Re: EPIC Blasts Yahoo for Identifying Posters
November 10, 1999
EPIC Blasts Yahoo for Identifying Posters
by Elinor Abreu
If you post a remark about a company on a Yahoo (YHOO) message board, watch out: The company might force Yahoo to identify you. Then it might sue you.
This scenario is being played out more often than most Internet users realize. Companies enraged by criticism are filing lawsuits against "John Doe" and then serving the service provider with a subpoena for the identity of anonymous posters. Like other service providers, Yahoo will release identifying information in the face of a subpoena. But unlike its rivals, Yahoo doesn't notify the member whose identity is being revealed, so the member can't fight the subpoena in court. Attorneys from the Electronic Privacy Information Center agree with other First Amendment lawyers that Yahoo is partly responsible for allowing companies to intimidate and silence their critics and abuse the judicial system.
"Yahoo has made, it appears, a decision at the very highest level that they're not going to fight any of these subpoenas or even insist that they comply with the law," says Megan Gray, an attorney in Los Angeles. "There are probably hundreds of these lawsuits and only a few get publicized."
In the latest case, Fruit of the Loom (FTL) is subpoenaing Yahoo, looking for the identity of two people who posted messages on a finance message board. The postings criticized Fruit of the Loom management and its lobbying for an amendment to a trade bill that would benefit Fruit of the Loom by allowing them to import certain items duty-free.
One of the members who posted some of the messages says he will sue Yahoo, possibly as part of a class-action suit, if the company reveals any information about him without his permission. The member, who asked not to be identified except by his user name of Expertone 2000, has offered to sign a waiver allowing Yahoo to release information about him ? but only if Fruit of the Loom provides a written affidavit stating that it believes what he posted was false. "Yahoo's Jeff Mallett [the company's president] has given corporate America a green light to conduct a giant Internet witch hunt," Expertone 2000 wrote in an e-mail to the Standard.
A Fruit of the Loom spokeswoman declines to comment.
A Yahoo spokesman defends the company's practices. "We comply with validly issued subpoenas and we don't always provide all the information requested," says Jon Sobel, associate general counsel at Yahoo. He acknowledges that Yahoo generally doesn't try to notify users of a subpoena, but says, "it's something we are looking at doing, if possible."
Because Yahoo requires little information from customers who sign up, the company doesn't always know how to get in touch with them, Sobel says. However, customers do provide e-mail addresses. "We advise our users that they cannot and should not expect complete anonymity and we strive for a balance between very different and competing interests," Sobel says.
While Yahoo fears legal action, few companies follow through with threatened lawsuits. For instance, Raytheon (RTNB) recently sued 21 John Does who posted on Yahoo; but once the company learned their identities, it dropped the lawsuit. It turned out that some of the posters worked for the company; four of them were let go after their names came to light. Other companies that have filed lawsuits against Yahoo and served subpoenas include Breed Technologies, an airbag manufacturer; Xircom (XIRC) ; Universal Food; and Kimberly-Clark (KMB) .
"The word is clearly out among in-house corporate counsel that this is the way to deal with the problem of online criticism," says David Sobel, general counsel at EPIC, based in Washington, D.C. "There are no legal protections available to John Doe when the message-board operator like Yahoo or the service provider doesn't notify individuals that their identities are being sought. The individual has no opportunity to object" until it's too late. In addition, notes Gray, any lawyer can issue subpoenas; they don't have to go through a judge or court hearing.
Federal law forbids service providers from giving up identifying information without court orders but also exempts them from liability for content posted on their sites by their members.
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