Ken Paulson: Anonymous speech at risk in Memphis case

  The Shelby County (Tenn.) Commission continues to press for a court order requiring the Memphis Commercial Appeal to reveal the identity of readers who posted more than 9,000 comments on its website. It’s an enormously broad request that raises serious questions about First Amendment protections and the privacy rights of those who posted to the site anonymously.

  The commission wants the information for a lawsuit contending that the lifting in suburban Shelby County of a statewide ban on new municipal school districts was at least partly racially motivated. The commission believes it can help make that case by securing the names of everyone who commented anonymously on 45 Commercial Appeal articles appearing in its newspaper and website between Nov. 19, 2010, and July 12, 2012.

Ken Paulson: Online anonymity no sure thing in libel cases

  Those who anonymously damage the reputations of others on the Internet may have a rude awakening. They’re not as anonymous as they believe. We’ve seen a number of cases in recent months in which judges have upheld subpoenas that give libel-suit plaintiffs the identities of those who have been posting ugly things about them:

-In July, a federal district judge in Idaho ruled that the Spokesman Review in Spokane, Wash., would have to turn over the name of an anonymous commenter who speculated that $10,000 apparently missing from a political committee might be stuffed inside the chairwoman’s blouse.