Court Dumps Order To ISP To Identify Anonymous Wikipedia Critic

Free Speech

from the good-for-them dept

In June, we wrote about a troubling ruling from a magistrate judge, ordering an ISP, Skybeam, to identify an anonymous Wikipedia editor, who wrote stuff that the company Faconable objected to. While Skybeam was fighting this order, Faconable was able to work out a “settlement” with the anonymous John Doe and filed a notice of voluntary dismissal. In response, Skybeam still wanted the original order to identify users vacated, noting that even if it didn’t have to do so, just having that ruling out there could represent a competitive disadvantage for the firm. Thankfully, the court did vacate the order, noting that “through no fault of its own, Skybeam has been denied review of the Magistrate Judge?s Order. Because Skybeam had nothing to do with causing its objections to become moot, it ?ought not in fairness be forced to acquiesce? in the Magistrate Judge?s Order.” This is good, because without that, such an order would have remained on the books…

Filed Under: anonymity, speech
Companies: skybeam