Presented at
DEF CON 7 (1999),
July 11, 1999, 4 p.m.
(50 minutes).
Several recent court cases around the country highlight an increasingly popular litigation tactic: the use of civil discovery to unmask the identities of anonymous Internet posters. In the last few months, a growing number of corporations have issued subpoenas to Internet service providers (ISPs) and operators of online message boards seeking to identify and locate individuals who posted material that the companies, for one reason or another, find objectionable. A spokesman for Lycos recently told Salon Magazine that the firm receives subpoenas on "pretty close to a regular basis." The underlying allegations in these cases include defamation, misappropri- ation of trade secrets and securities law violations. Many observers worry, however, that the legal tactic can easily be used to intimidate potential critics into silence and destroy the anonymity that has contributed to the Internet's explosive growth. David Sobel will discuss these cases and efforts to protect online anonymity.
Presenters:
-
David Sobel
- General Counsel to the Electronic Privacy Information Center
David Sobel is General Counsel to the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, DC, where he has litigated numerous cases under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) seeking the disclosure of government information on cryptography and privacy policy. Among his cases are those involving Operation Sun Devil, the Clipper Chip, the FBI's Digital Telephony wiretap proposal and the Secret Service's Pentagon City 2600 raid. David served on the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Panel on Cryptography Policy, which produced the report "Codes, Keys, and Conflicts: Issues in U.S. Crypto Policy."
David also served as co-counsel in ACLU v. Reno, the successful constitutional challenge to the Communications Decency Act decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1997. He has been profiled as a "Newsmaker" by CNET's NEWS.COM for his work on Internet liberties issues.
David has a longstanding interest in national security and civil liberties issues and has written and lectured on these issues frequently since 1981. He was formerly counsel to the National Security Archive, and his FOIA clients have included Coretta Scott King, former Ambassador Kenneth Rush, the Nation magazine and ABC News.
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