The battle of online privacy took an interesting turn this week, and with all the election news this one kinda slipped past this member. It seems that AOL came out on the losing side in its legal effort to keep the identity of one of its subscribers under wraps. It seems that the Virginia Supreme Court has decided that AOL cannot hide said members identity, as a company in California is seeking to file libel charges against him (or her) for derogatory statements made by this person about that company on an internet bulletin board. It will be a mess for awhile due to the fact that the original complaint was filed in Ca., and the Va. S.C. says it is up to Ca. to sort out the first amendment implications. What it all boils down to is that when the dust has settled it may be possible to file and prosecute libel cases centering around posts made even in such places as AntiOnline. Given that possibility, personal character attacks on the internet are not only in bad taste, they may well in the future get the attacker in 'hot water' as well.

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