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To: EL KABONG!!! who wrote (4673)	3/9/1999 10:53:00 PM
From: Cisco	Respond to of 32903

Nope. Just a bad jury pool. It turned out the prosecutors lost almost all of their cases that week! Cisco

To: EL KABONG!!! who wrote (4673)	3/10/1999 10:51:00 AM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32903

Re: More news about chat board lawsuits Anonymous posting under attack Suits against Yahoo! bulletin board contributors could chill online free speech. By Maria Seminerio, ZDNN March 9, 1999 4:28 PM PT Two recent lawsuits against anonymous contributors to Yahoo! Inc.'s financial bulletin board have intensified the stormy debate over how far free-speech protections extend to the Web. While Yahoo! (Nasdaq:YHOO) is not named as a defendant in either suit, the outcome of the cases will have a direct impact on the Web powerhouse, observers said. And as the cases move ahead, those accustomed to using the Web anonymously have a few things to think about, not all of them comforting, according to some First Amendment experts. "These lawsuits are intended to intimidate people from speaking negatively about certain companies," said Barry Steinhardt, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union. <snip> Falsely claiming in public that a CEO had been dragged off in handcuffs -- regardless of the forum -- would clearly be defamatory, the ACLU official and other observers said. But they said they are disturbed by the possibility that a flood of litigation against people who participate in online discussion boards could stifle meaningful debate on the boards. When rights collide The tension lies between companies' legitimate need to protect themselves from disgruntled employees or ex-workers who make scurrilous postings in order to drive down stock prices, and the legitimate reasons for online anonymity, said David Sobel, general counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. <snip> "This is an assault on the concept of anonymity on the Internet," Sobel said of the Wade Cook suit and a similar suit filed last week against 21 "John Does" by Raytheon Corp. In the Raytheon suit, the Lexington, Mass.-based company alleges the John Does are Raytheon employees who leaked proprietary technical and financial data on the boards. While a worker's contract with his employer may bar him from discussing company secrets in public, the First Amendment may give him the right to do so, Sobel said. Anonymous communiques protected "The Supreme Court has said the First Amendment protects the right to communicate anonymously, so I do see a First Amendment problem with these cases," he said. <snip> While Yahoo! officials said in both cases they would divulge the posters' names only if ordered to do so by the court, there's no law preventing them from doing so without a subpoena -- a potential violation of users' privacy rights, Sobel said. Can't shout 'fire' "There's no clear-cut procedure for how this would be resolved in court," he said. But the First Amendment, as the famous saying goes, doesn't allow Americans to shout "fire" in a crowded theater unless the theater really is on fire, another expert said. "Individuals have always had to take responsibility for what they say," said Lisa Kessler, a staff attorney at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Just because the statement is made on the Internet, that doesn't mean it's protected by the First Amendment if it is libelous, said Kessler. "Presumably if you're just a crank and you're just posting lies about a company to get back at somebody, it eventually comes out," she said. "But people have to realize the Yahoo! financial boards are not the Wall Street Journal." Full story: zdnet.com - Jeff