Re: 7/20/00 - [DRTE] Company suing to get names of online critics; Notice of Order to Show Cause
Company suing to get names of online critics
Thursday, July 20, 2000
By DERRICK HENRY
The Associated Press
TRENTON -- National free speech advocates are watching a New Jersey case in which a company is suing four unidentified online critics and wants an Internet portal to surrender their names.
Dendrite International Inc., based in Morristown, in a lawsuit claims that four people who posted messages on an Internet bulletin board were revealing company secrets and were crossing the line into libel.
Dendrite, a leading supplier of sales-support services for the pharmaceutical and consumer packaged goods industries, filed the lawsuit in May.
It alleges false statements about the company were made by three of the defendants, and that two who identified themselves as company employees violated their contracts to not negatively criticize the company.
The company also claims three of the defendants published secret company information.
The company has requested that Internet portal Yahoo! release the names of the four, identified in court papers as "ajcazz," "gacbar," "xxplrr," and "implementor extrodinaire."
But free speech advocates say Dendrite's allegations in the lawsuit first have to be proved in court before any names are released.
Yahoo! and other companies in the past have given out names of its members without notifying them when served with a subpoena. But Yahoo! said it has since changed that policy.
The company now sends e-mails to its members, notifying them of the requests and gives them 15 days to object.
Free speech experts were pleased that Superior Court Judge Kenneth MacKenzie on June 20 ordered Yahoo! to post Dendrite's intentions on the same electronic billboard used by the defendants. The posting went up June 23.
"It's a very innovative thing that the judge has done," said Paul Levy, an attorney for the Public Citizens Litigation Group, which last week filed a friend-of-the-court brief advocating that Yahoo! not be ordered to identify the four people unless Dendrite proves its allegations in the lawsuit.
"I think it's a good indication that he [MacKenzie] recognized the problems with some of these cases," he said.
Such lawsuits began surfacing about two years ago "and unfortunately have become a very popular tactic on the part of publicly traded companies that want to stop public criticism," said David Sobel, general counsel with the Electronic Privacy Information Center, based in Washington, D.C.
The organization, founded in 1994, is a non-profit research group that examines privacy and free speech issues on the Internet.
Though the Internet has given people a better ability to speak out, "it also gives the companies themselves the ability to smoke those people out and intimidate them into silence," Sobel said.
Sobel said past cases have shown that what defendants said falls within the range of fair comment. He also said it appears a majority of the lawsuits have only the goal of getting the identity of a person, then dropping the matter.
"It's pretty rare you actually get a ruling," Levy said.
Dendrite's lawsuit says one person posted a message complaining about pressure from management to be productive. The lawsuit also claims another person said Dendrite employees were leaving the company in droves.
A lawyer representing "xxplrr" said he filed papers last week opposing Dendrite's lawsuit and the company's request for the names.
"We believe that there's a right to maintain one's anonymity, provided one hasn't done anything wrong in regard to the Internet," said Eugene Reynolds, who practices in Morris Plains. "I believe we're correct."
Dendrite officials declined to comment Wednesday afternoon. They didn't immediately return calls about the case. Michael Vogel, an attorney for the company, also Wednesday said he wasn't authorized to talk about the case because it is pending.
The hearing in the New Jersey case is scheduled July 28 and follows two recent cases.
In May, a Florida judge ruled a Fort Lauderdale businessman could learn who wrote messages about him on Yahoo! and America Online. That ruling is under appeal. In Pennsylvania, a judge has filed a lawsuit to determine who is operating a Web site that's critical of him.
Copyright © 2000 Bergen Record Corp.
bergen.com
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Notice of Order to Show Cause
by: d_villanueva_2000 6/23/00 7:54 pm
Msg: 867 of 957
Please take notice that the following order has been entered with respect to
"implementor_extrodinaire", "ajcazz", "xxplrr", and "gacbar":
[Beginning of Order]
Michael S. Vogel
ALLEGAERT BERGER & VOGEL LLP
475 Wall Street
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
(609) 688-9700
Attorneys for Plaintiff
DENDRITE INTERNATIONAL, INC., a New SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY
Jersey corporation, MORRIS COUNTY
CHANCERY DIVISION - -
Plaintiff, GENERAL EQUITY PART
DOCKET NO. MRSC-129-00 v.
Civil Action
JOHN DOES Nos. 1 through 4 and DOES
5 through 14, inclusive, ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE
Defendants.
WHEREAS, this matter been brought before the court by Michael S. Vogel, Esq., of Allegaert Berger & Vogel LLP and Robert L. Weigel, Esq., and David A. Zonana, Esq., of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, counsel for plaintiff Dendrite International, Inc. ("Dendrite"), on application for an Order To Show Cause why an Order should not be entered granting plaintiff leave to conduct limited expedited discovery, including issuance of a commission to take discovery out-of-state, for the purpose of obtaining information sufficient to identify defendant's John Does No. 1 through 4 and serve them with the Complaint in this action; and
WHEREAS, the Court has reviewed the proposed Order To Show Cause,
Memorandum of Law, Verified Complaint, Certification of Michael S. Vogel, and Certification of David A. Zonana; and
WHEREAS, Defendants John Does Nos. 1 through 4 are named as defendants under fictitious names pursuant to R. 4:26-4 because their names are unknown to Dendrite; and
WHEREAS, it appears that the most effective and appropriate means of providing actual notice to Defendants John Does Nos. 1 through 4 of the present application is for this Court to authorize posting of this Order to Show Cause on Yahoo - Finance Home Message Board: DRTE not later than June 23, 2000; and
WHEREAS, good cause exists for the entry of this Order;
IT IS on this 20th day of June 2000, ORDERED as follows:
1. Defendants John Does No. 1 through 4 are directed to appear before this Court on July 5, 2000, at 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon, at the Superior Court of New Jersey, Morris County, Chancery Division, Morris County Courthouse, Washington and Court Streets, Morristown, New Jersey, and show cause why this Court should not enforce a commission granting plaintiff leave to conduct limited expedited discovery, including discovery out-of-state, for the purpose of obtaining information sufficient to identify defendants John Does Nos. 1 through 4 and serve them with the Complaint in this action.
2. Defendants John Does 1 through 4 shall file their opposition papers, if any, with the Court and serve them so as to be received by counsel for the plaintiff no later than June 30, 2000.
3. Plaintiff shall file its reply papers, if any, with the Court and serve them so as to be received by counsel for Defendants John Does 1 through 4 no later than July 3, 2000.
If you cannot afford to pay an attorney, call a Legal Services Office. An individual not eligible for free legal assistance may obtain a referral to an attorney by calling a county lawyer referral service. These numbers may be listed in the yellow pages of your phone book. The phone numbers for the county in which this action is pending are: Lawyer Referral Service, (973) 267-5882, Legal Services Office, (973) 285-6911.
/s/
Hon. Kenneth C. MacKenzie, J.S.C.
[End of Order]
Please also take notice that "implementor_extrodinaire", "ajcazz", "xxplrr", and "gacbar" may obtain copies of the court papers relating to this order by contacting Michael Vogel, Allegaert Berger & Vogel LLP, at (609) 688-9700 or (212) 571-0550.
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