Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Internet Defamation Suit Tests Online Anonymity

Posted by kdawson on from the nameless-and-hope-to-stay-that-way dept.

The Xoxo Reader writes "Reuters reports that two women at Yale Law School have filed suit for defamation and infliction of emotional distress against an administrator and 28 anonymous posters on AutoAdmit (a.k.a. Xoxohth), a popular law student discussion site. Experts are watching to see if the suit will unmask the posters, who are identified in the complaint only by their pseudonyms. Since AutoAdmit's administrators have previously said that they do not retain IP logs of posters, identifying the defendants may test the limits of the legal system and anonymity on the Internet. So far, one method tried was to post the summons on the message board itself and ask the defendants to step forward. The controversy leading to this lawsuit was previously discussed on Slashdot."

3 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. Re:nonsense by 228e2 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    The women who filed this suit have no case
    I suggest you look up the meaning of libel. If the women can prove these remarks played a part in their hiring, or lackof, then they have a legit case.
    --
    Since when does being a Socialist mean 'someone who has a different opinion than me'?
  2. Re:nonsense by Sunburnt · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Nice...only six minutes before the first person who completely missed the joke responded, and in the meantime, somebody has modded you "Troll."

    --
    Tags != Comments, and -1 (Troll) != -1 (I Would Respond Angrily To This Poster So They Must Be Trolling)
  3. Bwahahah by dedazo · · Score: 1, Redundant

    You've pretty much given up on pretending, havent you?

    --
    Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo