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Hi all,<br>
<br>
As others have mentioned, probably the most serious examples of this
will likely come from MENA, where a number of political bloggers
have suffered great repression at the hands of their respective
governments, and whistleblower sites.<br>
<br>
Here are some specific examples where anonymity of (mostly)
websites/blogs has been important: <br>
<ul>
<li>blogs by anonymous employees about their employers (see this
one by a police officer in the UK which shut down after the
officer's identity was exposed, even though it seems he
committed no legal wrong:
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/21/nightjack-blog-blogging-police"><http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/21/nightjack-blog-blogging-police></a>;
<br>
</li>
<li>Bloggers blogging about sensitive or embarrassing topics like
a 'sex blogger' (not sure what that is, but sounds sensitive :
P)
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/jun/16/blogging-medialaw"><http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/jun/16/blogging-medialaw></a>;
or about debilitating medical conditions
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1363873/Terminally-ill-cancer-patient-blogs-anonymously-51-hours-taking-fatal-overdose--tomorrow.html"><http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1363873/Terminally-ill-cancer-patient-blogs-anonymously-51-hours-taking-fatal-overdose--tomorrow.html></a>;
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://thyroidcancersurvivormystory.blogspot.ca/"><http://thyroidcancersurvivormystory.blogspot.ca/></a>; <br>
</li>
<li>students criticizing teachers
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://www.dmlp.org/threats/butler-university-v-zimmerman"><http://www.dmlp.org/threats/butler-university-v-zimmerman></a>
&
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stu-kreisman/guantanamo-bay---college_b_333786.html"><http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stu-kreisman/guantanamo-bay---college_b_333786.html></a>;
<br>
</li>
<li>whistleblower sites (here's one related to leaked documents
regarding McGill university's funding outreach campaign:
<<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2013/04/mcgillleaks-releases-confidential-documents-through-ssmu-email/">www.mcgilldaily.com/2013/04/mcgillleaks-releases-confidential-documents-through-ssmu-email/</a>>;
<br>
</li>
<li>political satire at time of election
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://www.torontolife.com/informer/toronto-politics/2010/08/10/ford-campaign-sends-lawyers-to-muzzle-satirist/"><http://www.torontolife.com/informer/toronto-politics/2010/08/10/ford-campaign-sends-lawyers-to-muzzle-satirist/></a>.
<br>
</li>
<li>Wikipedia has a pretty good SLAPPs page with more examples:
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation#Notable_SLAPPs"><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation#Notable_SLAPPs></a></li>
</ul>
Perhaps more importantly, it's critical to note that the starting
presumption in many legal systems is anonymity. So for example, in
Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. (to my knowledge, but probably many
other jurisdictions as well), there is no right to get someone's
identity simply because you want to sue them (for alleged IP
infringement, defamation, etc.). You have to go through a process
and prove, at minimum, that you legitimately intend to sue and are
not using the discovery process simply as a means of identifying
someone you don't like. CIRA's policy seeks to replicate this, which
seems reasonable.<br>
<br>
Hope this helps.<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
Tamir<br>
<br>
<br>
On 4/23/2013 5:21 PM, Robin Gross wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:01159BBA-78E1-4AE4-A052-F67175B1E041@ipjustice.org"
type="cite">
Dear All:<br>
<br>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate;
color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;
font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none;
-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; ">
<div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom:
0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: normal normal
normal 12px/normal Helvetica; " face="Helvetica" size="3">One
of NCSG's follow-up items on WHOIS coming out of Beijing
was a special request from Stephanie Perrin, who is the
only privacy advocate on the ICANN Board's Expert Working
Group on Directory Services (aka whois).</font></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom:
0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal
12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom:
0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font style="font: normal normal
normal 12px/normal Helvetica; " face="Helvetica" size="3">Stephanie
needs for NCSG to assist her in coming up with a list of
use case examples of why one needs an anonymous domain
name registration. </font></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom:
0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom:
0px; margin-left: 0px; ">So if you know of any facts that
describe a scenario that demonstrates the legitimate need to
register a domain name anonymously, please let us know!
Actually, please let Amr Elsadr know (cc'd here) who's
agreed to keep track of this information for NCSG and feed
it to Stephanie for her work on the working group.</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom:
0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom:
0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Stephanie came and spoke to NCSG
during our open meeting in Beijing and asked for the help of
our members in coming up with these examples. This is a
great chance for us to provide direct input into an
important process to protect privacy and anonymity rights on
the Internet, so I hope you will send any thoughts you may
have to Amr (or post to this list for collection also).</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom:
0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom:
0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Thanks for your help!</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom:
0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom:
0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Best,</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom:
0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Robin</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom:
0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span"
color="#002BC8"><br>
</font></div>
</div>
</span>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; ">
<div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder">
</div>
<div>IP JUSTICE</div>
<div>Robin Gross, Executive Director</div>
<div>1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA 94117 USA</div>
<div>p: +1-415-553-6261 f: +1-415-462-6451</div>
<div>w: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.ipjustice.org">http://www.ipjustice.org</a>
e: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:robin@ipjustice.org">robin@ipjustice.org</a></div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
</span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
</div>
<br>
</blockquote>
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