MMF plaintiffs and counsel: "Go ahead knock yourselves out make our day!"

The Public Eye has left a comment on your post, "The best of MNT coming soon to eBay?"

Clare,

Thought you'd relate to this fascinating blog post (http://www.rcfp.org/newsitems/index.php?i=9996) about a Virginia blogger who's fighting an attempt by his particular plaintiffs to - Ta da! - subpoena the IP addresses of his blog readers and commentators.

For you, if only because of the eery parallels between this case and yours, you should closely monitor this case.
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Dear Public Eye:

Thank you very much for the heads up! Your Blog (Truth To Power - www.accesstoinfo.blogspot.com) is one of our favourites hosted anonymously by a Canadian lawyer and no doubt increasingly being read by the Canadian taxpayer funded Manitoba Metis Federation Plaintiffs and their Counsel Murray Norman Trachtenberg.

Here's how asinine this lawsuit has become. Check this out at paragraphs 2(b) and (c) pages 3-4 of their Statement of claim against the now defunct www.CyberSmokeSignals.com:

2(b) An order prohibiting these defendants from causing to be published on the internet website www.cybersmokesignals.com or any other internet website, any message, letter, or article purporting to be from any individual other than themselves unless that individual's actual legal name is published together with the accompaying message, letter or article.

- and -

2(c) An interim and permanent injunction restraining these defendants from displaying, posting or publishing on the internet or elsewhere all or part of any internal documents of the:

(i) Manitoba Metis Federation Inc.
(ii) Community Housing Managers of Manitoba Inc.
(iii) Louis Riel Capital Corporation
(iv) Manitoba Metis Community Investments Inc.
(v) Pemmican Publications Inc.
(vi) Metis Child and Family Services Authority
(vii) Metis Women of Manitoba
(viii) Louis Riel Institute
(ix) Northwest Metis Council Inc.
(x) Interlake Metis Association Inc.
(xi) Southeast Regional Metis Corporation
(xii) Manitoba Metis Federation Southwest Region Inc.
(xiii) MMF The Pas Region Inc.
(xiv) Manitoba Metis Federation Thompson Region Inc.
(xv) Winnipeg Metis Association Inc.
(xvi) Metis National Council and Metis National Council Secretariat

It's beyond bizarre! What Manitoba Court would grant that kind of sweeping, open-ended all encompassing Order? It would make global legal history by designating us as the world's only Blog that could not post anonymous messages!

As for a sweepingly broad subpoena seeking the Internet Provider addresses of our Blog's readers and commentators, to the MMF plaintiffs' and their counsel we say:

"Go ahead knock yourselves out make our day!"

Below is a reproduction of CyberSmokeBlog's ClustrMap on the right-hand side of our main page. For a much better view click it and you'll see internationally we have thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands.....of readers and commentators.

Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE Virginia · March 6, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Virginia blogger fights broad subpoena

A blogger fighting a sweepingly broad subpoena that is seeking the identities of hundreds of his readers filed a motion in Virginia court on Thursday arguing that their identities should be protected.

The Charlottesville-based blogger who runs cvillenews.com, Waldo Jaquith, wrote an article about a defamation lawsuit against a local weekly newspaper, The Hook. In February, Jaquith was subpoenaed by the plaintiff in that defamation case, Thomas Garrett, who sought the names and IP addresses of everyone who viewed and commented anonymously on Jaquith’s article, as well as, everyone who emailed him about it.

Jaquith started fighting the subpoena without an attorney by filing a motion to quash, which was followed shortly by Garrett’s motion to compel.

The case garnered attention in the blogosphere, and Jaquith was able to obtain pro bono assistance from Public Citizen, the ACLU of Virginia and the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.

In the motion filed Thursday, the attorneys argued that the information sought is protected by a reporter’s privilege.

“In an era when increasing amount of news coverage can exclusively be found online, and when even traditional newspapers like the Christian Science Monitor are moving to exclusively online publication, there is no basis for drawing an artificial line confining the reporter’s privilege to print and broadcast publications while excluding bloggers like Jaquith,” the motion argues.

The attorneys cite to the common law-based qualified reporter’s privilege recognized by Virginia courts and argue that it should apply to Jaquith just as it would apply to the traditional news media.

The motion also points to several recent court decisions nationwide that have protected anonymous speech on the Internet.

In one line of cases, courts across the country have found that the identities of people who comment anonymously on Web sites are protected under either state shield laws or First Amendment-based reporter’s privilege. And in another, courts have frequently applied a balancing test that weighs the need to unmask an anonymous speaker with the need for a plaintiff to pursue a defamation claim.

“The courts have recognized the serious chilling effect that subpoenas to reveal the names of anonymous speakers can have on dissenters and the First Amendment interests that are implicated by such subpoenas,” the attorneys argue.