Court Dumps Order To ISP To Identify Anonymous Wikipedia Critic

from the good-for-them dept

In June, we wrote about a troubling ruling from a magistrate judge, ordering an ISP, Skybeam, to identify an anonymous Wikipedia editor, who wrote stuff that the company Faconable objected to. While Skybeam was fighting this order, Faconable was able to work out a "settlement" with the anonymous John Doe and filed a notice of voluntary dismissal. In response, Skybeam still wanted the original order to identify users vacated, noting that even if it didn't have to do so, just having that ruling out there could represent a competitive disadvantage for the firm. Thankfully, the court did vacate the order, noting that "through no fault of its own, Skybeam has been denied review of the Magistrate Judge’s Order. Because Skybeam had nothing to do with causing its objections to become moot, it “ought not in fairness be forced to acquiesce” in the Magistrate Judge’s Order." This is good, because without that, such an order would have remained on the books...
Hide this

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

Filed Under: anonymity, speech
Companies: skybeam


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • icon
    Drew (profile), 4 Aug 2011 @ 9:21pm

    Small world...

    I used to be a Skybeam customer, when I lived in Cheyenne, WY. Great company to deal with, and it's good to see they stand up for their customers. I just wish they offered service where I live now!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Ninja (profile), 5 Aug 2011 @ 6:29am

    It's nice to see companies and ppl going after opposing/different/controversial opinions. Brave new world.

    /disdain

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2011 @ 4:06pm

    Wikipedia is a joke.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    anonymous, 10 Feb 2014 @ 7:24pm

    Skybeam is a sorry excuse for a WiFi provider

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.