In August 2009, USA Technologies, Inc. sued two "John Doe" defendants in Pennsylvania federal court over critical comments posted on the Yahoo! Finance message board dedicated to the company. According to EFF, the pseudonymous commenters

criticized what they claim is the consistently poor performance of USA Technologies' management. The criticism highlighted plummeting stock prices of the company as well as the high compensation rates for management of the company that has been consistently unprofitable.

Seeking the identity of the posters, USA Technologies obtained court permission to serve a subpoena on Yahoo! in California.  With the assistance of EFF, one of the commenters, John Doe "Stokklerk," filed a motion to quash the subpoena. 

In December 2009, after a hearing, the federal court in California granted the motion to quash the subpoena. Under Cal. Civ. Proc. § 1987.2, USA Technologies may be required to pay John Doe's attorneys' fees incurred in bringing the motion to quash, but there is no court order on attorneys' fees yet. 

On November 19, 2009, Thomas DeRosa, Chairman of the Forward Township Board of Supervisors, filed a complaint in the Court of Common Pleas for Allegheny County against two Doe defendants, asserting claims for defamation. 

According to news reports from the Pittsburg Tribune-Review, the allegations are based on a series of anonymous posts made on the Elizabeth Area Discussion Board, hosted by the website elizabethboro.com. Also according to the Tribune-Review, the posts at issue alleged that DeRosa hired family members to perform work on a recently completed bridge repair project in the Township, and call DeRosa a liar.

On November 24, 2009, the court granted DeRosa's motion to seek discovery from Richard S. Rattanni, the operator of the elizabethboro.com website, in order to identify the posters of the allegedly defamatory comments.  On January 6, 2010, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania filed a motion for protective order seeking to squash the subpoena on behalf of Rattanni.

Update:

03/03/10 - The court held a hearing on Rattanni's motion to quash.  According to one press account, the court determined that Rattanni had standing to assert the First Amendment rights of his readers.

 

In November 2009, an Illinois Circuit Court judge ruled that Buffalo Grove Village Trustee Lisa Stone was entitled to pre-suit discovery of the identity of "Hipcheck16," an anonymous commenter who allegedly defamed her son in the comments section of a Daily Herald article.  The comments in question arose in the course of a heated political debate between Hipcheck16 and Ms. Stone's son:

The comments at the heart of the case came at the end of a series of posts between Hipcheck16 and Stone's son, who was concerned about online remarks the teen regarded as critical of his mother.

At one point, the teen asked to know the poster's identity and challenged him to debate the issues in person.

Declining an invitation to pay a visit, Hipcheck16 posted a response that said, according to court documents, "Seems like you're very willing to invite a man you only know from the Internet over to your house -- have you done it before, or do they usually invite you to their house?"

The post then continues with references to the boy's "mommy," saying that statements made by her son may cause her political problems after her election, according to court records. (Chicago Breaking News)

According to Chicago Breaking News, the newspaper turned over Hipcheck16's IP address, and Stone sought his identity from Comcast.  Although the record is not entirely clear, it looks like counsel for Hipcheck16 then intervened and sought a protective order, which the court denied in November 2009, though the court ruled that only Stone and a process server—should she file eventually file a lawsuit—could learn of Hipcheck16's identity.  

Later in November, the court granted a stay of the order for a month, to give Michael Furlong, Hipcheck16's lawyer, time to appeal.  Furlong told Chicago Breaking News that he intended to appeal.

Update:

03/15/2010 - EFF and The Media Freedom and Information Access Practicum filed an amicus curiae brief in support of Hipcheck16's appeal.

On August 25, 2008, a Kentucky college student who was kicked out of a mall for wearing a short dress filed suit in Kentucky state court against an anonymous commenter for allegedly posting a defamatory comment about her on a newspaper's website.  According to news reports, the comment appeared on the Richmond Register's site on Aug. 13, 2008, under a story about the mall incident. According to the complaint, the commenter, identified only as 12bme, claimed Clem was kicked out because she exposed herself to another woman and her children. 

The newspaper subsequently deleted the comment and banned 12bme from the site for violating the site's terms of service. Clem filed suit against 12bme and subpoenaed the Register for the identity of the poster. According to the Student Press Law Center, the newspaper opposed Clem's subpoena, claiming that the identity of the commenter  should fall under the Kentucky's reporter shield law because a Register reporter wrote an article about the lawsuit, which mentioned the comment.

John Sedersten subpoenaed The Springfield News-Leader to obtain information about "bornandraisedhere," a pseudonymous commenter who posted a comment to an article on the News-Leader's website.  The subpoena issued in conjunction with Sedersten's civil lawsuit against the City of Springfield, Missouri, Springfield's police chief, and a former Springfield police officer.  The News-Leader article discussed county prosecutors' decision to drop charges against the police officer, a decision that "bornandraisedhere" sharply criticized in his/her comment.

Gannett Missouri Publishing, the publisher of the News-Leader, objected to the subpoena, and Sedersten moved to compel the newspaper to turn over information.  In December 2009, the court denied Sedersten's motion to compel, ruling that bornandraisedhere's identity was not central to establishing Sedersten's negligence case against the City and its police chief.  The court also recognized that the commenter was entitled to First Amendment protection and had not waived that protection by agreeing to the News-Leader's privacy policy, which reserves to the newspaper "the right to use, and to disclose to third parties, all of the information collected from and about [users] while [using] the Site in any way and for any purpose."

