EFFector Vol. 15, No. 20 July 12, 2002 ren@eff.org
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424
EFFector Vol. 15, No. 20 July 12, 2002 ren@eff.org
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424
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New York - A coalition of civil liberties and privacy groups today called on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other online companies to adopt policies protecting their users' right to anonymous speech on the Internet. That right has come under attack in recent years through a growing number of "cyberSLAPP" lawsuits, in which companies file suit just to discover the identity of their online critics - often in order to silence or intimidate them.
In a cyberSLAPP suit, the target of anonymous online criticism typically files a lawsuit against a "John Doe" defendant and then issues an identity-seeking subpoena to an ISP. There is currently no legal requirement that ISPs notify their customers before complying with such subpoenas - even though many of the lawsuits are frivolous and have no chance of prevailing in court. "You can't fight to protect your privacy and anonymity when you don't even know that it's being attacked," said Paul Levy of the Public Citizen Litigation Group.
The coalition noted that three major online service providers -- Yahoo, Earthlink and America Online -- already notify their customers when they receive subpoenas for identifying information, and urged hundreds of other webmasters and service providers to do the same.
In a letter sent to over 100 ISPs, Internet discussion boards, and other online companies, the coalition asked each company to include in its privacy policy a promise that it would notify any customer whose personal information or identity is subpoenaed. The coalition, which includes the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), and Public Citizen, also included a sample policy with its letter.
The coalition also announced the opening of a new Web site on the issue, www.cyberslapp.org, which includes a broad range of information about the cyberSLAPP issue, from a list of "Frequently Asked Questions" for the general public, to legal briefs and other detailed information about ongoing legal battles.
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The Motion Picture Association of America recently published a FAQ on the "Broadcast Flag" proposal. MPAA is seeking legislation which would require all makers of digital television equipment and software to follow "Compliance and Robustness Rules" it created in a forum called the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group.
EFF, which participated in the BPDG, took exception to some of the MPAA's answers. Finding it misleading, and at times incorrect, we have rebutted and clarified the MPAA Broadcast Flag FAQ here:
http://bpdg.blogs.eff.org/archives/000148.html- end -
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today asked a federal court in Oakland to reconsider its ruling earlier this year that Taxes.com rewrite its web pages to appear less prominently in major search engine results for its chief competitor, J.K. Harris & Co.
On March 22, 2002, the court ordered Taxes.com to alter web pages that criticize J.K. Harris. The court reasoned that these pages violated trademark law and might divert consumers from J.K. Harris because the pages appear frequently in search engine results for "J.K. Harris".
The EFF recently filed a "friend of the court" brief asking the court to reconsider its ruling.
"The court mistakenly applied earlier cases relating to metatag abuse to a situation where Taxes.com had simply used its competitor's name in publishing truthful information," explained EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Fred von Lohmann. "The court has put trademark law on a collision course with the First Amendment."
Metatags, which search engines use for indexing, are not visible on web pages and need not reflect the page's content. On the other hand, Taxes.com's criticism pages contributed significantly to the site's content.
Taxes.com also filed a brief urging the court to reconsider. The case is J.K. Harris v. Kassel, No. C 02-0400 CW, and is pending in Oakland, California, before Judge Claudia Wilken of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District in California.
For this release:
http://www.eff.org/IP/20020710_eff_pr_taxes.html
EFF's brief can be found at:
http://www.eff.org/IP/20020710_taxes_com_amicus.html
Earlier coverage of the case:
http://www.law.com/regionals/ca/stories/edt0409e.shtml
http://www.law.com/jsp/statearchive.jsp?type=Article&oldid=ZZZ9IVP8UZC
http://www.inside-e-law.com/news/2002_04/20020411_trademark.htm
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