California Court: We Won't Issue A Subpoena To Identify Someone Just To Prove 'Someone Is Wrong On The Internet' | Techdirt

California Court: We Won’t Issue A Subpoena To Identify Someone Just To Prove ‘Someone Is Wrong On The Internet’ | Techdirt

June 11, 2014 | Author Aaron Morris

Click on the “Scoop.it” link for an interesting article on Internet anonymity. In essence, someone commented on about a blog post about a lawsuit. The person claimed to be an employee of one of the parties to the litigation, so the other side sought to subpoena the records to determine the identity of the person who made the post. Incredibly, the trial court ordered that the information be turned over, completely ignoring one’s right to remain anonymous on the Internet. On appeal from the order, the Court of Appeal reversed, stating:

“Visitor has done nothing more than provide commentary about an ongoing public dispute in a forum that could hardly be more obscure—the busy online comments section of a digital trade newspaper. Such commentary has become ubiquitous on the Internet and is widely perceived to carry no indicium of reliability and little weight. We will not lightly lend the subpoena power of the courts to prove, in essence, that Someone Is Wrong On The Internet.”

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