The Internet has allowed information, libelous and otherwise, to travel across the United States.

This can open up blog and message board posters to lawsuits from someone in a different state.

Iowa chapter 659, which deals with libel and slander, does not make an explicit reference to postings on online blogs or message boards, but they may still apply as defamation.

If someone anonymously posts something that is considered defamatory towards someone else, some one company can subpoena the Internet service provider to obtain that person’s information.

Frank Hansen, MCG general manager, explained how MCG keeps customer information private.

“We protect everything,” Hansen said. “We don’t give out information, except to the customer.”

In subpoenas, Hansen said he confers with legal council on how to proceed. Each incident is handled individually, Hansen said.

There have been several other states where people have been sued for comments online.

In Allegheny Energy v. John Doe, a Pennsylvania company hired a law firm that was able to subpoena an Internet service provider to obtain the poster’s identity.

In another case, Doe v. 2TheMart.com, a subpoena to reveal the defendant’s name was thrown out after the ISP contacted the user, who then challenged the subpoena.

If a poster is identifiable, it makes it easier for someone to proceed with defamation charges.

In Florida, oral arguments are beginning soon for an appeal to one such case. Sue Scheff, founder of Parents’ Universal Resource Experts, was awarded $11.3 million against Carey Bock, a woman from Louisiana.

Bock had posted at an online site that Scheff was a crook. Scheff later sued for defamation. In September of 2006, $11.3 million was awarded to Sue Scheff in a Florida court. Both women have blogs that tell their side of what led up to the judgment.

Thomas McGowan, Bock’s lawyer, said the two had met after Bock’s ex-husband sent two of Bock’s sons to a boarding school in Costa Rica. Bock contacted Scheff, who helped Bock retrieve her son.

Bock later became angry at Scheff because Bock believed that while Scheff is against some “boot camps” she promotes others. Then she began posting comments about Scheff online.