Anonymous News?

[ZoeScanner <zoescanner@yahoo.com>]

[: hacktivism :]

And so it begins.........

Not news to me though....
ISP's have been ratting all along if it was in
their best interests...

peace
ZoeScanner


04:29 PM ET 10/16/00

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.
	   The ruling comes against the efforts of the
American Civil
Liberties Union to protect the identity of eight
individuals who
posted anonymous missives on a Yahoo! financial
chat room about
Erik Hvide, the former CEO of Hvide Marine Inc.
	   Hvide alleges that personal attacks against
him also caused
damage to the company's image.
	   Hvide's attorney Bruce Fischman hailed the
ruling, saying it
would force Internet users to ``think a bit
before they speak.''
	   The ACLU had wanted the court first to rule
on whether Hyde had
actually been defamed before identifying the
defendants, named in
court papers only as John Doe. If there was no
showing of
defamation, the ACLU reasoned, the critics should
remain anonymous.
	   However, on Thursday, the court dissolved a
stay freezing
subpoenas for the records of Yahoo! Inc. and
America Online Inc.,
whose service was used by one of the defendants
in the defamation
case.
	   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.''
	   Both Internet companies took a back seat in
the lawsuit, saying
they would do whatever the judges said.
	   Lyrissa Lidsky, who argued the case on behalf
of the ACLU,
called the decision a surprise and a setback.
	   Nevertheless, she said, ``It's not a defeat
for all the other
John Does in the pipeline'' fighting
Internet-related subpoenas
because the court did not explain its legal
reasoning.
	   An appeal is being explored.
	   ``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.''
	   The issue is largely untested in the nation's
courts.
	   A Virginia federal judge sided with a
government subpoena
request in a criminal case, but civil suits in
California and
Virginia have not settled the subpoena questions
involving
anonymous Internet users.
	   ___=
	   On the Net: Electronic Frontier Foundation:
http://www/eff/org
	   	   
=====
Carpe'Deiem!



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