Re: 5/11/00 - Anonymous user sues Yahoo!
Anonymous user sues Yahoo!
'Aquacool' sues the portal giant, saying Yahoo! turned over personal information in another suit without providing notification.
By Margaret Kane, ZDNet News
May 11, 2000 11:25 AM PT
A user of Yahoo! Inc.'s financial message boards, sued for defamation, has in turn filed suit against Yahoo! for turning over personal information without permission.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Privacy Information Center immediately sided with the user against Yahoo!.
Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) could not immediately be reached for comment.
The suit is an interesting twist on the defamation suits that have begun to crowd the court systems recently. Companies that discover individuals posting misleading or sometimes just critical information about them on online message boards have struck back, filing suits against "anonymous" users.
One of those companies was AnswerThink Consulting Group Inc., which filed a lawsuit against a number of "John Doe" defendants in federal court in Florida. AnswerThink subsequently subpoenaed Yahoo! to turn over identifying information about those users.
'Aquacool' goes on the offensive
That's where the new lawsuit comes in. An anonymous defendant, who used the pseudonym Aquacool_2000, said that Yahoo! illegally turned over his information without first notifying him.
His suit, filed in federal court in California, accuses Yahoo! of invasion of privacy, breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation, and unfair competition and false advertising.
"With sensitive egos and money to burn ... companies often file a lawsuit merely in order to obtain the right to subpoena Yahoo! for information so that the company's curiosity and desire to silence the member can be satiated," the suit reads. "Nonetheless, the subject of the lawsuit is unable to mount such a defense prior to Yahoo!'s disclosure of personal information -- solely because the defendant is not notified by Yahoo! of the lawsuit of the subpoena."
Aquacool is seeking compensatory damages for "personal and economic harms" caused as a result of Yahoo!'s actions, as well as punitive damages and attorney's fees. The suit also seeks an injunction prohibiting Yahoo! from releasing personal information without notification.
The Yahoo! suit has received an endorsement from at least two privacy advocacy groups. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) both put out statements supporting Aquacool, saying that the right to remain anonymous should be protected.
Chance to answer
"Any complaint filed in court against an unknown Internet defendant should include specifics of the allegedly objectionable postings," ACLU attorney Chris Hansen said. "Also, a judge should not allow a lawyer to issue subpoenas in these cases without requiring that the Internet service provider notify the potential defendant that someone is seeking information about him and giving him an opportunity to enter court to protect his anonymity."
David Sobel, general counsel for EPIC, said that in many cases the companies filing the initial suits are seeking the personal information in an attempt to intimidate the posters.
"They send threatening cease-and-desist letters to individuals, or if it's an employee they'll fire them," Sobel said. "This has become a very common intimidation tactic that companies use to limit the posting of critical information."
If the users know about the subpoenas, he said, they can fight back.
"All the major ISPs ... will send a notice to the subscriber saying 'Here's a subpoena we've received, the ball is in your court. Unless we hear that you have challenged this within 14 days, or some period, we intend to comply,'" he said. "In that case the subscriber has some chance to file a legal objection to that motion. They can get a judge to determine if the underlying lawsuit is valid."
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