Groups seek to protect anonymous Net posters

From...

by James Evans

(IDG) -- Private fire and ambulance service Rural/Metro is seeking the names of four individuals who posted anonymous and allegedly critical comments about the company on a Yahoo message board. Two groups, however, are fighting the request made to Yahoo and said the individuals' messages are protected by constitutionally supported anonymous speech.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a cyber-rights group, and The Liberty Project, a civil liberties organization, are representing individuals known online as "iamcashman2525" and "southernemptyall." The individuals posted statements on Yahoo's RURL message board, a site where Internet users discuss Rural/Metro.

Rural/Metro, a publicly traded company based in Scottsdale, Ariz., with operations in the United States and Latin America, wants to know the individuals' real-world names and those of two others known online as "hotmedicaz" and "smilelikeyoulikeit."

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"It is our view that this is not about First Amendment rights or free speech," said Francis Torrence, Rural/Metro's attorney who is with the law firm of Seyfarth Shaw in San Francisco. "This is a case about people making false statements and leaking confidential information. What Rural/Metro is trying to do is make efforts to stop the distribution of confidential information and the making of false statements."

Yahoo, traditionally, will hand over the names of its users if it is subpoenaed, said Lauren Gelman, EFF's director of public policy. Yahoo could not be reached for comment, despite repeated attempts. However, if another party steps in and seeks to quash a subpoena, Yahoo will not disclose the information until legal proceedings are completed and the court requires the company to release the names, she added.

First Amendment rights are at the heart of matter of the Rural/Metro case, Gelman suggested. It is important that people can speak anonymously on issues that they otherwise would not say anything about. She compared it to journalists not having to disclose anonymous sources for stories. Users should not be able to libel other individuals on message boards, but they should be able to express anonymously such things as their dislike for a workplace and the reasons why, she said.

"Just because we are talking about the Internet does not mean we should lose the right to speak anonymously," Gelman said.

In its court filing Tuesday, the EFF and The Liberty Project state that Rural/Metro must show substantial evidence that the published statements are both factually untrue and defamatory, that reasonable efforts to discover the information from alternative sources was made, and that knowledge of the identity of the informants is necessary to proper preparation and presentation of the case.

The EFF provided IDG News Service with the messages posted by "iamcashman2525" and "southernemptyall" about Rural/Metro. Approximately 23 messages were posted by the two individuals between October and late December 2000. The subpoena was issued against Yahoo on Dec. 22, according to the complaint.

The comments talk about administrative changes, financial irregularities, insider personnel information, and dislike for Rural/Metro's top executive. There are also clippings from some newspaper articles about the company.

Rural/Metro has filed suit against the four "John and Jane Does," alleging that about September 2000 the four individuals began posting "false, misleading, and/or deceptive information about Rural/Metro's business and its key employees." The messages represent or contain information that suggests the posters may be existing or former employees of the company have access to confidential business information, according to the complaint.

"The Does' statements on the Internet are likely to cause confusion [or] mistakes or [are deceiving]," the complaint states. "The Does' activities have caused and will cause further irreparable injury to Rural/Metro, and unless such activities are restrained by this court, they will be continued."

Attorney Torrence said Rural/Metro had no comment on the specific claims that were made online by the four individuals. He said Rural/Metro will file more specifics with the court soon. The subpoena will be reviewed on March 12 in the U.S District Court for the Northern District of California.

The EFF has participated in two other similar cases where individuals try to unmask the identity of online users, Gelman said. There is some evidence that it is becoming a more common request of lawyers in the discovery phase of litigation.

"I have spoken to at least 20 or 30 people [who have dealt with this], and I have seen subpoenas that have hundreds of names on them," Gelman said.

America Online (AOL) Time Warner in civil cases will comply with a subpoena for member information if requested, said spokesman Nicholas Graham. If the member contests the request in court, AOL-Time Warner will wait until the court rules on if the information should be disclosed. AOL Time Warner is the parent company of CNN.com.

"We never reveal any kind of information unless we receive a valid court order or subpoena," Graham said.

AOL Time Warner receives hundreds of subpoenas or search warrants for user information each year, Graham said. The numbers have stayed constant and represent a "very, very small, minuscule" portion of its 27 million members, Graham added.

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Electronic Frontier Foundation

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