From the FBStar: Appeal filed with Texas Supreme Court to Keep Sienna Bloggers Anonymous

Jan. 18th

This is the latest news from the FB Star on the SLAPP suit (Strategic lawsuit against public participation -- used often by developers in land use disputes). The recent abc13 (KTRK) coverage has generated a great deal of internet chatter about anonymous blogging and we will include a piece below the FB Star which came in from Chicago a few days ago. This thing keeps growing..and growing. According to some rumors a group of homeowners within Sienna will soon challenge the May edict (new covenant) on information dissemination during the campaign season with backing from a constitutional lawyers group. We will get the news out on this as it breaks.

Heres the Star article by Barbara Fulenwider (click link above for direct link):

Appeal filed with Texas Supreme Court
to keep Sienna bloggers anonymous
By Barbara Fulenwider

The lawyer for Matthew Feinberg, a Sienna resident who was the web site administrator for several blogs on which Sienna residents criticized Sienna/Johnson Development (SJD), has filed an appeal with the Texas Supreme Court asking that the deposition Feinberg was ordered to give should not be made public.

“The purpose for filing the appeal with the Texas Supreme Court is we want to keep the names Feinberg gave during deposition off the record and out of the public eye,” said Laura Hermer, cooperating attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.

“It is our contention that Matthew Feinberg ought not have been ordered to disclose the identities of individuals who were speaking anonymously unless they had met a certain criteria for production of their identity,” Hermer said.

“This appeal could set precedent in Texas. It’s a case of first impression, which means that the issue has not yet come up in Texas. There are no precedents on the matter in the state. There are in other states but not in Texas,” she said.

“In one sense, it’s moot for Matthew because he was deposed. In another sense, a suit has been filed against Chris Calvin by Sienna Johnson and we can prevent that deposition, with the names that Matthew provided, from being used in that suit. That would be a good thing and would make the issue other than moot,” Hermer said.

The appeal, she said, “has to do with the fact of whether Sienna Johnson met the proper criteria and what that criteria might be for those names to be disclosed. In other states, it depends on the criteria. You can’t libel your neighbor or a business. If you are saying false things with malice, your anonymity won’t be protected.”

She said the question regarding the writing Sienna complained about (on the blogs) was did it rise to an appropriate level for disclosure of the names. To prove libel you have to prove malice. With a public official or corporation, the test for determining if someone is a public plaintiff is different. If Sienna meets the standard of being a public company, then they have to meet a higher standard to prove malice,” Hermer said.

She said she would definitely call the Sienna/Johnson suit against Calvin a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) suit because “when you have a large company and you have an individual who is relatively powerless in comparison, certainly financially, and the individual is saying things the company doesn’t like, then the company is likely going to want to make that stop.

“One way this happens is filing a suit against them. The questions are did he (Calvin) do something that was actionable or not and do they have a genuine complaint against him or not,” she said.

Sienna/Johnson Development and Doug Goff, Sienna senior vice president, filed a lawsuit against Calvin on Dec. 13 in the 240th Judicial District Court claiming the defendant used “false, defamatory and disparaging speech” under “scores of fake names, aliases and impersonated identities to create a sham appearance of support and factual basis for untruths.”

Prior to this suit being filed, on Aug. 3, 2005, the plaintiff filed a Petition to Take Deposition Before Suit and served it on Feinberg and Calvin. The appeal to the Texas Supreme Court has to do with a district court judge’s decisions regarding Feinberg’s appeal requesting a protective order restricting the use or disclosure of the information he was compelled to disclose when he was deposed. It also has to do with setting precedent since “no Texas court has yet issued a written opinion concerning the right of Texans to speak anonymously on the Internet."

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From http://www.thebloggingjournalist.com/2006/01/blogging_under_.html

The Blogging Journalist

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Blogging Under 24 Names

Is it unethical to blog on a single subject under 24 names to make it appear that others are blogging about a cause you hold dear?

Ted Oberg of KTRK ABC13 Eye Witness News of Houston, Texas reported January 13, 2006 that, bloggerChris Calvin of Sienna Plantation, Texas is doing that, and it has gotten him and the Committee for Responsible Development, of which he co-chairs, sued by Sienna/Johnson Development, LP and Douglas Goff, senior vice president. See the Houston Chronicle article "Developer files lawsuit over Web site statements."

Stephen Palkot reported January 2, 2006 in the Fort Bend (Texas) Herald Coaster that,

Through the websites Missouri City Chatter and the now-defunct Sienna Talk and Missouri City Talk, Calvin has criticized developer Doug Goff of the Sienna/Johnson Development Corp., and has accused city council members of unethically bowing to his requests.
I couldn't find the websites or a cached version.
Sienna Plantation is "a major planned community" located about six miles from Marshall, Texas and about 20-miles from Houston.

Calvin, who owns a Sienna Plantation home, doesn't like the fact that Sienna/Johnson intend to put up hundreds of apartments "about a mile from his home," according to KTRK.

"You're going to overcrowd our schools," Calvin, executive editor of The Journal of Applied Educational Technology and "a professor a professor for several online universities," told Oberg. The developer of Sienna Plantation has a different perspective.

Oberg quotes Sienna/Johnson Attorney John Keville as saying: "Chris Calvin can say any opinion he wants as long as he puts his name on it. Chris Calvin can't be a mob of 30 people."

Oberg added: "It's the power of the Internet as an equalizer the developer says that forced them to sue. They admit much of what Calvin wrote was true or his opinion. But they say he deceived Internet readers when he created the sense that so many people shared his opinion."

"If it's one person saying it, let it be one person saying it," said Keville.

To read Oberg's report on the dispute, please see "Homeowner who assumed names to protest now faces lawsuit. Also

While blogging under many names on one subject may be misleading and unethical, I'd be surprised if Sierra Plantation prevails in this case.

Posted by Munir Umrani on Saturday, January 14, 2006 at 05:03 AM in Bloggers | Permalink

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To get updates from the committee of homeowners that the Johnson Development Co. of Houston, Sienna Plantation developer, are suing please visit http://missouricitychatter.blogspot.com . Also see SLAPP suits for this common tactic used by developers on individuals or groups that speak out on land use issues (see Pring & Cannen SLAPP: Getting Sued for Speaking Out).

This case was actually filed after a fairly successful petition drive in the community against the unwanted land use (1100+ homeowner signatures) and ethics complaints were reported regarding the mayor who pushed the initiative for the developer over the objections of many at several city council sessions in Missouri City, TX (see the cities website for video minutes on this from Feb 7th, 21st, June 6th, July 18th '05 sessions).

or google the term SLAPP suit. Apparently this tactic is used often by some development companys.