When you post are you willing to stand behind what you post?

A Texas court has ask a service provider to identify posters who commented on a public matter in this case the dependents in a criminal trial.

How would you feel if your information was revealed? Do you say things with a poster name you wouldn't say otherwise? If you had to post under your true name would you post differently?

How do you feel about this?

Hundreds who posted views on sex assault trial targeted in Tarrant suit

04:39 PM CST on Saturday, February 7, 2009

By CHRIS HAWES / WFAA--TV

FORT WORTH — Hundreds of people who posted their opinions of a sexual assault trial in an online forum are now the targets of a lawsuit.

The authors of those comments on a Web site thought they were anonymous, but this week, a judge ruled their names should be revealed.

Mark and Rhonda Lesher lived quietly in northeast Texas; Mark practiced law, Rhonda ran a beauty salon.

Then, last year, a woman accused the couple — along with another man — of sexually assaulting her. That's when the anonymous comments started appearing on Topix.com.

An estimated 1,700 statements were too graphic to be included in this story, going far beyond the criminal charges.

"They were perverted, sick, vile, inhumane accusations," said Mark Lesher in a telephone interview from Clarksville, Texas.

The Leshers' attorney, William Pieratt Demond, labeled the comments "a form of persecution."

Last month, the couple got their day in court. A jury found the Leshers, along with their alleged accomplice, not guilty. But in the online forum, it seemed, the trial had no end.

"It just ... basically made us both feel like common criminals," Lesher said. "It's like someone had basically raped us of our reputation and our standing in the community over and over and over again."

And so this month, the Leshers sued 178 anonymous posters on the Web site. A Tarrant County judge ordered Topix to turn over potentially identifying information about the users listed in the lawsuit.. The site has until March 6 to comply with the ruling.

"We do not just give up people's privacy," said the Web site's CEO Chris Tolles. "We're very, very careful about that."

But Tolles said the discussions are not necessarily a license to run people through the mud. "If there is a line that's been crossed from a libel standpoint — and it seems reasonable — we do, in fact, cooperate with the courts."

This lawsuit was brought in Tarrant County because it appears at least one anonymous poster lives here.

Internet libel suits have had success in the past. A few years ago a North Dakota professor was awarded $3 million over claims a student Web site defamed him.

E-mail chawes@wfaa.com

I would stand behind what I post, and it is a shame that in America people can bring lawsuits like this..but I guess it is part of a free society.. But I don't think that I would say nasty things like that to anyone..

Keep in mind these people were found not guilty.

Publishing untrue statements intended to harm another persons reputation is libel.

Why shouldn't the people who did that be held accountable?

Now can they show that they were actually harmed by each statement?? I would think that the inditment would be more harmful to them then the comments made by people..there issue is with the one making the false claim of sexual assault, but I'm sure they are looking for money anywhere they can find it..

I agree.

I don't post anything I wouldn't say to someone's face.

Not only that, but once something become public, do we have the right to discuss it..comment about it??? Have we fallen that far where public discussion and comment are against the law??? Not yet anyways!!

I think when you go online you take a calculated risk. Also anyone can use anyone's computer, how would one know who was actually making the accusations in the post.

I think this is dangerous territory. We are already a pretty sue happy society.

I actually think this is silly. If the posts where against me, I might ask the site to remove them, then remove myself from the site and remove myself as a target. Online minds tend to have short attention spans anyway. Just remove yourself as a target.

Anyway I could be wrong but for now this is the way I see it.