Maine Court Hears Case On E-Mail Privacy

Rev Wally writes "A case before the Maine Supreme Court could change rules regarding an ISP revealing the owner of an e-mail address. It seems that some one (known in court documents only as John Doe) sent an e-mail of an unflattering cartoon of the plaintiff, Ronald Fitch, and his wife. Doe had registered for an e-mail address using Fitch's name. Doe's lawyer is arguing that the e-mail is protected as free speech, and the the ISP cannot be forced to divulge the names of subscribers except in a criminal case. Fitch is arguing that he may be a victem of identity theft."

Comments

billg

[justforaday]

Wow, if this happens watch out for Bill Gates. He'll win so many lawsuits that he'll be rich!

www.m-w.com, boys.

[grub]

[...] may be a victem of identity theft.

Only on slashdot...

Re:Same name equals identity theft?

[stratjakt]

It becomes identify theft when you claim to be a specific Ronald Fitch, whom you are not.

If my name happened to be Rob Malda, and I stood on the hilltops shouting "I'm Rob Malda and I like to touch little boys!", it's not ID theft.

If I was shouting "I'm Rob Malda - founder of slashdot.org and assistant marketing director for Apple - and I like to touch little boys!", a line has been crossed. Because now, I'm pretending to be someone I'm not.

Re:As curious as a judge

[Country_hacker]

I'm guessing it's because as soon as his real name gets out, five hundred slashdotters are going to register gmail accounts with his name and start spamming people.
(Well, okay, that's just what I'd do. Am I the only jerk on this site??? ;-)