Court upholds right to anonymous speech online

by James Evans

April 20, 2001 —

A U.S. district court judge on Thursday quashed a subpoena seeking to force Internet
services provider InfoSpace Inc. to disclose the identity of individuals who posted
anonymous messages on the company's Silicon Investor online financial bulletin
board.

2TheMart.com, in a subpoena, had requested the true identities of 23 individuals
who used pseudonyms to post messages about the company on the bulletin board,
as part of the company's defense against a class-action securities fraud law
suit. The former Costa Mesa, California, online auction house alleged that certain
of the unidentified individuals posted messages and manipulated 2TheMart.com's
stock price.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation
(EFF) represented one of the unidentified individuals known online as "NoGuano,"
in an effort to protect anonymous speech on the Internet. The case differs a
bit from other anonymous speech cases in that the individual was not a party
to the case and no allegations of liability were ever made against the individual,
the civil liberties and cyber-rights groups said in a statement. The party does
admit to maintaining a Silicon Investor account, however he never posted any
information on the site's 2TheMart.com message board, they said.

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly ruled that there was no compelling reason
to divulge the true identities of "NoGuano" and the 22 other individuals,
said Lauren Gelman, the EFF's director of public policy.

"We think that case law is very clear and that anonymous speech should
be protected," Gelman said. Both the EFF and the ACLU suggest that online
users should be able to post messages anonymously just as people have the right
to distribute a leaflet using a pseudonym.

Keith B. Bardellini, an attorney from the Los Angeles law firm of Buchalter,
Nemer, Fields & Younger, who is representing 2TheMart.com, could not be
reached for comment.

In the case heard in a Seattle federal court, the EFF and ACLU argued the court
should adopt the same test currently used to determine whether to compel identification
of anonymous sources of journalists or members of private organizations. In
that case, the court must first determine if the individual seeking the protected
private information has a genuine need for the information and cannot discover
the information any other way.

Several investors sued 2TheMart.com after its stock price plunged in 1999.
In addition to the company itself, Dominic Magliarditi, who held the posts of
chief operating officer, chief financial officer, secretary and director, as
well as the company's former chief executive officer, Steven W. Rebeil, are
facing a class-action securities fraud lawsuit. The company has said the allegations
against it are without merit.

In a similar case, the EFF in early February sought to quash a subpoena request
made by private fire and ambulance company Rural/Metro Corp. to gain the names
of individuals who allegedly posted messages on a Yahoo Inc. message board about
the company. Rural/Metro alleged the individuals were posting inside information
about the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company. Yet, Rural/Metro never fought the
EFF's request to quash the subpoena and dropped the request, Gelman said.

IDG News Service