Does the Internet Speakers Vulnerability Mean More Legal Protection Is Called For?
Partially as a result of the factors I’ve outlined above, complaints that ISPs disclose anonymous speakers’ identities too easily and quickly have recently been made by the ACLU, as well as by the Electronic Privacy Information Center and others. Just as legal principles and institutional realities would predict, it seems that empirically, ISPs are not offering the type of zealous protection to anonymous speakers that newspapers usually extend (by objecting to discovery requests, by raising legal defenses and, often, by paying legal costs too). If you don’t have a college roommate at the New York Times perhaps because you never went to college you can still get your story out there on numerous Internet venues. Presuming that your speech is worthless because you couldn’t get the Times’ attention might be folly. All of these points militate in favor of offering more legal protection to Internet speakers whose vulnerability seems to correlate unfortunately with their lack of access to tra
