Authors of Web comments must be disclosed US judge
A Philadelphia judge has sided with a law firm in a defamation suit, ruling that the operator of a Web site must disclose the identities of the anonymous authors of comments on the sites.
The Legal Intelligencer reports the suit was brought by Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg & Ellers, which complained its reputation had been severely disparaged by comments on the two sites that falsely accused its lawyers of being thieves, of committing fraud and lying to a judge. Web site operator Gerasimos Pantelidis had argued that that disclosure of their identities would violate their constitutional right to engage in anonymous speech. The judge chose not to apply tests developed by New Jersey and Delaware courts, relying instead on Pennsylvania\'s existing discovery rules for guidance. Full report in The Legal Intelligencer