AOL Has To Give Up Users' Names
from the privacy-schmivacy dept
The Virginia Supreme Court has ruled that AOL needs to reveal the name of one of their customers who has been accused of anonomously psting defamatory statements in an internet forum. AOL is arguing that it violates the subscriber's First Amendment rights, but the court disagreed. As the article points out, the law on this matter is not at all settled - and there are a number of similar cases going on around the country. Clearly, sooner or later, this matter will end up before the Supreme Court.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team