in aYahoo! message board room dedicated to discussion of the company. Swiger accused Allegheny, which is based in Greensburg, Pa., of poor managementand used a racist term to describe the company's diversity program,which he called a waste of money. Three months later, the company, represented by Morgan, Lewis, filedsuit against "John Doe" in Philadelphia as an excuse to subpoenaYahoo! to disclose information about the poster of the critical remarks. Allegheny claimed the poster had violated a "duty of loyalty" bycriticizing the company in the message board posting. The company then filed an emergency motion to rush the subpoena from Yahoo!, claiming theneed to prevent the poster from posting additional messages that wouldbreach the employee's duty to the company. Allegheny claimed the writer could be a "high-ranking" employee but did not inform thecourt that the poster had identified himself in the message as a"non-exempt" employee ("non-exempt" generally refers to arelatively low-level employee, paid by the hour). Because he was nevernotified of the lawsuit against him, Swiger could not defend himselfagainst Allegheny's claims. Yahoo! complied with the subpoena and disclosed Swiger's information to Allegheny. After learning theemployee's identity, Allegheny and Morgan, Lewis discontinued thelawsuit.
On Dec. 10, 2003, Swiger was fired for "placing racially derogatory postings on the Yahoo! message board in violation of Allegheny Energy's Positive Work Environment expectations," even though the posted comments were not made at work or posted during work hours. It took Swiger more than a year to find a new job, and then for a salary well below the salary he received while employed by Allegheny.
In the civil complaint, Swiger claims that Allegheny and Morgan, Lewis knowingly abused the court's processes by filing civil proceedings toidentify the poster of the critical remarks and then fire him, not to proceed with a legitimate legal action. Additionally, Allegheny violated Swiger's right to speak anonymously on the Internet and wrongfullydischarged him from his position after more than 16 years on the job.
"Although Swiger's use of racist language is abhorrent, the First Amendment nevertheless protects it, and should protect it in a free society," said Public Citizen attorney Greg Beck. "But the real harm to our democracy is that the company and its law firm abused the court's processes to get information for their private use, employing discovery procedures that should be available only to supportlitigation."
Mark Cuker from the Philadelphia firm Williams, Cuker & Berezofskyserves as local counsel for Swiger.
To read Public Citizen's complaint, visit
http://www.citizen.org/documents/ACF2398.pdf.
###
Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.citizen.org.
_______________________________________________
Politech mailing list
Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
posted by Patrick Henry at 4:31 PM
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