Chemical firm wants poster’s ID
p2pnet.net news:- An appeals court should comb through a chemical company’s attempt to strip the anonymity from someone posting on an online message board, say the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the California First Amendment Coalition (CFAC).
“The participant posted information that H.B. Fuller Co. claims could only have been obtained through a company ‘town hall meeting,’ in violation of an employee confidentiality agreement,” says the EFF, going on:
“However, the poster has submitted a declaration to the court swearing that he or she is not an employee and that the information posted on the message board could have been gleaned from any follower of Fuller’s business practices.”
A lower court has already ruled the message board poster should be identified to Fuller, but in an amicus brief. the EFF and CFAC argue the lower court, “undervalued the right to anonymity and set a dangerously low threshold for stripping Internet users of its protection”.
Both organizatins say they want the appeals court to adopt a test for this case and others, “that would protect the rights of Internet critics”.
The test, “should include notice to the anonymous speaker, an assessment of the merits of the legal claims and other alternatives for finding the source of harm, and careful consideration of the balance of harms,” they state.
Also See:
EFF – Corporate Critic Fights to Keep Internet Anonymity, May 3, 2007
If your Net access is blocked by governBryan Adams slams Net radio hikement restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the endSurvey: How Did Copyright Infringement Become Equated with Robbery? (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php | | And use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site
Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
May 3rd, 2007 at 2:30 pm
so proxy.