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Lilly Industries Sues Five 'Anonymous' Posters

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the so-its-this-story-again dept.

BenDover writes "Lilly Industries, Inc. has sued five anonymous posters too Yahoo! message boards who have allegedly made defamatory statems about Lilly executives and distribed confidential company info. What makes this all the more interesting is quote: "Yahoo! has complied with subpoenas without notifying subscribers. . ."" This sort of lawsuit really could end the era of the open, lawless Internet. We've all seen what anonymous posting does (look no further than Slashdot for the sorts of abuses that happen when there is no accountability) but without the right to write something anonymously, people might be afraid to speak out when the need really arises. Its gonna get interesting.

3 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Anonymous != Anonymous? by Chuck+Milam · · Score: 3

    So kids, the moral of today's story is:

    Never post anything that you don't want traced back to you from your own machine. Use a disliked coworker's machine instead.

    For the humor impaired: That was a joke. Thank you for playing.

  2. What's wrong with a little accountability? by ChrisWong · · Score: 3

    Freedom to speak, after all, is not necessarily freedom from the consequences of that speech. In this case, the posters may have done something illegal. Is it really that bad that even in cyberspace we can take action against malicious and illegal acts?

    It seems to me that putting anonymous posters above the law might not be the best solution. Maybe someone can think up a way to preserve free speech and stop abuse without making more lawyers rich. In the meantime, I see no alternative to situations like the above.

  3. Lawless Internet, R.I.P by SEWilco · · Score: 3
    The Lawless Internet has laws, but they are sometimes hard to enforce.
    The Lawless Wild West had laws, but the authorities were spread rather thin.
    Just because you don't get caught for a while does not mean there are not laws.

    Or we can go a little further back to one of the foundations behind many laws. The Code of Hammurabi, its full text in English, or its foundations, Babylonian law.

    109. If conspirators meet in the house of a tavern-keeper, and these conspirators are not captured and delivered to the court, the tavern-keeper shall be put to death.
    Granted, Yahoo might consider that a little harsh.