Correction: Dependability does not equal denial.
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Re: Source Cautionary Advisory
Posted: 15-Oct-08 08:39 pm

St. Peterburgs Times

A St. Petersburg Company sues to get critics' names

Company wants to know if employees and ousted executives are behind anonymous chat room postings discussing its recent problems.

By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published December 9, 2003

Anonymous postings on the Yahoo! message board for a St. Petersburg’s company were frequently foul, mean-spirited or sexist.

Yet some messages were downright clever, such as a poem tracing the company's recent business ills in a takeoff of the Iliad. And a series of fabricated Barbara Walters interviews with top company decision-makers dropped less-than-subtle hints that chief executive was about to be forced out and replaced a week before he actually was.

The running collection of jokes, news on corporate political intrigues and insults aimed at the troubled St. Petersburg’s company involved so much inside baseball that some chat group participants had trouble following it all. "I hope this is a joke," wrote one. "Not being an insider, I can't tell."

Now the St. Petersburg Company aims to find out how much of the information really was from inside. The company has filed suit in Hillsborough County Circuit Court against 25 anonymous John Does in an attempt to find out who was discussing what it considers "proprietary corporate information."

It's the latest in a series of moves by corporations to quell bad-mouthing on online message boards. This case has a twist because many of the participants in the Company discussions sounded like current and former executives. The St. Petersburg’s company says it's trying to identity who's who solely to determine whether agreements were violated that prohibit employees or ousted former executives from revealing confidential information.

"We are taking these steps to protect our confidentially agreements," said the Company’s spokeswoman. Companies frequently tie confidentiality agreements to severance payments.

The message board postings sometimes seemed prescient. On the day their CEO quit, Friday, Oct. 31, one poster correctly identified his replacement at daybreak, 10 hours before the company said the decision was made. Others provided updates and reported sightings as the day wore on.

"As of today your boy is out and (company co-founder M.) O'B. is in," a tipster with a user name of "grayxray" wrote at 5:52 p.m. "The VPs were called at home."

The message board has been relatively silent since then. That's because Yahoo! notified some participants that it would reveal specific posters' names if the company's subpoenas are not challenged in court. The letter from Yahoo! was posted on the site.

"Please be aware that your communications with Yahoo! may also be discoverable," it reads.

The anonymous posters are not taking the threat idly. So far two groups of them have hired their own attorneys in an effort to keep their clients' identities secret. They say the St. Petersburg Company is trying to silence critics and violate their right to free speech about a publicly traded company.

"It's standard strategy when companies have a lot of bad news to try to shut down these bulletin board sites," said a St. Petersburg attorney who represents three of the posters.

*"The suit is just a fishing expedition designed to chill public speech and mis-use the subpoena power."

Those fighting the subpoenas "also wish to protect their anonymity by proceeding anonymously" in their court fight, according to the court pleadings.*