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To: Robert who wrote (617)	3/10/1999 8:54:00 PM
From: Buche'	Respond to of 703

••••••Sorry, I have know idea why it posted this way: Anonymous postings under attack Suits against Yahoo! bulletin board contributors could chill online free speech By Maria Seminerio ZDNN March 10 — 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. Share your thoughts on free speech, defamation and privacy “These lawsuits are intended to intimidate people from speaking negatively about certain companies.” — BARRY STEINHARDT ACLU WHILE YAHOO! 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. Take MSNBC's online privacy survey Steinhardt said he believes this is true even in the most recent case, that of Seattle-based Wade Cook Financial Corp. 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. The company sued 10 “John Does” Monday for making allegedly defamatory comments about it on the Yahoo! board. One contributor named in the suit, who went by the pseudonym “Delusional5,” posted an erroneous allegation that the company's founder had been arrested for accepting kickbacks, according to the lawsuit. “Delusional5” and the other defendants “used the anonymity of the Internet to damage the reputation and undermine the business of a legitimate company,” Wade Cook attorney Paul Anderson told Reuters. 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. “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.