"IT IS IMPORTANT NOT TO SILENCE COMMUNICATION on the Internet, but it is just as important not to silence victims of defamation," writes lawprof Betsy Malloy in an article flagged by Stephen Bainbridge. When someone says free speech is "important" but something else is "just as important," I get edgy. One cancels out the other and then what have you got? Like Bainbridge, I want a high standard to be met before a court can force an ISP to disclose the real name of an anonymous or pseudonymous blogger or commenter. So much damage can be done by the mere unmasking. It is all too tempting to file a lawsuit to punish someone who’s pissed you off. And, of course, victims of defamation are not "silenced" if they can’t sue. What a disaster if we think of the courthouse as our primary speech forum! If someone’s speech on the internet offends you, you can always talk back on the internet. Silence may nevertheless be the best choice, even if you’re used to jabbering endlessly on line. I’m frequently defamed on the internet, but I do what I can to avoid amplifying the attacker’s speech by reacting to it. There are times when I put my revenge in writing in a blog post and get that cursor right up to the "publish" button and then stop and remember what my mother used to say: "You’ll only encourage him."

AND: Eugene Volokh has some great detail on the standard the Delaware Supreme Court articulated in Doe v. Cahill: “Prof. Malloy seems to read the opinion as taking the view that statements in blogs are categorically opinion: ‘[T]he court argued that a reasonable person would not construe a blog as stating facts.'” That would be an a funny thing to say about blogs, and Volokh says the court didn’t say it.