The coalition, which includes the Electronic Frontier Foundation
and the American Civil Liberties union, claims that ISPs should
notify customers when they are targets of the so-called
“cyberSLAPP” lawsuits.
In these lawsuits the target of an anonymous criticism usually
files a suit against an anonymous individual and then issues an
identity-seeking court order to an ISP. There is currently no legal
requirement that ISPs notify their customers before complying with
such orders.
According to the group, companies such as Microsoft, EarthLink,
Yahoo! and America Online already notify their customers, allowing
them to prepare a response. The group also claims that, usually,
companies that issue legal threats do not follow up with further
action, they merely try to discover the identities of their
critics.
A spokeswoman for the coalition said:
“Anonymous speech on the internet lets
people make criticisms that are difficult to state openly, and
share information and support about topics that might be
stigmatising, such as addiction or sexual abuse… CyberSLAPP cases
are unfair because the ‘punishment’ that often matters most to
average citizens (the loss of anonymity) comes not after
consideration and judgment by a court or jury, but as a result of
the mere filing of a lawsuit.”
