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Pastimes : Investment Chat Board Lawsuits -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StockDung who wrote (2422)	1/24/2002 12:14:19 PM
From: dantecristo	Respond to of 12465

Another anonymous poster protection case is: Rancho Publications v. Superior Court (1999) 68 Cal.App.4th 1538, 1547-1550 legal.web.aol.com which was cited in the Varian SLAPP: geocities.com and used to protect the anonymity of non-party message board posters.

To: StockDung who wrote (2422)	1/25/2002 11:54:38 AM
From: dantecristo	Respond to of 12465

More cases protecting message board poster anonymity: Dendrite International, Inc.., v. John Does. I believe the is one of the first cases that an appeals court looked into protecting anonymity and here's an excerpt from the amici curiae brief submitted in the NJ Court of Appeals: "A. The First Amendment Protects Against the Compelled Identification of Anonymous Speakers. It is well-established that the First Amendment protects the right to speak anonymously. The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld this right. Buckley v. American Constitutional Law Found. 119 S. Ct. 636, 645-646 (1999); McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Comm., 514 U.S. 334 (1995); Talley v. California, 362 U.S. 60 (1960). These cases have celebrated the important role played by anonymous or pseudonymous writings over the course of history, from the literary efforts of Shakespeare and Mark Twain through the authors of the Federalist Papers. As the Supreme Court said in McIntyre, [A]n author is generally free to decide whether or not to disclose his or her true identity. The decision in favor of anonymity may be motivated by fear of economic or official retaliation, by concern about social ostracism, or merely by a desire to preserve as much of one's privacy as possible. Whatever the motivation may be, . . . the interest in having anonymous works enter the marketplace of ideas unquestionably outweighs any public interest in requiring disclosure as a condition of entry. Accordingly, an author's decision to remain anonymous, like other decisions concerning omissions or additions to the content of a publication, is an aspect of the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment. " old.citizen.org