D.C. High Court Joins Consensus Protecting the Anonymity of Online Speakers

NashVegas

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Tue Aug-18-09 09:09 AM
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D.C. High Court Joins Consensus Protecting the Anonymity of Online Speakers

http://www.citmedialaw.org/blog/2009/dc-high-court-joins-consensus-protecting-anonymity-online-speakers

D.C.'s new standard most closely resembles those set out in Doe v. Cahill, 884 A.2d 451 (Del. 2005), and Krinsky v. Doe 6, 159 Cal.App. 4th 1154 (Cal. Ct. App. 2008). It requires D.C. courts to follow five steps before ordering the disclosure of an anonymous speaker's identity:

1. ensure that the plaintiff has adequately pleaded the elements of a defamation claim;
2. require reasonable efforts to notify the anonymous defendant that the complaint has been filed and the subpoena has been served;
3. delay further action for a reasonable time to allow the defendant an opportunity to file a motion to quash;
4. require the plaintiff to proffer evidence creating a genuine issue of material fact on each element of the claim that is within its control; and
5. determine that the information sought is important to enable the plaintiff to proceed with his/her lawsuit.

http://www.citmedialaw.org/sites/citmedialaw.org/files/2009-08-13-Solers%20v.%20Doe%20Opinion.pdf

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DCKit

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Tue Aug-18-09 10:26 AM
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1. That certainly raises the bar for the corporations and individuals who would sue...

to keep from being ratted out.

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NashVegas

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Tue Aug-18-09 11:53 AM
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2. On the Downside, It's All Kind of Circular

For example, people go to imdb.com all the time to cast box office doubts on competing projects, people use Trip Adviser to write nasties about their competitors.

So how do you prove an effort to defame if you can't prove the source has a motivation? "Your honor, I *think* these posts are coming from an interested party." Even worse, how do you prove a coordinated effort exists, as they sometimes do, without all the necessary IPs? A lot of it depends on the integrity of the web administrator. The longer we have it, the more I think the commercialization of the internet was a nightmare, both from an organizational and an ethical standpoint.

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