Comments on: The Blog Impersonators

By: Elvis Impersonator

Elvis Impersonator — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:00:06 +0000

Yeah its right that you can track down who is doing what if you want but if commenter or blogger is smart then it is really very tedious to track him for a general person and sometime for the ISPs too. It depends on her/his expertise.

By: Goldman's Observations

Goldman's Observations — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 03:46:38 +0000

Study: Journalists Use Blogs Heavily

A study reveals that “51% of journalists consult blogs for story ideas while 28% of them relied on blogs to…

By: Goldman's Observations

Goldman's Observations — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 03:46:38 +0000

Study: Journalists Use Blogs Heavily

A study reveals that “51% of journalists consult blogs for story ideas while 28% of them relied on blogs to…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 07:45:29 +0000

This is hardly a new issue. See, e.g., this fake blog “by” Laurence Tribe: http://thetribeblog.blogspot.com.

That blog seemed and seems like an obvious parody (specifically, of blogs or websites by Posner and Kozinski to which the blog links) — “no reasonable persons would think it were true,” to use your test — yet at least one law professor actually thought it was true! See: http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2004_11_28-2004_12_04.shtml#1101999555.

Maybe it IS a blog by Tribe . . . . Who knows. As you point out, with the ease of anonymity, it’s hard to tell. The Internet can be a confusing place. But assuming it is indeed a fake blog, I can’t see Tribe or any naively confused reader has any legal remedy, even if the anonymity involved could be stripped away.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 20:55:22 +0000

True anonymity would be a lot easier if ISPs purged their logs within a very short period of time (in my experience, the big ones keep records for 30 days or more), or even worse, failed to keep any logs at all. I was at a conference this weekend where someone proposed exactly that — or at least opposed my proposal that a minimum log-keeping time period be established. (I’ll let him identify himself in case I’m mis-remembering the conversation.) I believe the result of true anonymity would be increased number of crimes and unredressable torts. I think the Del. Sup. Ct. standard addresses, in at least the defamation area, the potential for abuse of the complaint process as a mere identification tool.

By: Daniel J. Solove

Daniel J. Solove — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 20:07:56 +0000

John, Thanks for your answer. I'm not an expert on the technical side of things, so this is a question that really interests me. I agree with you that being truly anonymous on the Internet is very hard to do. But it is relatively easy to set up a Blogger account, and one could do so from a computer in a cybercafe or library terminal or elsewhere. One can also post comments to blogs anonymously too. Can people who comment here anonymously really be tracked down if they post from somewhere other than their homes or work? EFF has two manuals that discuss how to blog anonymously -- here and here. It is true that most folks will not take these steps, however. Do you know of a good resource that discusses the various levels to which people can be anonymous on the Internet and the ease/difficulty of finding out their identities for each of these these techniques? Dan

By: John Armstrong

John Armstrong — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 19:16:49 +0000

There’s almost no such thing as true anonymity anywhere on the internet. In all likelihood, whoever’s committing those torts is doing it regularly from the same place, in which case it’s not that hard to track down said place. It’s just tedious and well-worded privacy policies can make sure the blog hosting site and ISP (and possibly other steps in the chain) don’t go giving away the information to anyone without a court order.