Hospital Wants Critical Blogger's Anonymity Ended

rs232 sent in a link to this story about one's right to privacy, which opens: "An unlikely Internet frontier is Paris, Texas, population 26,490, where a defamation lawsuit filed by the local hospital against a critical anonymous blogger is testing the bounds of Internet privacy, First Amendment freedom of speech and whistle-blower rights."

Oh this could be fun

[Durrok]

"Hello slashdot, please provide me the name of this "anonymous coward" who posted about my mother's sex life and his role in it. I feel as if I've been defamed. What's that now? I can't hear you over all that laughter. Well you will be hearing from my lawyer!"

Re:Oh this could be fun

[deniable]

Sorry, your lawyers busy, but your mother says hello.

Re:Oh this could be fun

[deniable]

But Dude, it's a deniable account.

Will Peaches remember you fondly? Were you one of his favorites?

I could see it now...

[Ralph Spoilsport]

Yes, your honour we have the information you wanted. It's right here, just as they typed it in to our "set up your blog" javascript form:

First Name: George
Middle Initial: L
Last Name: Tirebiter
Name of Blog: LawyersHospital
URL for blog: lawyershospital.blogspot.com
Your email address: [e-mail]
City: West Gommorah
State: TX

Now, your honour, we also have the IP address, but it was dynamically allocated to an internet cafe in Austin Texas. We asked yahoo for info, and the info came back for the email address:

napalmoliveXXX
First Name: George
Last Name: Tirebiter
Sex: M
Birth date: March 15, 1984
Mother's Maiden Name: Betty Jo Bealovsky"
Secret Question: Why does the porridge bird lay his eggs in the air?
Answer: Crocagator pair, alligator pair - that's they so mean!!!

And the IP address was too a different internet cafe, this one in Dallas."

So, how much do you know about him? NOTHING!!!!

You'd think someone at the hospital would know this is a fools errand...

RS

For those who aren't Fireheads: George Leroy Tirebiter and Betty Jo Bealovsky are a characters from the LP (now CD)How can you be in two places at once, when you're not anywhere at all" by the Firesign Theatre and the terms "Napalmolive" and "Lawyer's Hospital" are also inventions by the FT. As is my name, Ralph Spoilsport, and my tag line, "Shoes for Industry, Shoes for the Dead".

Re:All true but so what

[Anonymous Coward]

Were assured free speech by our constitution but that is emphatically not an assurance of anonymous speech.

If there's one thing that we can conclude from seeing the chilling effect in action, it is that anonymous speech is the only truly free speech.

Re:Libel fishing expeditions

[Sj0]

Smark defendants...

Defendants who enjoy pro wrestling even though they know it's all fake?