[LINK] AOL joins fight to protect anonymity online

[Tony Barry]

Extracted item for information.

Source: Edupage, March 12, 2001

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AOL JOINS FIGHT TO PROTECT ANONYMITY ONLINE
In a legal brief filed in a Pennsylvania district court, AOL Time
Warner has renewed its opposition to the practice of forced
disclosure of personal identities behind Internet screen names.
In this case, a Pennsylvania state judge served AOL with a
subpoena to disclose the identity of an Internet user who had
challenged the judge's ethics in an online chat room. AOL has not
only resisted this effort but is against the forced disclose of
"John Does" on the Internet in general. Although AOL supports
tracking down criminal activity on the Web, AOL stated that the
John Doe suits often "constitute an illegitimate use of the
courts to silence and retaliate against speakers whose statements,
while unpleasant from the standpoint of the defendant, were not
unlawful." AOL has experienced a 40 percent rise in this kind
of suit since 1999.
(Newsbytes, 7 March 2001)
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