The ABA Daily News reports:
[Raymond Niro, a] Chicago lawyer who is being criticized, along with his law firm, in an anonymous Internet blog supposedly authored by a fellow attorney has offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who can provide him with the identity of “Troll Tracker.”
I have to admit, I’m a fan of this approach.
I believe that you have a First Amendment right to speak anonymously. I’ve seen any number of unethical abuses of the legal system – engineered to reveal the identity of an anonymous speaker. I’ve seen even more that were plain stupid.
Mr. Niro, on the other hand, didn’t send a bogus DMCA notice. He didn’t file a specious copyright claim in order to pull a garden variety defamation suit into federal court. He didn’t try and overcome Section 230. He probably calculated the amount of money and time such an effort would take and simply privatized the investigation.
The only downside I can see is if the person claiming the bounty had any kind of a confidentiality agreement with “Troll Tracker,” then “Mr. Tracker” may have a cause of action against his (or her) Judas.
In the “unintended consequences” department — it looks like the bounty has catapulted Patent Troll Tracker’s traffic to new heights. I had previously never heard of this blawg. He’s now the #1 for the day, #1 for the week, and #4 for the month in overall popularity on the ABA site.
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The Legal Satyricon 
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“I believe that you have a First Amendment right to speak anonymously.”
Professor,
The right to speak and publish anonymously is protected by the Constitution of the United States.
When the initial $5,000 bounty was first publicly announced, Raymond P. Niro represented that he was acting as an officer of the court, in connection with a contemplated patent infringement lawsuit.
See: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1196762670106
Further, from that same article, Mr. Niro was quoted by the reporter:
“‘I view these people [anonymous bloggers] as know-nothings,’ he says, ‘afraid to reveal their identity.'”
From this statement, it is reasonable to conclude that Mr. Niro intended “to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate one or more persons.”
See: DoJ Civil Rights Resource Manual 50 “Elements — 18 U.S.C. 241 — Criminal Civil Rights Conspiracy” at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title8/cvr00050.htm
According to a later report, “Since offering the reward, Niro said, ‘leads are coming in and suspects have been identified and are being checked.'”
See http://www.ims-expertservices.com/newsletters/jan/lawyer-aims-to-unmask-blogger-011508.asp
From this statement, it is reasonable to conclude that others are acting in concert with Mr. Niro, in his effort “to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate” the blogger who is exercising his First Amendment rights.
***
From a public policy perspective, the “bounty” or “reward” is very troubling.
In the online world, targeted attacks for information gathering purpose have become prevalent.
See: United States Department of Homeland Security Joint Information Bulletin (Unclassified) “Look Before You Click: Trojan Horses And Other Attempts To Compromise Networks” at http://www.us-cert.gov/reading_room/JIB-Trojan122105.pdf
The $5,000, and the $10,000 amounts are sufficient to motivate someone.
See: “Targeted Attacks and Their Impact” at complianceandprivacy.com/WhitePapers/iDefense_Targeted_Attacks_110405.pdf
From p.3 of the iDefense report:
“Haephrati, a 41-year-old programmer and Israeli citizen living in Germany and England with no former police record, was reportedly paid about 16,000 Shekels (about $3,600 USD) for each customized Trojan he authored. There are at least 15 known variants to date. The software was allegedly sold to three private-investigation agencies: Modi’in Ezrahi, Zvika Krochmal and Pilosof-Balali. According to Chief Inspector Nir Nativ, authorities believe that the program was customized for each victim that the private investigation agencies wanted to attack.”
The bounty that Mr. Niro has offered has been well-publicized world-wide. It just made news at the popular tech site Slashdot. Earlier, the news has been translated into at least three other languages, Swedish, Spanish, and Russian.
The natural consequences are forseeable. At this point, it has become somewhat reasonable to believe Mr. Niro intends that some attacker somewhere in the world will attempt to compromise the anonymous bloggers computer.
Further, such attempts threaten the computers and networks of the blogger’s hosting company, and the computers and networks of the public reading the targeted blog.
***
The legal profession has a responsibility to police this behaviour by officers of the court.
“I believe that you have a First Amendment right to speak anonymously.”
Professor,
The right to speak and publish anonymously is protected by the Constitution of the United States.
When the initial $5,000 bounty was first publicly announced, Raymond P. Niro represented that he was acting as an officer of the court, in connection with a contemplated patent infringement lawsuit.
See: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1196762670106
Further, from that same article, Mr. Niro was quoted by the reporter:
“‘I view these people [anonymous bloggers] as know-nothings,’ he says, ‘afraid to reveal their identity.'”
From this statement, it is reasonable to conclude that Mr. Niro intended “to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate one or more persons.”
According to a later report, “Since offering the reward, Niro said, ‘leads are coming in and suspects have been identified and are being checked.'”
See: http://www.ims-expertservices.com/newsletters/jan/lawyer-aims-to-unmask-blogger-011508.asp
From this statement, it is reasonable to conclude that others are acting in concert with Mr. Niro, in his effort “to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate” the blogger who is exercising his First Amendment rights.