On September 4, 2009, the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce sued  "Elmer Fudd," an anonymous commenter on TheSunNews.com.  From Popehat (quoting the original Sun News article that is no longer available):

The posts, which appeared on the comment sections of several stories last month, claimed the Horry County Sheriff's Department had conducted raids at the chamber and other businesses. The posts also claimed that computers were seized from those businesses, although a sheriff’s department spokesman said no raids occurred and no computers were seized.

"The claims were absolutely false," said Cherie Blackburn, a lawyer representing the chamber of commerce. Blackburn termed the posts "a vicious cyber defamation campaign" in court documents filed Friday in Conway.

The publisher of TheSunNews.com notified "Elmer Fudd" that, pursuant to a subpoeana, she would reveal his identity to the Chamber unless he objected to the subpoena. The newspaper is not a party to the suit. "Elmer Fudd" filed a motion protesting the release of his information, arguing that the subpoena violated his First Amendment right to speak anonymously and that he did not have sufficient time to find an attorney.  Fudd did not appear through an attorney at a December hearing on the Chamber's motion to compel disclosure of his identifying information.

According to TheSunNews.com, the court signed an order on December 4 compelling it to turn over identifying information to the Chamber.  The SunNews.com did not have records identifying the poster's name, but turned over an email address "noadtax@gmail.com."  (There appears to be a related facebook page, No Ad Tax.)

TheSunNews.com reported on December 5 that Grand Strand Chamber of Commerce founder Ward Shepherd named former Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride as "Elmer Fudd," after being subpoenaed by an attorney for the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber.

Dean Zuleger, the Village Administrator in Weston, Wisconsin, sent a letter to Paul Klocko, a local businessman, demanding that he cease making anonymous derogatory statements about him on the website for the Wausau Daily Herald.  Klocko had posted his comments on the Daily Herald's website after Zuleger was named Person of the Year by the paper.  According to the Associated Press:

Readers anonymously flooded the Wausau Daily Herald's Web site with comments bashing Zuleger's salary, his management style, his weight. One person suggested his third chin should have been nominated.

''I have just two words for Dean Zuleger, and they are ... A) anger management. B) salad bar. C) Rod Blagojevich. D) all of the above. The correct answer is D.,'' one posting read.

Zuleger asked the Daily Herald for the identity of the user behind the comments, and the newspaper complied with his request by releasing the e-mail address associated with Klocko's username.  Zuleger contacted the Daily Herald and demanded to know the identify of the commenter and the paper handed over one critic's e-mail address.

Zuleger then sent a letter on his official stationery, telling Klocko to stop the personal attacks and ''come out from behind the cloak'' and meet him.

The Daily Herald later apologized to Klocko for revealing his identity and the paper's corporate parent, Gannett Co., has clarified its policies on anonymous speech, stating that it will release information only if ordered by a court or if a comment contains a threat of imminent harm.

No lawsuit has been filed.

On June 11, 2009, Jeffrey Weaver was criminally indicted for statements he posted to InfoWars.com that threatened a California transit police officer and threatened the officer's family.  InfoWars.com is a website run by talk radio host Alex Jones.

According to the affidavit by the FBI officer who investigated the case, on January 7, 2009, an anonymous poster using the name "FuckThePIGS" posted a comment on InfoWars.com that identified Officer Johannes Mehserle by name and address, and made threatening statements about killing officer Mehserle and his wife and baby.  Officer Mehserle is a former Bay Area Transit Authority (BART) officer who has been criminally charged for a controversial shooting in January, 2009, that was caught on video.

Using IP records provided by an InfoWars administrator, the FBI was able to identify the poster as Jeffery Weaver, of Roanoke, Virginia.  Weaver was indicted in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia.

On August 14, 2009, Weaver pleaded guilty to one count of transmitting in interstate commerce a threat to injure a person, as well as one count of willful copyright infringement.  His sentencing hearing is set for December 14, 2009.

Florida state authorities charged Robert Brayshaw with a misdemeanor for violating Fla. Stat. § 843.17 after he anonymously posted the name, address, and telephone number of a Tallahassee Police Department officer on RateMyCop.com.  Section 843.17 prohibits publication of a law enforcement officer's residential address or telephone number with the intent to intimidate, hinder, or interrupt any law enforcement officer in the legal performance of his or her duties.  The Tallahassee police obtained Brayshaw's identity after subpoenaing records from RateMyCop.com and Brayshaw's ISP, according to Wired.

Prosecutors voluntarily dropped the charges on December 9 and then refiled 10 days later, according to an article on RateMyCop.com. The state court judge ultimately dismissed the charges with prejudice for failure to comply with Florida's speedy trial requirements. Brayshaw then filed a complaint in federal court in Florida, seeking a declaration that Section 843.17 violates the First Amendment. According to Brayshaw's complaint, the police officer's name and address are publicly available on the Leon County Clerk of Court's website.  On April 30, 2010, Judge Smoak issued a decision striking down Section 843.17 as unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.