Nov052009
NH Supreme Court ponders anonymous comments
Filed under Internet / online by david brooks at 9:21 am
The New Hampshire supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in an interesting case about whether anonymous online postings have First Amendment protection. Here’s the Telegraph story; NHPR covered it, too, but I don’t see it on their site yet; here’s a piece by the Telegraph’s Web guru.
The case involves a mortgage industry watchdog Web site that posted a story about The Mortgage Specialists Inc., a New Hampshire firm being investigated by banking officials. They also posted internal documents given by an anonymous source who later allegedly posted comments. The Mortgage Specialists wanted that poster’s name but the Web site wouldn’t give it up, so the firm sued.
Some say that if Mortgage Specialists win it will harm the right to online anonymity, and even to anonymous sourcing for news stories. Others say it’s much more focused and of lesser import.
Judging from the questions asked, the court seems inclined to toss the case, protecting anonymity. But you can never tell.
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