Re: 7/21/00 [AAI] Suit hits Web site postings: AirTran wants source of inside information
Suit hits Web site postings: AirTran wants source of inside information
by Tom Walsh
Friday, July 21, 2000
Would the real JulietAlpha please stand up - and stop the bull?
A Florida airline said in a lawsuit filed in Boston on Wednesday that one or more people using the handle JulietAlpha posted confidential information about the company on the Raging Bull Internet message board.
AirTran Airways Inc., of Orlando, is seeking more than $75,000 in damages for ``misappropriation of trade secrets . . . invasion of privacy, defamation and violation of federal securities laws and regulations.''
Attorneys for AirTran, which used to be called ValuJet, asked the court to force Andover-based Raging Bull to turn over documents that could help them identify JulietAlpha. They said up to six people could be behind the name.
AirTran officials declined to comment on the case.
A check of the Raging Bull site yesterday showed messages in early May posted by JulietAlpha, who claimed to have insider information about the number of passengers using the airline - at least some of which the carrier said was false.
A spokeswoman for Raging Bull, which is full of stock market chatter, said the company had no plans to pull the messages.
``Typically, we're not held liable for information posted on the board,'' said Kristi Kaspar, a spokeswoman for Raging Bull's parent, AltaVista Co. She would not comment on the lawsuit.
As Internet use grows, lawsuits over anonymous messages are becoming increasingly common, said Diane Cabell, a Boston lawyer and fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
Cabell said people posting to message boards have generally been easy to track down.
``In the future, you're going to see people trying to protect their identity more, and using technology to do so,'' she said.
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