John Doe vs. John Doe: Virginia Court's Decision in Online 'John Doe' Case Hailed by Free-Speech Advocates

[Bill Stewart]

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave at farber.net]
Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2001 4:18 AM
To: ip-sub-1 at majordomo.pobox.com
Subject: IP: Virginia Court's Decision in Online 'John Doe' Case Hailed
by Free-Speech Advocates


CYBER LAW JOURNAL

Virginia Court's Decision in Online 'John Doe' Case Hailed by Free-Speech
Advocates

By CARL KAPLAN
Cyber Law Journal

In what was apparently the first Internet defamation case to involve both
an anonymous plaintiff and anonymous defendants, the Supreme Court of
Virginia refused to grant an unidentified company access to America
Online's confidential subscriber information unless the firm agreed to
reveal its identity.

The plaintiff in the case, named in court documents only as "Anonymous
Publicly Traded Company," dropped its efforts to subpoena AOL after
agreeing on Wednesday to the dismissal of a related case in Indiana.
Douglas M. Palais, the lawyer for the plaintiff company, declined to
explain why his client had dropped its case.

While the litigation is no longer pending, the ruling handed down in
Virginia could set a precedent for similar lawsuits across the country. In
its decision, the Virginia court said that an anonymous plaintiff could be
given subpoena power only if it would suffer exceptional harm, such as a
social stigma or extraordinary economic retaliation, as a result of
revealing its identity.

<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/16/technology/16CYBERLAW.html



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