These cases all involve defending people's right to remain anonymous when they post comments on message boards, as well as making sure that anonymous speakers' due process rights are respected. These cases are also described at Cyberslapp.org, a joint project of Public Citizen, EFF, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
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May 21, 2015
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April 2, 2015
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January 2, 2015
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July 26, 2013
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April 25, 2013
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January 9, 2013
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August 27, 2012
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July 19, 2012
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April 24, 2012
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March 2, 2012
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| boingboingMarch 3, 2012
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| JezebelAugust 18, 2010
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EFF filed an amicus in support of a John Doe who was denied attorneys fees under the California SLAPP law. The case was handled by the Stanford cyberlaw clinic. The appeals court agreed with Stanford and EFF and reversed the lower court ruling.
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John Doe is an anonymous poster to two Internet message boards who made two statements critical of a publicly-traded company run by Plaintiff Cullens.
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John Doe is an anonymous poster on an internet message board who made some statements critical of Plaintiff First Cash a Texas-based chain of pawn shops and check cashing services.
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Software development company seeks identity of John Doe who obtained email initially sent by company's CEO to his mistress and forwarded the email to company employees.
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Complaint filed in an Ohio lawsuit against Anonymizer.com (a provider of anonymous Internet service) and several other parties (mostly John Doe defendants) in which a defamed plaintiff attempts to hold the service provider liable for third parties' defamatory statements.
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EFF has asked a judge today to block a reality TV star’s attempts to censor critical comments about her company on a popular online fashion blog.
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In March 2010, EFF filed an amicus brief urging the Illinois Court of Appeals to protect the identity of an anonymous critic who upset a local politician. Our brief set forth the appropriate First Amendment standard that should be applied to protect the online critic’s identity from curious or vituperative opponents. In November, the Court of Appeals overturned the trial court’s order and protected the identity of the anonymous speaker in question, adopting much of the substance of our First Amendment argument.
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EFF fought for bloggers' rights, defending the anonymity of an online speaker. In two messages from September of 2004, someone writing under the alias Proud Citizen criticized Patrick Cahill, a member of the Smyrna Town Council in Delaware. Cahill and his wife sued for defamation and sought to unmask the critic. In the first state supreme court decision considering "John Doe" subpoenas and bloggers' rights, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to meet the strict standards required by the First Amendment to breach a speaker's anonymity. The statements at issue were "incapable of a defamatory meaning."
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EFF defended anonymous online speakers from frivolous subpoenas. After suing Internet users who had allegedly made critical comments about him on message boards and blogs, a Utah man asked the court to let him subpoena the names of the anonymous "John Doe" critics. The Utah District Court agreed with EFF and the ACLU of Utah that the plaintiff had not submitted sufficient justification.
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After EFF intervened in the case, an Oklahoma school superintendent dropped his attempt to unmask the identities of a website operator and all registered users of an Internet message board devoted to discussion of local public schools. The superintendent sued anonymous speakers who criticized him on an online message board. As part of the case, he filed a broad subpoena seeking to identify the site's creator and everyone who had posted or even registered on the site, violating First Amendment protections for anonymous speech and association. EFF filed a motion to quash the subpoena on behalf of the site's operator and a registered user, and the superintendent responded by dismissing the case.
eff.org/nsa-spying
