Lycos Ordered to Tell Web Client Identity.......... Here we go.

[in_cog_ni_to]

WATCH WHAT YOU SAY ONLINE. This case was about a Ebay seller who thought he was financially damaged by slanderous things someone had posted about his Ebay stamp business so, he sued Lycos to get the name of the person who slandered him. Lycos was ordered to give the name of the client.

Lycos Ordered to Tell Web Client Identity
By Associated Press
5 hours ago

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The Dutch Supreme Court on Friday ordered Internet company Lycos to reveal the identity of a client in a benchmark decision on privacy that was praised by copyright groups as a way to go after illegal swapping of music and movies online.

It is the first ruling of its kind in the Netherlands on Internet privacy and could have far reaching consequences for other Internet providers.

The country's highest court ruled that Lycos had wrongly protected the identity of a user who anonymously posted slanderous allegations against an Internet postage stamp dealer on a member site. The dealer, who traded stamps on auction site e-Bay, was accused of cheating buyers.

The claimant, identified in court documents only as A. Pessers, took Lycos to court in 2003, seeking the details of its client so he could seek financial damages allegedly resulting from the allegations.<snip>

http://www.comcast.net/news/index.jsp?cat=GENERAL&fn=/2005/11/25/271089.html

[Robert Cooper]

1. Way past due...

It's long overdue. People who snipe from the sidelines protected by anonymity attack more than just businesses like his. I've seen far too many people fall to the 'Nurse Ratchets' in discussion groups using tactics I now see freepers use.

Libel laws (slander is spoken, libel is written) have had no teeth on the internet, and it shows.

[bryant69]

2. That's Tricky

I can kind of see the point to a person wanting to defend their good name, particularly when it directly affects his or her livelyhood.

Bryant
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