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stories filed under: "commenters"
(Mis)Uses of Technology

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick

Wed, Sep 23rd 2009 4:40am


Filed Under:
anonymity, austin, commenters, texas



Austin Police Chief To Go After Anonymous Commenters

from the you-need-a-thicker-skin dept

Slashdot points us to the news that the police chief in Austin Texas is so upset about anonymous commenters, or commenters pretending to be police officers, on various internet websites that he's going to start going after them. His complaint? Those comments "erode public trust in the [police] department." Funny, I would think that wasting public resources going after a bunch of random internet commenters rather than focusing on actual crime prevention and solving would do a lot more to erode the public trust in the police department.

63 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
Legal Issues

Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Tue, Sep 9th 2008 2:18pm


Filed Under:
anonymity, billings gazette, commenters, newspapers, sources



Anonymous Newspaper Commenters Protected By Same Law That Protects Reporters' Sources

from the all-works-out-the-same dept

While other countries often don't respect the right to be anonymous, the US has shown a strong willingness to protect anonymity rights. And, here's another such case, but for a somewhat different reason. Gigalaw points us to the news that a court has ruled that the Billings Gazette newspaper doesn't need to reveal anonymous commenters, relying on the same state (not federal) law that protects reporters in the state from having to reveal sources. The law specifically says that news organizations are protected from being forced to disclose "any information obtained or prepared" by the news organization -- and the identify of anonymous commenters apparently qualifies.

11 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
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