Re: 8/16/01 - [Donato v. Moldow] Bergen Record: Web site operator may decline defense aid
Web site operator may decline defense aid
Thursday, August 16, 2001
By DEENA YELLIN
Staff Writer
EMERSON -- Facing a lawsuit charging that his Web site published slanderous comments about local officials, Stephen Moldow seemingly could use all the help he can get.
Yet the operator of Emerson's unofficial Web site may reject donations from a fund established to help cover his legal fees.
"This wasn't his idea. I don't know if he will accept the money or not," said his lawyer, Louis Lamatina. "I don't know if we want it."
The dilemma, said Lamatina, is that the money is being raised through the sale of T-shirts reading, "Free the Emerson 60," a reference to the anonymous John and Jane Does named as defendants in the lawsuit for posting allegedly defamatory messages.
Moldow, who runs the Web site, does not want to be connected to those who posted the anonymous messages, Lamatina said. After all, his legal argument is that he is no more responsible for what they posted than the telephone company would be for words exchanged in a phone conversation.
But the John and Jane Does may find comfort knowing that a high-profile lawyer from Washington, D.C., is requesting to step into the case.
Paul Alan Levy, an attorney with the non-profit Public Citizen Litigation Group, sent a letter Wednesday to Superior Court in Hackensack. He raised questions about officials' attempts to force the Internet service provider to identify the 60 people who posted messages under anonymous screen names.
Levy, who argued the Dendrite case, in which a New Jersey appellate court upheld the rights of anonymous online critics against companies, said the Moldow case is more troubling because it involves public officials.
"We are concerned about people's rights to speak anonymously on the Internet," Levy said. "There's no right to go on the Internet and libel people, but there need to be procedures in place to protect their rights before they are identified."
In the meantime, Lamatina said, the Web site will continue to run as it has for the past 18 months. And readers will continue to use the forum not only to bash local officials but to lend support to Moldow.
Four dozen consumers snatched up the T-shirts in a two-day span after they were advertized through two postings on the Web site, according to the shirt's creator, Jack Quigley.
The gray T-shirt, with red lettering against the background of an American flag, can be obtained through a $20 donation to the defense fund.
"I think he's being unjustly litigated against, and I wanted to help him," said Quigley, a former Emerson councilman. "The response has been phenomenal. I'm getting requests from out of town and out of state."
Not everyone is buying it. "Why does he want to free the people who wrote all this smut?" said Councilman Vince Donato, one of four plaintiffs in the suit. "Why is he protecting them? He's saying these [anonymous critics] should be able to continue. That's not protecting anyone's rights. It's destroying people's livelihoods."
The other plaintiffs are Councilwoman Gina Calogero, council candidate Eric Obernauer, and Calogero's husband, Lawrence Campagna. All are Republicans.
The suit was filed in Superior Court in Hackensack on July 25.
Among the postings, the suit said, were messages accusing council members and public officials of adulterous affairs and shady business dealings. The suit also accuses Moldow of actively editing the Web site.
Moldow said he created the site as a hobby and a public service. It includes links to everything from the municipal budget to the minutes of public meetings. Residents were invited to post messages about issues in town.
Quigley said he and a friend created the shirts in an effort to help Moldow. What he didn't realize is that the message on the T-shirts defends the anonymous critics instead of Moldow -- and that the courts may distinguish between the two.
"It's just a matter of semantics. They are both the same thing," Quigley said.
This puts Lamatina in an awkward position: How do you turn down free cash?
"This could cost tens of thousands of dollars, if not more," Lamatina said. "It's their strategy to bleed his assets to make him capitulate. Steve is concerned about how much this will cost him personally."
"When the money is presented to him, he will consider it and make an appropriate decision," Lamatina said.
Quigley refuses to consider what would happen if Moldow refuses to take the money. But the question of what to do with the fund if the plaintiffs drop the case already has been decided, Quigley said.
"We're going to make a big barbecue and invite everyone who believes in the First Amendment," he said.
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Staff Writer Deena Yellin's e-mail address is yellin@northjersey.com
Copyright © 2001 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
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