Beginning in 1996, a series of mostly small U.S. and Canadian publicly held companies began to file lawsuits against individuals, known only as “John Does”,  who published critical  remarks about the companies or their CEO’s. Most of these Does turned out to be stock brokers, medical doctors, attorneys, investment bankers, business people, or college students.

It is the opinion of many people that the majority of these lawsuits were filed for a single common purpose: to silence American citizens from exercising their constitutionally protected freedom to express their opinion.

In some cases, many of these companies have filed suit against hundreds of Does, most of whom do not know to this day that they were ever sued.  That is because the legal summons are frequently never served on the “defendants” once the prying plaintiff obtains the confidential identity information from the posters’ respective ISP’s. If you have ever posted on a Yahoo!*, Raging Bull, Motley Fool, or Silicone Investor board, YOU might be a John Doe, without even knowing it!

The John Does Anonymous Foundation is devoted to John Doe... the concept of anonymity... by actively promoting freedom, democracy, and issues of internet privacy which are guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.  Our mission is to bring awareness of these issues to the American public, educators, and legislators.

*(We have been informed that since mid-April, 2000, Yahoo! now attempts to notify its members via email, which is supplied at time of registration, of the service of any civil subpoenas requesting confidential user information, with 15-days notice before complying with any such subpoenas. It is our belief that at this time, Raging Bull has similar policy, allowing a 10-day notice.   AOL warns any of its customers in writing if it has been served with a valid, enforceable subpoena.)