Posted 9/20/2007 05:17:00 PM by Douglas

The blogger privacy war comes down to Paris. Paris Texas.

An unlikely Internet frontier is Paris, Texas, population 26,490, where a defamation lawsuit filed by the local hospital against a critical anonymous blogger is testing the bounds of Internet privacy, First Amendment freedom of speech and whistle-blower rights.

A state district judge has told lawyers for the hospital and the blogger that he plans within a week to order a Dallas Internet service provider to release the blogger's name. The blogger's lawyer, James Rodgers of Paris, said Tuesday he will appeal to preserve the man's anonymity and right to speak without fear of retaliation.

Rodgers said the core question in the legal battle is whether a plaintiff in a lawsuit can "strip" a blogger of anonymity merely by filing a lawsuit. Without some higher standard to prove a lawsuit has merit, he said, defamation lawsuits could have a chilling effect on Internet free speech.

Well, free speech is free speech, but libel still is libel. You can say what you want, because the truth is an affirmative defense, but you can't lie.

Also, you shouldn't fly off the handle and start suing someone because they put some stupid shit on their blog. What if someone sues me because they think that Gatisima isn't the best kitty in the world? I'd like to see someone sue me over that statement. Prove me wrong, kids, prove me wrong!