Fuller v. Doe

H.G. Fuller v. Doe is an anonymous speech case involving an attempt by global adhesives company H.G. Fuller to discover the identity of an anonymous speaker on an online financial message board.

H.G. Fuller v. Doe is an anonymous speech case involving an attempt by global adhesives company H.G. Fuller to discover the identity of an anonymous speaker on an online financial message board. John Doe posted general information about a Fuller reorganization plan on a Yahoo! Finance message board. Fuller alleged that the information was confidential and the poster must have violated an employee confidentiality agreement, though Fuller provided no proof that the information was closely held or that Doe was an employee at the time of the posting. Fuller obtained a California subpoena to discover Doe's identity from Yahoo!, and Doe filed a Motion to Quash the subpoena. A California Superior Court denied the Motion to Quash and Doe appealed to the Court of Appeals, where the case is currently awaiting a decision.

Substantive Tags: free speech, privacy
Free tags: anonymity