New Hampshire Court Should Not Force Internet Site to Identify Anonymous Critic

An Internet forum that follows the "imploding" banking and housing
markets should not be required to identify a person who posted critical
comments about a Plaistow, N.H., mortgage company, Public Citizen said in a brief filed today in the case.

Federal law immunizes the operators of bulletin boards and blogs
from being sued for information posted by others, Public Citizen said
in an amicus brief filed with the New Hampshire Supreme Court. In this
case, the lower court erred by telling the Web site operator,
Implode-Explode Heavy Industries, that it had to provide Mortgage
Specialists Inc. the identity of the anonymous critic, as well as
remove two comments he or she left on the site's forum.

"The right to engage in anonymous speech is fundamental to a free
society," said Paul Alan Levy, the Public Citizen attorney who filed
the brief, with local counsel Jon Meyer of Manchester, N.H. "Courts
have recognized that the right to remain anonymous should not be taken
away without compelling reasons."

Not only did the lower court ignore federal law, it failed to
recognize the First Amendment rights of the anonymous critic, the brief
said. The lower court should not have granted Mortgage Specialists'
subpoena without first making the company attempt to notify the
anonymous critic about the pending court action.

There is also strong precedent from other courts in other states
that the court should require Mortgage Specialists to show a valid
reason - such as evidence of falsity - before it takes away someone's
right to speak anonymously, the brief said.

READ the motion.

LEARN MORE about Public Citizen's work defending Internet free speech.