Do Marketers Have The Right To Know Who's Attacking Them?

If you don’t know John Scherer by name, I'm sure you'd recognize him upon sight. He's “The Video Professor.” Scherer has successfully marketed his computer instruction lessons for close to twenty years, but he has a bone to pick with a reality that computer communications make possible.

Scherer has filed a lawsuit to obtain names of presumed consumers who have been smearing his company in the blogosphere. I say “presumed” because Sherer suspects that some negative posters may not be consumers at all -- they may be competitors attempting to gain an advantage by pulling him down. For the details, see http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_6966387.

It’s an interesting debate. Without avid consumer input and a free speech comfort level, there would be no Web 2.0. But Scherer has a valid point -- the right to face one’s accusers is also ingrained in our law and our culture. If you can easily hide your identity online, you face no meaningful repercussions for uncivil behavior or slander.

So who’s right? Do the targets of online negativity have the right to face their accusers? Or in Web 2.0, does anything go?