Score one for the anonymous bloggers

If you missed it this past week, the New York Times has an article that is of interest to many of us posting on the internets. At the Uneasy Intersection of Bloggers and the Law includes a name readers of Politico will recognize. In this case Ben Smith was making the news instead of writing the news.

A grand jury subpoena sent by prosecutors in the Bronx earlier this year sought information to help identify people blogging anonymously on a Web site about New York politics called Room 8. The subpoena carried a warning in capital letters that disclosing its very existence “could impede the investigation being conducted and thereby interfere with law enforcement” — implying that if the bloggers blabbed, they could be prosecuted.

We can be thankful Ben and his co-blogger had the good sense to fight the subpoena. Makes you wonder if others have found themselves in a similar position and complied without a second thought.