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| Science & Technology |
| Court Rules Blogger Can Remain Anonymous |
| 2005-10-09 |
| In a case seen boosting the credibility and profile of blogs as sources of news and opinion, the Delaware Supreme Court this week found that four bloggers accused of defamation had the right to remain anonymous. The court ruled that a lower court was wrong in ordering an Internet service provider to disclose the identity of anonymous bloggers who used a local newspaper's public blogging area to criticize a local elected official. The court said that the official, Patrick Cahill, should have been required to provide more evidence that he had suffered damage from defamation before ordering the bloggers' identities be revealed. The ruling is getting attention because it may represent the first time a state's high court weighed in on blogger's rights to privacy and because the decision is seeing raising the level of blogs to more legitimate status. In the past, courts have been unwilling to protect the identities of message board posters and others who had been accused of misconduct. Of the four bloggers targeted by Cahill, one decided to appeal an initial ruling. He is referred to in court documents only as John Doe No. 1 and by his blog name, "Proud Citizen." His attorney, David Finger, said the decision represented protection for all anonymous bloggers "from lawsuits which have little or no merit and are filed solely to intimidate the speaker or suppress the speech." |
| Posted by:Captain America |