Newspaper demands e-mailer identities

Newspaper demands e-mailer identities


By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MIAMI (AP) - The Miami Herald is demanding that Internet provider Yahoo! reveal identities of three subscribers accused of sending e-mails to the newspaper's employees containing "malicious and defamatory statements" about its management.

The Herald wants the identities of the three people who sent e-mails to its employees between January 2002 and March of this year, according to a court petition filed Thursday in Miami.
One of the e-mails was titled "stupid management tricks" and referred to a management employee as a "Psycho," the filing alleges.

snip...
Yahoo didn't immediately respond to questions Friday. Yahoo does not disclose personal information without a subscriber's permission unless it is responding to a court order, according to its Web site.


more... http://newsobserver.com/24hour/technology/story/1386889p-8637653c.html

It would be different if the emails were threatening but it sounds like a case of name-calling and nothing more. What exactly do they hope to accomplish by getting the names? Lawsuits for defamation sound like a really bad idea. The other side gets discovery too.

like when contacting Joe Scarborough, I'll refer to "an up and coming Florida congressman who quietly bowed out of politics after bashing in the skull of his pregnant intern", instead of addressing him by name :)