« Chief Justices Elect New President |
Main
| Critics: Law Review Hijacked By Right »
AutoAdmit Critics Outed -- Now What?
We stand corrected. In a post here in January, we picked up on several news reports that said that the two female Yale law students suing over threatening and demeaning comments made about them on the college-admissions forum AutoAdmit.com might never be able to identify the John Doe defendants who posted the comments. Wrong, much to the surprise of many. Wired magazine reported this week that lawyers for the two unidentified plaintiffs have succeeded in uncovering the identities of some of the posters. One of those identified went by the name "AK-47" and wrote in 2007 that the two women "should be raped" and were "gay lovers."
The Wired article does not disclose the true identity of AK-47. A report published today by the Yale Daily News says that attorneys for the two women will soon file an amended complaint that will name the names. That same story quotes several legal experts who say that the unmasking of these anonymous posters breaks no new legal ground, but is perhaps the highest-profile example of a defamation lawsuit successfully piercing the veil of online anonymity. Maybe so, but Wired writer Ryan Singel asks, What's the point?
The unmasking of the posters marks a milestone in a rare legal challenge to the norms of online commenting, where arguments live on for years in search-engine results and where reputations can be sullied nearly irreparably by anyone with a grudge, a laptop and a WiFi connection. Yet a year after the lawsuit was filed, little else has been resolved -- and legal controversies have multiplied. The women themselves have gone silent, and their lawyers -- two of whom are now themselves being sued -- are not talking to the press. Legal experts are beginning to wonder aloud if there's any point in pressing the messy lawsuit.
The Wired article suggests, without elaboration, that the unmasked posters were themselves law students. If so, it remarks, their unmaskings could mark a death sentence for their budding legal careers.
Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on August 1, 2008 at 12:36 PM | Permalink
| Comments (0)