Page 350 - Law and the Media

The Law in the United States of America
hosted by them. In 2000, a Florida state court ordered Yahoo! and AOL to hand over the
identities of individuals alleged to have posted defamatory messages on bulletin boards
hosted by them concerning the plaintiff, Eric Hvide. The plaintiff had issued proceedings
against anonymous defendants called ‘John Doe 1 through 8, persons presently unknown to
the plaintiff but whose true identities will be included in the amendments hereto when those
identities are discovered’ (Eric Hvide v John Does (2000)).

The case generated considerable controversy as a result of the implications for the loss of
anonymity on the Internet. The American Civil Liberties Union, a non-profit organization
‘dedicated to preserving the principles of individual liberty embodied in the Bill of Rights’,
filed briefs in the proceedings to address the issues involved in balancing the right of the
plaintiff to protect his reputation and the First Amendment right of the defendants to speak
anonymously. In October 2000, the Court of Appeals in Florida upheld the order for
disclosure against Yahoo! and AOL.

There have been several cases where companies and individuals have issued proceedings for
online defamation against defendants alleged to have posted defamatory statements on the
Internet. In 1999, a San Diego company called ZiaSun Technologies sued four people for
allegedly posting false information about the company in Internet chatrooms. The company
sought an injunction preventing the defendants from posting further messages. The
defendants raised truth as a defence. In January 2000, a federal court granted the first ever
preliminary injunction against Internet defamation (ZiaSun Technologies Inc v Floyd
Schneider (2000)). The case was subsequently settled out of court.

21.4.2 Copyright

Existing works
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998 (the ‘DMCA’) is the most comprehensive
reform of United States copyright law for several years. It updates the Copyright Act 1976
in the digital age by making it illegal to offer technology that circumvents copyright
protection systems. It also implements the WIPO Copyright Treaty 1996.

Several high-profile Internet copyright infringement lawsuits have been brought under the
provisions of the Copyright Act 1976 and the DMCA by the Recording Industry Association
of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

RIAA v Napster
In December 1999, the RIAA brought proceedings for a preliminary injunction against
Napster, the well-known music file swapping service. The RIAA accused Napster of
facilitating the direct infringement of copyright in music recordings by allowing users to
exchange compressed files of copyright protected music through its online service.
Following a finding of infringement, the court issued a preliminary injunction against
Napster that effectively shut the service down (A&M Records Inc v Napster Inc (2000)).
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