Rockland County, NY – The Journal News will have to turn over the identities of anonymous Web-site posters who may have slandered an ex-congressman on the newspaper’s Web site, according to attorneys involved in the case.
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Westchester County Judge Rory Bellantoni will issue an order to LoHud.com to release information to identify “SAVE10543,” “hadenough,” and “aoxomoxoa” for comments they made about former Rep. Richard Ottinger and his wife, June Ottinger.
The couple has been embroiled in a legal dispute with several of their Mamaroneck neighbors over construction of a house in the Orienta waterfront community. The couple claim the writers falsely accused them of filing a fraudulent document and bribing public officials so they could build the home.
The couple argued that they can’t bring a defamation suit against the three without their identities, and subpoenaed the newspaper. Ottinger represented the 20th Congressional District for 10 years before retiring in 1984, while his wife is a former village trustee and former chairwoman of the village’s Harbor and Coastal Zone Management Commission.
“The anonymous blogger statements are harmful enough when viewed in isolation,” the couple said in legal papers filed by their lawyer, Russell Ippolitio. “Taken together, however, they create a mosaic by which the reading public will see these anonymous bloggers’ statements as true facts.”
The Journal News unsuccessfully tried to quash the subpoena. The decision is the first time the newspaper has been ordered to release identifying information about people who post comments under pseudonyms on its Internet site.
“We’ll comply with the order to the extent we have identifying information,” Community Conversation/Editorial Page Editor Herb Pinder said yesterday.
Mark Fowler, an attorney for The Journal News, said the newspaper fought to protect the posters’ identities, noting that other Web sites routinely hand over registration information on their anonymous posters when subpoenaed.
“The newspaper went the extra mile – the extra 10 miles – to protect the right of anonymous speech here,” he said.
Fowler said Bellantoni applied a legal standard for identifying anonymous posters that was set in 2001 by a New Jersey appellate court. In that case, a corporation had to identify the exact statements it thought were defamatory so the court could balance the First Amendment right of anonymous free speech against the strength of the libel case.
The corporation also had to tell the writers that they were the subject of a subpoena, by posting a notice on the message board where the statements appeared, so they could choose to fight the exposure.
Editors Note: In recent months the journal news site has had comments on its Jewish news stories filled with anti-Semitic remarks, if anyone would read it, they would think they are looking at a Nazi online news site, the news that a judge has asked them to reveal the identify of its posters should be welcoming news that it might open up the door to identify hateful message posters against Jews from Monsey.
Posting anti-semitic remarks (hateful speech) on a website is not a crime punishable by law unless words used are those that were criminalized (not many were), whereas defamation or slander is. I don’t see how this ruling will open the door to indentify those who post anti-semitic remarks.
this is serios stuff, all blogers shuld take it very serios when blogging about private citizens or false information
I am not a Lawyer but anyone can recognize that this is a powerful ruling, throwing together privacy issues, press issues and more.
1, Do not post idiotic things which might get you in trouble.
2, This might stop the rabid anti-Jew posts on many redneck blogs.
3, This may cause many firms in the business to just shut down.
The only issue this ruling raises is First Amendment right to free speech. There are no privacy issues other than defamation which is only invoked if a private person is defamed.
How about the yahoo site with vicious anti-semitic anti human posts?
I post using my real name, and I make no secret of who I am. It makes it less likely that I will post lashon hara or motzi shem ra.
Drive down the 306 and I will be surprised if you will not wright like an anti-Semite yourself .
Its time to start keeping our neighborhoods in a way that we don’t create daily new anti-Semites ourselves after all yes we are still in gollus
This is the first comment by Charlie Hall that I recall actually agreeing with.
I keep on driving on the Rt. 306, and that doesn’t justify antisemitism, unfortunately the 306 is a ONE LANE HIGHWAY, and it is heavily populated, with condensed residential housing on it, therefore the traffic is always piled up, school buses stop all along the road picking up and discharging kids, and local residents move their vehicles in and out of their driveways, of course it will cause inconveniences for those trying to cut through this “highway” on 50 MPH in one shot from one end to the other.
As for the Rt. 59, the jewish drivers are atleast as nice and patient as the non jewish, as most non jewish drivers are nice so are most jewish drivers, exceptions – wild or inpatient drivers you’ll see of all kinds, colors and races.
anon. 11:42PM. Some people (including yourself) confuse introspection (Cheshbon Hanefesh) with self-consciousness! and as a result have guilt feelings! Anon. 4:50PM has it right!!!
Didn’t a different court rule in the Orthomom blog case that Verizon wasn’t required to reveal her identity?