Collins Stewart hunts down internet libeller

The ability of users of internet bulletin boards to remain anonymous was placed in serious doubt yesterday after Terry Smith, chief executive of City firm Collins Stewart Tullett, won a landmark libel settlement.

Mr Smith and his firm won "substantial" damages from Jeremy Benjamin, a fund manager who posted false allegations on the Motley Fool web site using the invented web name "analyser71".

The claims were described in a high court statement yesterday as "serious allegations of criminal and dishonest financial wrongdoing by Mr Smith and the claimant companies" and "a grave slur on Mr Smith's personal and professional integrity".

Mr Benjamin, in the same court statement, said he "now accepts his serious error in publishing these libels". His claims were made in September and October 2003.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1444444,00.html

I can understand this action even if it seems chilling to privacy online.

Can chimp use this ruling to close down all dissent?

There appears to be a lot of things that have yet to be settled on. Such as jurisdiction for one. An example of a case that is a new twist is as follows:

Global media giants fear chill from Toronto web libel suit

TORONTO - A libel lawsuit unfolding in Toronto could restrict how news stories are published around the world, 52 large media companies argued this week.

The lawsuit involves the Washington Post's 1997 coverage of a former United Nations official who was accused of financial and sexual improprieties on the job in West Africa.

Cheickh Bangoura, a native of Ghana who later moved from Kenya to Ontario, filed legal action against the Post in 2000 seeking $9 million Cdn. in damages.

The 46-year-old man's suit said the newspaper was hurting his reputation in his new home because Ontario residents could read the stories in the Post's web-based archives.

http://www.cbc.ca/storyview/AOL/canada/national/2005/03/09/libel-internet050309.html

If you think you will lose in the US, go to Britain or France where the laws are more stringent. Already several cases of this have happened.

The standards of libel and slander against public figures is different than that of private citizens.

their opinions.

BTW, the key in all of these cases is "libel" -- in other words, malicious intent. The folks who are in trouble posted in such a place and in such as way as to personally attack (without grounds) their subjects. For instance, in the OP, Benjamin posted about Collins Stewart on the Motley Fool site (a site devoted to all things finance). If the same thing had been posted on a mommy board, for instance, it is doubtful libel would have been as easy to prove.