Business Law: Principles for Today's Commercial Environment 3rd Edition by Marianne Moody Jennings, David Twomey, Marianne Jennings

Exercise 5

APTC, a publicly traded corporation, filed a complaint, captioned "Anonymous Publicly Traded Company v John Does 1 through 5," asserting that the John Doe defendants, whose identities and residences were unknown, "made defamatory and disparaging material misrepresentations" about APTC in Internet chat rooms. APTC asserted its belief that the John Doe defendants were current and/or former employees who breached their fiduciary duties and contractual obligations by publishing "confidential material insider information" about APTC on the Internet. Although it did not specify what harm would be incurred by identifying itself, APTC contended that it had to proceed anonymously "because disclosure of its true company name will cause it irreparable harm." APTC wanted the court to issue subpoenas to the ISP to determine the identity of the John Does. How do you think the court will decide on the issue of the John Does' identity [America Online, Inc. v Anonymous Publicly Traded Co., 542 SE2d 377 (Va)]