Legal News

AutoAdmit Suit Update: Defendant ?AK47? Responds

By Amir Efrati

Things are beginning to heat up in the case brought by two female Yale Law students against anonymous writers for defamation, infliction of emotional distress and other wrongdoings they allegedly committed while posting comments about the women on the law-school discussion board AutoAdmit.

The last time we brought you news from the proceedings in Connecticut federal court, the plaintiffs had been granted expedited discovery to uncover the identities of the 39 anonymous defendants so they could be named.

Now, the defendant known as “AK47,” who had written on AutoAdmit that “Women named Jill and [Doe II’s equally common first name] should be raped,” has filed a motion to quash a subpoena that AT&T received from the plaintiffs that ordered the company to hand over information about AK47’s Internet account.

Click here for the well-composed pro se motion, which leads us to suspect that “he” is an aspiring lawyer. (Click here and here for relevant exhibits he filed.)

In the motion, AK47 wrote that the subpoena tramples on his “constitutionally protected right to speak anonymously.” He called his rape comment “silly” but protected by free speech rights, and says it is unfair that he was given just 10 days to prepare the motion on an area of law he isn’t familiar with, and that the plaintiffs have the luxury of pro bono lawyers from “an elite law firm,” Keker & Van Nest. Still, AK47 shows he’s done some research, citing a host of Internet law precedents he says bolster his arguments.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 28, 2008 (boomark / email).