Illinois official drops attempt to unveil creator of fake MySpace profile

Someone posts a fake profile of you on MySpace casting aspersion on your character. You may be justifiably angry, but unless you are willing to specify the defamations and provide proof they are untrue, don't expect to be able to unmask the profile author.

On Friday, Cicero, Ill., Town President Larry Dominick dropped his request for a court to force MySpace to identify the creator of several spoof profiles in his name that he claimed were defamatory. His petition filed last month (PDF) did not provided details about the profiles and exactly what was defamatory. The pages were removed after Dominick complained.

The profiles had photos and "questionable comments about his sexuality and ethics," according to the Chicago Tribune.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a friend of the court brief last week arguing that fulfilling the request would violate the author's First Amendment right to remain anonymous unless Dominick could demonstrate a viable legal claim. The EFF also argued that the federal Stored Communications Act, which prohibits government entities--including Dominick acting in his official capacity as Cicero town president--from obtaining identifying customer information through the ordinary civil discovery process.

EFF Senior Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman says the organization doesn't oppose all claims of Internet defamation, only those that fail to provide details about the alleged defamation and proof that the statements aren't true, as well as those that don't provide notification to the person whose identity is being sought.

"It's far too easy for someone to go into court and simply ask a third party like MySpace or Facebook to turn this information over if there is no attempt to notify the person whose rights would be affected," he told CNET News.com.

The concern is that without First Amendment safeguards for anonymity people will use the courts merely to find the identity of people whose opinion or actions they disagree with and use that information to chill criticism.

Most of the time, the cases arise from postings made on blogs. But social network pages are increasingly being used for anonymous self expression.

For instance, a judge in Indiana ordered Facebook to name the person who created a fake profile for a high school dean last month.

[humanssssss]

Government getting involve AGAIN! This is stupid. When people create fake profile, it is within their right. Like the government will use this fake profile as "authorative" evidence. I find Myspace and facebook are playgrounds for people to create fake this and that. It is not a place where people should trust the information on. That's the problem, people now are trusting the information on these social networks that they use them as a vehicle to carry out the law. The law was meant to ensure we understand everyone has the right to first amendment -- that they can create parody. When creating a profile, who is it to "verify" the information is trusted when the sites themselves are fill with crap and untrusted info?

This is very obvious case.

And those who go after people creating fake profiles, go ahead and search your name on google.com. Your name is not unique. In addition, there are so many websites creating fake profile of YOU. There are fake Steve Jobs, fake Bill Gates, etc. And these people who created fake profile should be subpoena, arrested? This is unAmerican.

[Jack K1]

What a crock. The first amendment says nothing about anonymity.

[humanssssss]

freedom of speech means you can say anything you want. Whether people will listen to you is another story. So there's a guy, he posts whatever, fake profile on facebook, myspace. Does it give the government the right to take the fake profile down? That's the extent of freedom of speech. You don't tell people want to do with their speech. Just as they wouldn't tell you what to do with yours.

MySpace and facebook are private properties. They have the right to take the fake profile down. That's a civil matter between.

You need to go back and do your constitutional study boy.

[George Orwellian]

The PDF link to the court filing is 404.



BTW, I post the damnedest things, and have been sued just once, for USD $30 million. The pro-se (me) beat the lawyer.



--

Natural State Research

[benjaminstraight]

Many stories like this will surely come.

[DRUNKJONATHANAVILDSEN]

i was arrested for making fake profiles on the internet. i am quite amazed at how easy it is for cops to get ip addresses, and also how easy it is for them to get your home address from your isp. you wont encounter very much resistance from the website or isp. believe me.