The
plaintiff was not charged or asked to testify in the rape case;
however, he was named regularly in blog postings and related forums
about the case.
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Ohio —
A civil lawsuit with potentially major ramifications about what counts as protected online speech got under way in Jefferson County Monday afternoon.
At issue, the question of whether blogger Alexandria Goddard and members of the online community at the website Prinniefied.com defamed a Steubenville High School athlete and his parents with comments made about the rape allegations against two of the plaintiff's teammates.
Last month, the plaintiff and his parents sued Goddard and approximately two dozen "John and Jane Does" who commented on stories about the case using anonymous screen names.
Judge David Henderson held a hearing Monday about whether to allow the plaintiff's attorney to get that information from several Internet service providers.
The plaintiffs' attorney was concerned that some providers' policies purge such data after six months.
Goddard, who was not present for Monday's hearing, still has not been served with a copy of the lawsuit, despite what the plaintiff's attorney claims was an exhaustive attempt to locate her at several previous addresses.
What the defendant does not seem to understand is that if she prevails in this lawsuit, it will make any court action involving defamation, libel, stalking and so forth far more difficult for a plaintiff to prevail in court.
Not only will internet information be far more difficult to obtain, but the amount of probable cause to even bring such an action will be raised to the extent that most will simply give up as the widespread dismissal of these kinds of lawsuits would likely result.
Ms Goddard in turn would face far more intense criticism of her past actions from those who would have far less to fear now that they would have a blueprint as to how to avoid this kind of litigation.
MURT