The Latest Breaking News from J Harvie Wilkinson

In February, I wrote about a Fourth Circuit decision in Doe v. Sidar, which discusses one-sided pseudonymity. On Wednesday, Google received a request that it remove that post from its indexes—and thus vanish it from search results—on the theory that the post violated the copyright in a blog post, https://europeannewschannels.blogspot.com/2024/01/fourth-circuit-on-one-sided.html:…

Last month, I wrote about a Fourth Circuit decision in Doe v. Sidar, which discusses one-sided pseudonymity. Last week, Google received two requests that it remove that post from its indexes—and thus vanish it from search results—on the theory that the post violated the copyright in a Tumblr post, https://www.tumblr.com/case49news/745091056157196289/fourth-circuit-on-one-sided-pseudonymity-in-sexual:…

The decision allows such pseudonymity when the defendant has already been found (by default judgment) to have committed the assault, but Judge Wilkinson's concurrence argues that, absent this unusual factor, one-sided pseudonymity should be frowned on.

The crucial protector of internet speech might have some cracks in its armor.