Court Protects Anonymous Blogger

Out of Dover, Delaware comes a lovely story featuring some of my favorite subjects. Good old government corruption and abuse of power mixed in with free speech and the internet. This is a total Matt story.

Yesterday, the Delaware Supreme Court overturned a lower court's ruling requiring a local ISP to disclose the identity of an anonymous blogger who targeted a local elected official. This blogger did nothing that I don't already do. Let's review some of the comments against local jackoff Cahill that the article cites.

He made obscenity-laced tirades against him Pointed out the local official's "obvious mental deterioration" Made sexual references about him and his wife Gave Cahill the nickname "Gayhill"

So Cahill calls defamation and sues. The local douche bag Judge apparently hasn't read that little document called the Constitution and issues an order to Comcast to release the identity of the blogger. How this first Judge could ever allow this to go forward in the first place is not only disturbing, it's scary. Seeing blatant violations of the Constitutions like this, especially in my own arena, is enough to give me a panic attack.

The fact of the matter is, there is no defamation. From a legal sense or a logical sense. To defame is to damage the good reputation of someone, according to Oxford. The fact of the matter is that if this douche bag Cahill was a great local politician with a good reputation, a blogger wouldn't be talking about him in the first place. Obviously, he did something to damage his own reputation.

Let me also point out that if there was a lawsuit for every person who made an opinion that damaged one's good reputation, then every court in the U.S. would be stacked for years with these frivolous bullshit cases. Every news commentator, every broadcaster, anyone with a microphone or a website would be libel. This is just a simple abuse of power and a blatant attempt to censor free speech and to choke out the first amendment.

Thankfully, we have a hero in this day's news story and that hero comes in the form of Delaware Chief Justice Myron Steele. What a fucking cool name. Myron Steele. Does that not sound like a super hero or what? Anyway, Judge Steele, who probably came to have this last name because he literally has balls of steel, ruled harshly against the original verdict and made this statement:

"We are concerned that setting the standard too low will chill potential posters from exercising their First Amendment right to speak anonymously," Steele wrote. "The possibility of losing anonymity in a future lawsuit could intimidate anonymous posters into self-censoring their comments or simply not commenting at all."

My fucking hero. So wise and enlightened. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when I see a story like this. It gives me hope that perhaps there are decent people in power who are actually going to protect our rights, without a political agenda or a glimmer of corruption. Myron Steele, TheSick.Net salutes you.

I take special interest in this case because I know it's only a matter of time before this happens to me. Like another terrorist attack in the U.S., it's not a question of will, but a question of when. I'm just waiting for the day to come where I verbally brutalize the wrong person who has money to waste on a lawyer. It's only a matter of time, really.

This is why the free speech subject is so important to me. Anonymity on the internet is a right we have in this wonderful cyber world. That's the beauty of it. I choose not to be anonymous, because I also have balls of steel. But many people in different situations have positions or careers in life where speaking their mind on certain subjects could get them into trouble. The right of anonymity on the internet is essential in preserving the specialness of this whole thing. It's just very good to see that the hero of the day, Judge Myron "balls of" Steele preserved that special right and protected an anonymous blogger; allowing him to exercise his constitutionally mandated right and prevented a butt hurt local douche bag politician from abusing his power and the legal system to censor speech against him.