Corporate cybersmear

Abstract

This article highlights the ease with which we communicate anonymously on the internet, famously captured in the New Yorker's cartoon depicting a dog using a computer with the observation that, 'on the internet, nobody knows you're a dog....' The authors describe the difficulties courts have in calibrating the relative rights of businesses who wish to protect their reputations and brands, with the speech and communications rights of anonymous posters. The authors describe the procedural hurdles in even finding the anonymous posters to serve process on them, and most importantly, how ISPs are now at the center of this debate concerning internet privacy and communications.