A former shipping company executive, J. Erik Hvide, claimed he was libelled on message boards hosted by the two companies.
The companies themselves were not sued. The reason is that earlier court rulings in the US protect ISPs from responsibility for messages posted on their sites. Instead, Hvide sued anonymous individuals who claimed Hvide had been guilty of mismanagement and criminal behaviour.
The lawyer for Hvide said, “the judge had to balance the right to make anonymous accusations on-line with the right of someone to face their accuser.”
AOL and Yahoo! were each served with an order demanding the identities of eight anonymous posters. Dade County Circuit Court Judge Eleanor Schockett rejected a motion to quash the orders.
If Schockett’s ruling is upheld, it would mean that individuals posting messages on the internet anonymously could lose their right to anonymity. Schockett gave the companies 20 days to turn over the names.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called Hvide’s lawsuit frivolous. A spokesman for the ACLU said: “One of the advantages of the internet is having access to a huge audience. We have to tread carefully on the internet and ensure it has the breathing room it needs."