14 DAY TRIAL // A new case shows us the Internet is a place where you're not safe even if you hide your identity behind a nickname. A new case was reported in Rehoboth where an ex-government member and his daughter are demanding the Sunnyvale company Yahoo to provide the real names of six of its users who made false statements about them. The two officials filed a lawsuit in the Taunton District Court, requiring unmentioned damages from six users with the following nicknames: "halfest, bdiogenes, thehorrta, sillsandwich, h8cronies and united_we_stand23," as The Sun Chronicle Online reported.
The Sun Chronicle Online reports that the officials only want the real names of the users but the Sunnyvale company's officials didn't comment on the case. Some time ago, Yahoo was involved in a similar matter in China where it provided private information about a user who was then arrested. This caused a new lawsuit filed against Yahoo which was accused of revealing users' details in a country known for its censorship actions against the Internet consumers.
In the past, there were several similar cases which ended with the Internet companies providing private information about the users. Take the example of YouTube, the famous online video sharing owned by Google that was involved in a similar case when a registered user uploaded pirated copies of a Fox production.
At that time, Fox demanded private details about a user nicknamed ECOtotal who published all the clips even before the official release date of the movie. Obviously, YouTube offered them and the user was identified and sent to the judge.
Now, I'm quite curios to see if Yahoo agrees to provide the information; however it's very likely it will do so because the company has to comply with the requirements every time the authorities demand it.