Posted on 03/08/2014 7:18:35 AM PST by PaulCruz2016
PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia judge has ordered philly.com to reveal the name of an anonymous commenter, in a defamation suit brought by electricians’ union leader John Dougherty.
An attorney in the case says it could have a broad impact on incendiary online comments and those users, sometimes called “trolls,” who post them anonymously.
The anonymous defendant in the suit, disguised by the nonsense name “fbpdplt,” called Dougherty a name in the comments section of an article on the website, one of the properties in the media group that also owns the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News.
(Excerpt) Read more at philadelphia.cbslocal.com ...
Always figured you for a MomJeans fanboy, bumble. :-)
It is always a good idea to review what you are posting and ask yourself “Would I post that if I had to put my real name to it?” Unless you are very clever and go to a great deal of trouble you identity is within easy reach of any seriously interested party. Always keep that in mind when communicating via modern communication devices. You are not anonymous and your message will be recorded.
Knowing the recent history of certain union thugs, I have no doubt these bastards would like to know where this poster lives so they can give him a beating or kill him.
Unions have a sordid history of thuggery with respect to any opposition. The opposition in this case is that the poster "called him a name". Really? That's it? I have a suspicion there is something deeper going on here. Perhaps the poster said something that shows he has deeper knowledge of some malfeasance on the part of the union, and the union would like to know where he lives, so they can "talk" to him.
You know, back about 200 years ago, when this country had actual freedom and rights, there was a whole cottage industry printing anonymous pamphleteers; the most famous being Thomas Paine's Common Sense. Of course nowadays, those elitists in power don't want to relinquish that power, and will use any means necessary to quash dissent.
I'm sure if they could, the elitists would like the internet to have never been invented. Come to think of it, I'm sure the Monarchies of Europe at the time wish the printing press had never been invented. Throughout time, groundbreaking inventions have been trying to set men free, and those in power have always tried to keep men in chains.
This is why I use Tor.
It prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location.
I’m right here, ol’ judge ol’ bubbela!
What’s to say you’re not typing away at some cafe with wifi?
I don’t see how you can stop a person from expressing an anonymous criticism of a union thug. In fact, I encourage it.
I saw it averred here that it was something worse than a “name” i.e. it was a specific kind of sex offender that, for now, the world still cares about.
Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; [unless the peasant responsible refuses to put his real name on it]...
Fixed it for you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
No they need much more than that. See my post #47.
As long as you have good reason to believe it true. Fanciful accusations, even if they don’t get you in trouble, can ruin your credibility.
We don’t want the government to be a nanny-all. We shouldn’t try to ban every bad thing.
If one is anonymous, credibility is irrelevant. If one is a longtime poster on some forum or news website, then credibility is relevant.
But trolls are mostly hit and run types.
If someone is firing away at a union thug, I’ll back him even if he doesn’t know how to shoot straight because he’s in my platoon. I may chew him out but I won’t hand him over to the bastards on the other side.
“What’s to say you’re not typing away at some cafe with wifi?”
I think your computer still advertises its address, otherwise how would you get email?
The BTK killer was sending taunting emails to the police and they actually nailed him in the process at his churches’ PC. But, they’d have equally nailed him at McDonald’s.
There’s a difference between discipline and betrayal, I agree.
Well, maybe, they’d have to catch him being online then quickly trace it to where he was before he left. Difficult? maybe; impossible? no.
There is of course a time to be anonymous, when exposing a powerful entity of criminal behavior. Usually that is done via leaking info to an interested press. If the "troll" wishes to accuse someone of being a pedophile then he should put his name to the charge and back it up with evidence.
This one is easy. Websites can simply refrain from requesting the real names of their members for commenting on forums. Then it would go down to investigating from the ISP to the websites, and finding out who the subscriber of the internet connection is from where the comment originated, but that can’t be sufficient for naming someone to sue in court for slander, ect.
I can’t imagine a plaintiff reward based on someone making a comment using someone elses internet connection to do it, under current law anyway. This isn’t the same as illegally downloading copyrighted material where the internet subscriber is responsible. There would have to be more evidence, such as camera footage of someone using the workstation it came from at that specific time from the internet subscriber’s location. Then again, I’m no lawyer, and I DIDN’T stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.....
“They get the IP address and use it to identify the person responsible. Even behind a proxy, they can still track you down.”
Personal VPN will take care of that.
You'd think someone who was here for LAT & WP vs FR would understand what's going on in this case. The union guy could care less what he was called. The point is to get a court ruling as a precedent.
Haven't you noticed all the different "news" websites forcing the commenters onto Facebook? why do you suppose that is?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.