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October 22, 2009, 05:43 PM ET
Lawsuit Over Anonymous Online Comments Is Settled
Two recent graduates of Yale University's law school have settled their lawsuit against several people who posted derogatory comments about them anonymously on an online forum for graduate students.
The case, filed in the U.S. District Court in Connecticut, was a rare legal challenge to harassing speech made on gossip Web sites, which have proliferated in recent years and sparked controversy on many campuses.
At issue in the case was a string of comments made about the two law students on a Web forum called AutoAdmit, which describes itself as "the most prestigious law-school discussion board in the world." The comments about the two women, who filed the suit anonymously, included sexual remarks and fantasies about them, along with insults.
Mark A. Lemley, a lawyer and a professor at Stanford Law School who helped represent the women, would not discuss details of the settlement, which are confidential. "I can't comment other than to say that the clients are very happy with the resolution of this case," he said in an e-mail message to The Chronicle Thursday.
One of the women said in the legal complaint that potential employers could quickly find the comments and accusations on a Google search and suggested that the comments hindered her ability to get a job. Some of the comments still appear on a Google search of her name.
In legal documents, most of the commenters are revealed only by the nicknames they used on the AutoAdmit forum, including Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey, and the Ayatollah of Rock-n-Rollah. Lawyers for the one defendant whose name was made public in the case, Matthew C. Ryan, did not return e-mail messages from The Chronicle requesting comment.
Categories: Social-Networking
Comments
1. garyz - October 23, 2009 at 09:28 am
How were the comments "anonymous" if the makers of those comments were ID's and sued?
2. ianative - October 23, 2009 at 10:45 am
An excellent lesson for those who think their "anonymous" comments are actually anonymous. Yes, there are ways to discover who said what in many (most?) online discussions. The moral: Never write things online (or in e-mail) you wouldn't want your grandmother to see attributed to you on the front page of the newspaper.
3. bekka_alice - October 26, 2009 at 06:38 pm
This is a great lesson - slander is slander and you are ultimately always responsible for what you say - and there are a lot of ways for even other users to trace your IP on many sites and determine your identity, much less for web site that promise anonymity to be forced to give up your identity.
4. tbohs - October 27, 2009 at 07:13 pm
Who goes online and says ugly things about Yale lawyers? That's just asking for a lawsuit. These rocket scientists got what they deserved, a guilty verdict. People are slowly coming to the realization that online stupidity is still stupidity. You can't hide behind some anonymous user name very long, especially if you have slandered or otherwise harmed someone.
The next thing people will learn is that all the stupid stuff they put online about themselves - photos, comments, etc. - is also going to come back to bite them. Once it's out in the Webiverse, there is scan't chance of getting it back.
Post, but be careful. Like an earlier responder pointed out; if you wouldn't say it to your grandma, maybe you should keep it to yourself or find something else to say. It's a good test, and this case is a good lesson to be learned.
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