X-Message-Number: 33426
Subject: Anonymity on web site postings endangered
From: Stephen Bridge <>
Date: Sat, 5 Mar 2011 23:05:02 -0500 (EST)

----------MB_8CDA9CACD1CDE84_1BB8_38C78_Webmail-m108.sysops.aol.com



From Steve Bridge:  The following small local event may turn into a much larger 
legal case affecting even CryoNet.  An Indianapolis judge has ruled that the 
Indianapolis Star newspaper must turn over identifying information about 
anonymous posters to the Star's website in a defamation lawsuit.  Of course, the
newspaper will appeal the decision; but the opponent is a fairly well-known 
local businessman who may well have the resources to continue the suit if the 
newspaper manages to get the ruling reversed. I could see this eventually ending
up in the State of Indiana's Supreme Court and even in the U.S. Supreme Court, 
since it clearly involves both freedom of speech and freedom of the press.  We 
clearly have anonymous, argumentative posters on CryoNet.  Part of the article 
is below, with a link to the rest.
 
Steve Bridge
 

*** A Marion County judge has ruled, for the first time in Indiana, that news 
media outlets can be ordered by the court to reveal identifying information 
about posters to their online forums.
 

In rulings this week and last week, Marion Superior Court Judge S.K. Reid became
the first judge in Indiana to rule on whether the state journalism shield law 
protects media outlets from being forced to disclose names of anonymous posters 
on their websites or other identifying information about those posters, said 
Kevin Betz, an attorney for Jeffrey Miller, former chief executive of Junior 
Achievement of Central Indiana.
 

The rulings came in a defamation lawsuit Miller filed last year. He is seeking 
to broaden the list of defendants in his case to include people who criticized 
him anonymously last year on websites run by The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis
Business Journal and WRTV (Channel 6).
 

The case is among a growing number of defamation claims nationally that target 
anonymous Internet posters to websites operated by news media and other 
owners.***
 

The rest of the article is here:  
http://www.indystar.com/article/201103020245/LOCAL18/103020335 
 



----------MB_8CDA9CACD1CDE84_1BB8_38C78_Webmail-m108.sysops.aol.com

 Content-Type: text/html; charset="utf-8"

[ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] 

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=33426