Blown To Bits

Maryland’s Highest Court Defends Web Anonymity

Sunday, March 1st, 2009 by Harry Lewis
They buy buy online australia may also result in infections, which can occur due to buy cheap advair open wounds and usually affect the blood. Doctors used cinacalcet generic flovent to treat high calcium levels in hyperparathyroidism in people receiving generic atenolol sale information long-term dialysis for kidney disease. The earlier a doctor diagnoses purchase (metacam) overnight delivery a person's symptoms, the sooner they can start treatment to generic rx improve outcomes. To reduce the risk of complications from stenosis lasix buy online of the heart, people should follow a doctor's instructions closely order serevent and be honest about any new or worsening symptoms they cialis for sale experience. If a person does not have any symptoms, or cost rx if their symptoms are mild, doctors may simply recommend regular buy generic cheap no prescription usa follow-up appointments and monitoring. Since stenosis of the heart is buy generic ampicillin cost work usually the result of the natural aging process or conditions cialis cheap drug present at birth, prevention may not be possible. As the lasix online heart pumps, it makes sounds that doctors, nurses, and other medical.

There has been a lot of anxiety about the ease with with web sites can invite vicious, defamatory comments, and allow the people making the comments to remain completely anonymous. If the speaker is the person who controls the site, he or she can be sued. But what about the anonymous contributors? Do their free speech rights trump the rights of the maligned parties to seek compensation for the damage these comments do to them? Should the site operators be required to disclose the IP addresses from which the comments were posted, or other identifying information the operators may possess?

A decision by the Maryland Court of Appeals sets a very high bar for breaking through the anonymity and compelling the site to disclose the identity of the commenters. It’s a standard that could be reached, but it is going to be awfully hard. Here is what the plaintiff has to do:

  1. Notify the anonymous poster that the poster is the object of a subpoena (by, for example, posting a message on the same site).
  2. Identify to the court the exact statements made by the anonymous poster
  3. Show in what way each statement caused damage to the plaintiff.
  4. Provide specific information to support each claim.

At that point, the judges need not order the disclosure. First they need balance the damage done to the plaintiff by the anonymous speech against the anonymous defendant’s First Amendment rights.

The decision matches a standard set in 2002 by a New Jersey court, and seems to be part of a pattern in which courts are giving great deference to the right to anonymous speech on the Web.

Comments are closed.