By Joseph N. Hosteny of Niro, Scavone, Haller & NiroRegular IP Today columnist Joseph N. Hosteny is an intellectual property
litigation attorney with the Chicago law firm of Niro, Scavone, Haller & Niro. A Registered Professional
Engineer and former Assistant US Attorney, his articles have also appeared in Corporate
Counsel Magazine, The Docket (American Corporate Counsel Association), American
Medical News, Inventors’ Digest, Litigation Magazine and Assembly Engineering Magazine.
Mr. Hosteny can be reached at (312) 236-0733, or by e-mail at jhosteny@hosteny.com, or by visiting his website at http://www.hosteny.com.
Anonymity is a disguise -- often a repugnant one. For example, pictures of a
teenaged girl killed in an automobile accident were posted anonymously by someone on the Internet.
The photos were of her dead and mutilated body inside the car.
The Chicago Tribune announced on February 1 that it was shutting
down the comment boards on its web site for all political news stories. See “Crossroads of Web,
Credibility Full of Potholes,” by Timothy McNulty. The reason? Describing recent posted
comments, McNulty said:
Those are the latest on the list of volatile topics -- including race, immigration and rape -- that
bring out anonymous writers who are so nasty, obscene and racist...
