SBOT Computer & Technology Section

A case in Houston has sparked interesting legal questions surrounding the anonymity of those who post comments to online forums.

A lawyer for Lucas Coe, charged in the death of 4-year-old Emma Thompson, has asked several local media outlets to provide the names of readers and listeners who commented about his client online.

Bert Steinmann, The Woodlands-based attorney for Coe, said he was struck by the conclusions people drew about his client and the specificity of some comments that made it appear they came from people with personal knowledge of the case.

Coe, 27, and his girlfriend Abigail Young, 33, were charged after Young’s daughter Emma died June 27 of blunt-force trauma to the abdomen. In June, Young took her daughter to the emergency room after the child stopped breathing. Coe is in custody, and Young is out on bail. Both are charged with injury to a child.

Steinmann said he’s sent subpoenas to media including The Houston Chronicle, the Conroe Courier, KHOU (Channel 11) and KTRK (Channel 13).

Those who comment generally use pseudonyms, and the lawyer has asked for identifying information on about 300 of them.

In re Weekley Homes, L.P., Relator, delivered on August 28, 2009.

Case Number: 3:2008cv03251
Filed: July 3, 2008

Plaintiff Apple Inc. alleged that Defendant Psystar Corporation sold in commerce a computer named the OpenMac–subsequently changed to Open Computer–which runs a modified version of the Leopard operating system without authorization from Plaintiff and in violation of the terms of the Software License Agreement governing the use of Mac OS X software and Plaintiff’s intellectual property., Defendant also provided direct copies and/or modified versions of Plaintiff’s software updates.