Abstract
The rise of the Internet has made anonymous defamation a reality. Tracking the footprints of anonymous defamation in cyberspace can be difficult from a legal and technological perspective. Legally, the injured party may need to pursue two defendants - the website that hosted the defamatory statement and the anonymous defamer. This process can be taxing from both an economic and personal perspective, and in some cases will lead to a dead end due to technological roadblocks. One of the primary reasons that the footprints of anonymous defamation can lead to a dead end is that the IP address logs may have been purged. Currently there are no regulations or standards in the industry requiring IP address logs to be preserved for a minimum time period. This article addresses the legal and technological roadblocks that can lead to anonymous defamation and suggests regulatory systems for IP address logs as a means of combating unacceptable anonymous behavior on the Internet.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Raymond Placid
Raymond Placid is an attorney and certified public accountant. He has degrees from the University of Florida (BSBA), Florida International University (Masters of Taxation) and University of Miami (Juris Doctorate) and publishes in legal areas that impact the business environment.
Judy Wynekoop
Judy Wynekoop holds a Ph.D. in Information Systems from Georgia State University and publishes in the areas of systems development and networking. She is currently Professor of Computer Information Systems and Associate Dean for Curriculum Planning at Florida Gulf Coast University, and has previous experience as an internal auditor and a criminal investigator.