Porn-trolling firm Prenda Law recently made another baffling move in a retaliatory defamation suit against its online critics: the firm sent a subpoena to Automattic, WordPress' parent company, demanding a list of all of the IP addresses that have visited the anti-troll websites DieTrollDie and Fight Copyright Trolls, both of which are powered by WordPress. Prenda's lawyer Paul Duffy wrote to Automattic in a letter accompanying the subpoena, "Due to the emergency nature of the requested information, it is imperative that your organization responds to the subpoena immediately.”
But Automattic's General Counsel, Paul Sieminski, responded on Friday afternoon with a letter objecting to the subpoena. Shortly thereafter, the Electronic Frontier Foundation announced that it would lend its litigators to help fight the subpoena.
Sieminski's e-mail to Duffy (reproduced by Fight Copyright Trolls) noted, “Your subpoena is legally deficient and objectionable for numerous reasons, enumerated below, and Automattic will not produce any documents in response to this subpoena.” Sieminski goes on to list five procedural violations, from failing “to attach a true and correct copy of the Illinois subpoena,” to demanding the results of the subpoena be given over before the minimum of 20 days for compliance have passed, to “improperly [asking] Automattic to create a document and to supply information, rather than properly asking for documents from a nonparty.”
The letter continues:
In addition to the numerous legal deficiencies that render the subpoena invalid, it is also objectionable on numerous fronts.
- First, it seeks information protected by the First Amendment, including rights under the First Amendment to anonymous speech.
- Second, it violates the right to privacy under the California Constitution and common law, in that it seeks information relating to the websites that consumers visited.
- Third, it is facially (and outrageously) overly broad, in that it is not limited to information related to any alleged defamatory posts, but instead seeks the identity of any person who ever read the blogs in question.
- Finally, it seeks information that is not likely to lead to discoverable information, for the reasons enumerated above.
Yesterday, before Automattic announced its position, and before the EFF stepped in to help, commenters on DieTrollDie responded to the threat of having their IP addresses exposed by Prenda. Several took a confrontational stance, offering up their full names and addresses in the comments or challenging Prenda to sue them for defamation: “To whom it may concern: I, John Whitaker, gladly admit that I have frequently accessed both the DieTrollDie and FightCopyrightTroll websites since January 1, 2011 and may even have posted comments. Any communications intended for me can be addressed as follows...” the poster wrote, adding his address below.
Others preferred to make the subpoena look more absurd by simply adding their IP addresses to the list of those Prenda is seeking: Commenter "sorrykb" wrote “Is it too late to get my IP address in here? I’m feeling left out,” and "Bill Price" wrote “Nothing to say. I just wanted to get my IP addy on record as a commenter rather than just a lurker.” An anonymous commenter simply left “Just wanted in on this too.”
For now, the subpoena looks like it may be going nowhere. The representatives of Prenda Law are due in court for a hearing on Monday, March 11, but last night a petition surfaced that had been filed by three senior attorneys of the firm, asking the judge for permission to skip the hearing because of the late timing of the order that they appear in court.
Ars will be in court on Monday to see what happens.
reader comments
90