ACLU Turns Over Blogger IPs In Pa. Defamation Case

A civil liberties group has surrendered the Internet protocol addresses from six posts on an online message board to a local western Pennsylvania official who claims the authors posted defamatory information about him.

PITTSBURGH — The American Civil Liberties Union, who intervened in the case, turned over two IPs on Aug. 11 after an Allegheny County judge last month ruled that Forward Township Supervisor Thomas DeRosa was entitled to the information.

DeRosa has claimed he needs to know who posted the information for a defamation suit he is pursuing against two of them.

The ACLU had argued the identity of the posters was protected and that the messages they posted were so vague they didn’t amount to defamation anyway. Instead, ACLU attorney Sara Rose argued, DeRosa’s suit was simply a means to unmask citizens who disagreed with him.

Rose said the ACLU wouldn’t appeal the ruling, however.

“I think it’s bad for our First Amendment rights to just hand them over,” said Richard Rattanni, who runs the community discussion board where the comments were posted last year.

Rattanni isn’t being sued and the ACLU does not represent the two defendants DeRosa sued in November under the pseudonyms “Howard Doe” and “Robin Doe” because he has yet to learn their real names.

DeRosa claims the comments, posted under the heading “Fwd Twp. DeRosa (Equals) Corruption,” accuse him of spending township money on a car dealership he owns and of supporting a police chief candidate who will help his “corrupt” schemes, among other insults.

DeRosa’s attorney did not return a call for comment in time for this story.

Rose, the ACLU lawyer, said even though DeRosa had the IP addresses, it might take a while for him to learn the identity of the posters.

That’s because the IP addresses identify only the Internet service companies the posters used. While DeRosa’s attorneys can now ask those companies to release the posters’ names, the companies will probably alert the posters to give them a chance to hire attorneys to try to safeguard their identities, Rose said.

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