Stone & Webster Files Suit Against Online Chatters
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
In a lawsuit that draws parallels to Raytheon Co.'s case against anonymous Web chatters, Boston engineering firm Stone & Webster has filed suit against 20 individuals it claims made false statements or revealed inside information about the company on the Internet.
Stone & Webster spokesman Jack Powell said the company believes at least some of the individuals charged in the lawsuit are employees.
The suit alleges that one group of individuals made false statements online with the intent to defame the company and that another group of 10 people, believed to be current or former employees, violated company policy by disclosing confidential information on the Web.
Stone & Webster is a Boston-based engineering and construction firm with about 6,000 employees.
"It was material that was either proprietary or non-public information," Powell told Newsbytes about the material posted on Yahoo message boards. Powell declined to discuss specific postings, nor did he say whether the company will take action against the individuals if they are identified as Stone & Webster employees. The lawsuit was filed in Suffolk County Court on Friday.
Yahoo was not named in the lawsuit, but William Zucker, an attorney representing Stone & Webster, told the Boston Globe that the company is pursuing discovery against Yahoo to learn the names of the anonymous authors.
In the Raytheon case, Yahoo cooperated with the court order seeking information about the anonymous Web chatters. The company also states in a detailed warning about the reliability of information contained in message boards that it may under special circumstances, such as subpoenas, "provide personally identifiable information which may include Internet protocol addresses."
In an attempt to distance itself from the information posted on its message boards, Yahoo started issuing prominent warnings earlier this week urging participants to view information contained in the message boards with wariness.
Reported by Newsbytes News Network, newsbytes.com
WIRES ONLINE, LEGAL, BUSINESS
Copyright ¸ 1999 Newsbytes News Network, all rights reserved.
library.northernlight.com
- Jeff |
