Anonymous E-Mailer Steps Forward After Supreme Court Order

PORTLAND, Maine --After a year of court wrangling, the sender of an insulting e-mail who fought to withhold his identity in a case that tested the waters of Internet anonymity has stepped into light.

James Stanley Jr., president and CEO of The Liberty Group, said Thursday that he sent a satirical e-mail to a half-dozen Great Diamond Island residents on Christmas Eve 2003 under another island resident's name.

"I regret that the entire incident ever took place," Stanley said in a statement. "It was a spontaneous, tongue-in-cheek bit of silliness that for reasons that are still unfathomable has taken on a life of its own."

Ronald Fitch, whose identity was used to send the e-mail, had contended the e-mail amounted to identity theft and fraud. But through his lawyers, Stanley claimed it was anonymous free speech, protected by the Constitution.

Two weeks ago the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ordered, without addressing First Amendment issues, that Stanley's identity had to be revealed.

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: 'The Liberty Group', a right-wing organization, should have known it was identity theft and fraud if they specifically gave some other person's identifiable name and address. All they had to say, if they had wanted to avoid that problem was state, "there is no such real person as Ronald Fitch" and been vague on his address or not given an address at all. I have had people do that same thing to me; there was nothing I could do about it under those circumstances. PAT]