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178 Web posters who thought they were anonymous are being sued, and the website where they made the offending posts has been ordered to release information to help identify them.

A couple, Mark and Rhonda Lesher, was accused of sexually assaulting a woman, and the websites for McKinney, Clarksville, and other Texas cities near where the couple lived, soon became Ground Zero for tens of thousands of graphic attacks about them -- even after they were acquitted.

The couple's attorney has offered conditional immunity to people who revealed information about some of the most egregious of the posters.

, which has removed many of the postings, has until March 6 to comply with the court order, and is considering its options. According to about the case, however, may be able to provide only IP addresses at most, because it does not require registration.

An Idaho legislator late last year proposed making such anonymous posting illegal.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jamescolin

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posted a solid summary of the Lesher matter; the short version is that a Texas court allowed subpoenas seeking identifying records for scores of Topix pseudonyms and ordered Topix to produce server-side information (the site initially said it could likely only provide IPs and timestamps). (dmlp.org)

An IP address is a network identifier — useful as a lead, but not a guaranteed name-and-address. IPs point to a router, ISP, VPN or exit node, and they can be shared, reassigned, or masked (public Wi‑Fi, corporate NATs, Tor, VPNs). Investigators typically combine IPs with timestamps, user‑agent strings and ISP subscriber logs to try to map a session to a person, but that mapping can be unreliable without corroboration. (eff.org)

Practical takeaways for different readers: if you post and think you’re “anonymous,” assume posts can be traced to an account or a subscriber record and act accordingly. If you run a forum, preserve logs, require legal process before disclosure, and notify affected users so they can seek to quash subpoenas — best practices for online providers include giving users a chance to respond rather than handing data over immediately. If you or someone you know is the target of defamatory posts, preserve screenshots and metadata (timestamps), don’t destroy evidence, and consult an attorney quickly — plaintiffs in this case later obtained a large judgment. (kittens.eff.org)

The law balances anonymous speech and defamation claims, so outcomes vary by jurisdiction and facts; readers should treat IPs as investigatory clues (not proof) and get counsel before responding to subpoenas or court orders. ’s reaction is understandable, but the technical and legal caveats above matter. (eff.org)

Member Avatar for jamescolin

Excellent,

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