Google to reveal blogger’s IP address
p2pnet news | Freedom:- Google says it’ll hand over the IP address of an Israeli who ran ‘Google Blogger’ on which he, “slandered Shaarei Tikva council members running for reelection,” says Globes Online.
“The slandered Shaarei Tikva council members asked Google for the blogger’s name,” says the story.
“They reached a settlement with the company on the basis of an Israeli ruling on the subject. The settlement stipulates that 72 hours before a hearing on the case at the Rishon LeZion Magistrates Court, the council members would leave the blogger a message on his blog summoning him to the hearing, or else his IP address would be handed over.”
The notice, “would invite the blogger to disclose his identity, participate in the hearing, or oppose the disclosure of his identity by filing a motion as ‘anonymous’,” it says.
Google originally took the position that revealing the blogger’s identity, “violated rulings on the balance between freedom of expression and a person’s right to his reputation.,” says Globes Online.
But in a pre-ruling, “Judge Oren Schwartz said that the blog’s content raised suspicions of criminal conduct, and Google took the hint,” says the story, adding:
“Judge Schwartz applied the strict position of Tel Aviv District Court Judge Michal Agmon that the details of a surfer may be disclosed only if the slander was tantamount to criminal defamation.”
In other words Google, not wanting to get tangled up in a criminal court case, apparently decided discretion was the better part of valour.
Also See:
Globes Online – In precedent, Google to hand over blogger’s IP address, November 27, 2007
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November 28th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Boooooooooooooooooooooo
November 28th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
It’s China all over again.
November 29th, 2007 at 11:35 am
It’s not really. Here, someone is being prosecuted – in a court of law, rather than a show trial – for making defamatory comments. In China, _Yahoo_ handed over emails that led to someone being jailed (without due process) for exercising his human right to free speech.
November 30th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
Perhaps a couple of very good anon (GUI TOR) web-browsing programs should come into wide use in Israel. I list these 2 prog’s below:
XeroBank (http://xerobank.com/xB_browser.html), and OperaTor (http://letwist.net/operator).
Both are free, and both work quite well through anon HTTP servers (verified via http://support.xerobank.com/IPSpy/ – which this writer uses as a Startup page with both).
December 4th, 2007 at 1:19 am
A new site had just published English translations from the blog under fire.
The link is: http://shaarei-tikva.behirot.net
It looks like the bloggers allegations were mostly true.
I got an impression that those 3 local politicians have a lot to hide.
Telling about local politicians taking bribes is a criminal offense?
We all will be in jail very soon.
December 4th, 2007 at 5:40 am
A little like yahoo.com.cn some years ago……….