Blogging receives 1st Amdmt protection

The Delaware Supreme Court handed down a ruling to the effect that anonymous bloggers will receive a stronger standard of evidence in defamation cases.  Plaintiffs cannot simply claim defamation and expect ISPs to turn over information and names regarding the blogger.  The court ruled: "The possibility of losing anonymity in a future lawsuit could intimidate anonymous posters into self-censoring their comments or simply not commenting at all."

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/06/D8D2LHF06.html

The case itself is rather iffy on any moral/ethical grounds, with an anonymous blogger tossing around the idea that a local Delaware official is gay, mentally ill, and a pervert.  To all appearances, none of the charges against the official really stick.

In a way though, that is a good thing, since these are rather common views and behaviors expressed by anonymous bloggers.  While a tad crude, it can hardly be said that this is not the nature of anonymous posting on the internet.

What stands out most from this case is the simple fact that the basic, basest internet behavior receives proper First Amendment Protections.

With any luck, this standard will become the federal standard within a few years.



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