CDR: A helpful ruling on "anonymity"

[Tim May]

This is a helpful ruling. No kidding. No spoof.

--fair use excerpt begins-0-

Monday October 16 4:29 PM ET
Anonymous Net Posting Not Protected


By CATHERINE WILSON, AP Business Writer

MIAMI (AP) - In a ruling that challenges online anonymity, a Florida 
appeals court declared Monday that Internet service providers must 
divulge the identities of people who post defamatory messages on the 
Internet.

Critics of the ruling say it could have a chilling effect on free 
expression in Internet chat rooms.

....
Lauren Gelman, public policy director with the Electronic Frontier 
Foundation, is concerned that other courts could follow the lead of 
the 3rd District Court of Appeals in approving subpoenas.

``This kind of speech happens all the time in all kinds of chat 
rooms,'' Gelman said. ``We don't want to see these subpoenas become 
regularly used to cause people to self-censor themselves.''

``The court had the potential to set an important precedent about the 
right to speak anonymously on the Internet,'' Lidsky said. ``The 
courts are eventually going to have to come to grips with this issue 
and decide how broad free speech rights are in cyberspace.''


--end excerpt--

Lidsky doesn't get it. There is no "right to speak anonymously on the 
Internet" (or anywhere else). If Alice observes Bob make a comment, 
and Alice chooses to speak about her observations, or is required by 
a court to speak about her observations, Bob cannot assert some 
"right to anonymity."

Now, had the court said that all words must be traceable, must be 
signed, and so on, then this would be a different kettle of fish. But 
they didn't. The court just said, in this case, that the usual 
process of discovery and production of evidence is not trumped by 
some claim of a "right to anonymity."

No surprises there.

This is helpful because it pushed anonymity back into the 
technological arena, where it belongs.


--Tim May
-- 
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Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
"Cyphernomicon"             | black markets, collapse of governments.