A U.S. billionaire intends to sue for the identity of anonymous commenters, including people who have posted information about him on Wikipedia, the Guardian reported.
The billionaire, Louis Bacon, is the founder and CEO of a hedge fund company, Moore Capital Management. He alleges the anonymous commenters posted defamatory information about him on Wikipedia, the Denver Post, and WordPress.
A UK judge said Bacon can e-mail court orders to the three sites calling for the information. Bacon is suing in the UK, but all three companies are U.S.-based.
Parent companies for Wikipedia and WordPress (Wikimedia Foundation and Automattic respectively) both reportedly told the Guardian they need a U.S. subpoena to turn over information.
The Guardian added that last year, Bacon “made a similar case against the UK-based website host, justhost.com,” which “complied with that order.”