While I know we're all pretty well behaved here, let this snippet from the Crikey newsletter below be a warning to you about the dangers of posting defamatory material online, and also the danger of believing you're anonymous online.
Cheers,
Oliver
Dick Smith has been the subject of talk at the Professional Pilots Rumour Network, http://www.pprune.org, usually in animated discussions concerning his theory on aviation matters and his aviation experiences. A recent development is here, where one poster on Pprune, who thought she was posting anonymously, was identified by Dick Smith and forced to make a public apology and probably a private settlement. It sheds new light on websites where participants assume that because they are anonymous, they feel they can post freely and without fear of their identity being discovered. This now does not seem to be the case, and sometimes slanderous comments can be used against them by tracking their IP addresses. This could have wider ramifications for internet users generally...
