Win in US free speech case
p2p news / p2pnet: In Canada, bloggers can easily be sued by just about anyone, as OpenPolitic.ca’s Michael Pilling and p2pnet’s Jon Newton are very well aware.
However, Freedom of Expression has a little more meaning in the US and elsewhere and Oklahoma school superintendent Jerry Burd, who’d sued anonymous speakers for criticizing him on an online message board, found himself up against the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation).
“As part of the case, he filed a broad subpoena seeking to identify the site’s creator and everyone who’d posted or even registered on the site, “violating First Amendment protections for anonymous speech and association,” says the EFF. But, working with Tulsa attorneys Greg Bledsoe and Curtis Parks, the EFF filed a motion to quash the subpoena on behalf of the site’s operator and a registered user.
The result? Burd dropped the case.
“The right to engage in anonymous communication is fundamental to a free society,” said EFF lawyer Matt Zimmerman.
“It’s critical that judges resist attempts by anyone – public officials especially – to turn courtrooms into vehicles to harass and intimidate people out of speaking their minds. Thankfully, court after court has recognized that a plaintiff doesn’t have an automatic right to pierce anonymity just because he doesn’t like what someone has said.”
Also See:
aware – Free Speech in Canada, July 18, 2006
EFF – Anonymity Preserved for Critics of Oklahoma School Official, July 19, 2006
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July 19th, 2006 at 6:33 pm
It sham it did not go to court. If went to court an they won it would make for some important case law. It would also give people the right to post torrents files and to do it with right to anonymous speech.
Wow, not that would be worth having.