Clearly, a lesson to the wise is that you can't just say things, pass information along, and not be held accountable. Although some legal experts say Net libel cases date back to the early 1990s, they are gaining more notice now as droves of people are coming online. Still, online speech increasingly is being held up to legal scrutiny. For example, last month, a Los Angeles man was found guilty of civil rights violations for sending racist death threats via email to 59 Asian college students. As with the hate email case, McCahan's defense will rely partly on an examination of Net culture and the implication the outcome of the case will have on free speech.
Online forums are know for their heated exchanges, in which many of the speakers are anonymous.
In this spirit, McCahan's attorney will argue that she has a constitutional right to speak her mind and the truth as she knows it. Based on a past conversation with McCarthy, she believed him to be a liar, she says. The major thrust of what we are going to say is that on the Net, in chat rooms or on mailing lists, people expect to see what the U.S. Supreme Court has referred to as uninhibited, robust, and wide-open debate . McCarthy's claims likely will echo a higher-profile lawsuit unfolding in Washington against Net gossip columnist Matt Drudge and America Online . McCarthy's accusation is similar to Blumenthal's.