Both CEO Bill Morgenstern and Rent Way Inc. have filed a civil lawsuit for defamation against an anonymous Yahoo message board poster with the screen-name "goodbyerentway".

Ron DeMoss, Rent Way VP and General Counsel told RTO Online "The objective of this suit is to learn who is posting these malicious lies." The "malicious lies" he refers to are various postings over an extended period alleging the involvement of Rent Way CEO Bill Morgenstern in the accounting scandal that has plagued Rent Way for over two years. Three former executives were convicted in the scandal. CEO Morgenstern was cleared of any wrongdoing. Once the true identity of "goodbyerentway" is known, the company hopes to seek monetary damages for the alleged defamation.

According to DeMoss, the person identified as "goodbyerentway" posted nearly 200 messages on the Yahoo board. Most were negative, Rent Way claims some of the postings alleged criminal activity by senior executives who are still at Rent Way. "We are absolute firm believers in the first amendment and freedom of speech, but we also think that there are limits" said Mr. DeMoss. He cited Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famous phrase "You can't yell fire in a crowded theater" and added "We don't believe that Pennsylvania law permits you to call people criminals and do it anonymously and have no proof of it." DeMoss indicated that once the government investigation was complete and current executives cleared, the allegations should have ceased. He posed the question "Should senior management be in a position that, for the rest of their lives, they're going to have postings indicating they were involved in criminal activity?"

Mr. DeMoss claims that Rent Way decided to pursue legal action only after the company began experiencing morale problems as a result of the anonymous postings. "Our employees are suffering morale issues because they are seeing this up continually." he said.  No mention was made as to any other direct affects of the postings.

Recent related court decisions have landed squarely on the side of free speech. A New Jersey court ruled against the plaintiff in Dendrite v. Does. Dendrite, an IT company specializing in the pharmaceutical industry, subpoenaed Yahoo for the identities of anonymous posters who made what the company claimed were false statements. The court denied the request. In the first appellate decision to address the issue, a New Jersey appeals court established stringent procedural and evidentiary standards that must be met before the identity of an anonymous online poster can be disclosed through litigation. The court recognized the constitutional right to communicate anonymously and refused to order the identification of a "John Doe" speaker who had posted comments on a Yahoo! message board.

This is not Rent Way's first attempt to learn the identity of online message posters. Earlier this month, Rent Way went after the identity of another Yahoo message board user "curtcantspell". "curtcantspell" claimed to be a Rent Way employee who was, among other things, stealing from the company. Rent Way subpoenaed Yahoo to learn "curtcantspell's identity. "curtcantspell" retained a lawyer who brokered a deal requiring an online apology in return for dropping the lawsuit. (It was learned that "curtcantspell" was an ex-employee of Rent Way)

With the proliferation of internet chat-boards and the ability of users to post content at will, this type of lawsuit is becoming more common. Some are legitimate, others are commonly known as CyberSLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) and are viewed by the online community as frivolous attempts to silence public opinion. Some states have enacted Anti-SLAPP statutes.

According to chillingeffects.org, a joint project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, University of San Francisco, and University of Maine law school clinics, the most common complaints by CyberSLAPP plaintiffs are defamation, trademark or copyright infringement, and breach of contract. Speech that involves a public figure, such as a corporation, is only defamatory if it is false and said with "actual malice." It also must be factual rather than an expression of opinion. In the US, because of strong free speech protections, it is almost impossible to prove defamation against a public figure.

While company officials are adamant that Rent Way does not wish to silence anyone, the move is guaranteed to be viewed that way by the online community. The following was posted on the Yahoo board as a result of the "curtcantspell" apology :

Wanted: Lawyer to scan various websites for individuals posting anti-RentWay material and use threat of legal action to get them to stop. You will be responsible for writing 'last post' statements that make it look like Rwy is wonderful. Job is typical of most RWY uppermanagement positions, paying 3-4 times what you are worth and many fringes.

Experienced web-surfers know two things. 1) 99% of negative posts on public boards are meaningless dribble. 2) Responding to online critics only causes them to breed. And the more you respond, the more creative and vicious the attacks become. In most cases it's better to hit the ignore button and move on.