EFF "Censorship & Free Expression - SLAPPs - Discovery Abuse" Archive

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naacp_tobacco_cases.notes

Article about the NAACP case where the state attempted to compell the group to name its members in Alabama.

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2TheMart_case/

Directory on the 2TheMart.com (a.k.a. the "NoGuano" J. Doe) case. In this anonymity case, EFF and ACLU-WA are asking the court to protect the identity of an anonymous Internet speaker where the "J. Doe" (who used the pseudonym "NoGuano") is not a party to the case, and no allegations of liability against Doe/NoGuano have been made.

Jane_Doe_v_John_Hritz/

Directory of information on Jane Doe v. John Hritz (a.k.a. John Hritz v. Jane Doe, at the District Court level). The gist of the case is that an executive at a large corporation is attempting to abuse legal discovery under Ohio state law, to "out" an anonymous critic. Hritz has attempted to force Doe's ISP to reveal her identity, but has filed no lawsuit, pressed no charges, nor taken any other reasonable legal action to justify the discovery of Doe's identity. Doe has appealed the application for pre-trial discovery (a peculiarity of this state's laws) because there is no legal cause of action, and Hritz appears to simply be seeking this information for personal, and legally illegitimate, reasons, such as silencing Doe's criticism.

Kesler_v_Doe/

Directory of information on a case in which EFF has sumbitted briefs defending a John Doe defendant, a.k.a. "Mezzzman", from attempts to force ISP to reveal defendant's identity in a defamation case. EFF argues both First Amendment and anti-SLAPP positions.

PrePaid_Legal_v_Sturtz/

Directory of information concerning the pseudonymity battle wherein PrePaid Legal Services seeks the indentity of online critics, in the midst of a lawsuit against (known) third parties. PPLS alleges that they seek to find out whether the posters are employees who breached non-disclosure agreements (by way of what they posted), yet nothing posted by them could possibly be covered by an NDA, and it seems clear that PPLS simply wants to expose their critics and, possibly, threaten them with intimidating legal actions in order to silence them. EFF presents two of the 8 "J. Doe" subjects of the sought subpoenas.

RMC_v_Does/

directory of info on case of Rural/Metro Corp. v. Jane/John Does, in which a third party attempts to subpoena Yahoo for the true identities of several persons posting to Yahoo message boards with messages critical of Rural/Metro.

S_Union_v_SW_Gas/

Directory of documents relating to a case in which Southwest Gas issued a subpoena to online service provider Yahoo! Inc. seeking to have Yahoo reveal the identity and online correspondence of anonymous posters who participated in a public Yahoo! message board discussion concerning Southwest Gas.

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