AnswerThink Consulting Group v. Doe [1]

In February 2000, AnswerThink, a business and technology consulting firm, sued [2] 12 John Does for defamation in Florida federal court. The John Does had posted criticism of the company in a Yahoo! forum dedicated to AnswerThink [3].

John Doe 3 answered [4] AnswerThink's complaint anonymously in March 2000. Meanwhile, AnswerThink subpoenaed Yahoo! to uncover the identity of Doe 3. Without contacting Doe 3, Yahoo! complied, revealing that Doe 3 was in fact Gregory P. Hackett, an employee of AnswerThink. AnswerThink subsequently fired Hackett and launched a second case against him, this time for breach of contract. See AnswerThink Consulting Group v. Hackett [5] for more information.

Hackett and AnswerThink settled both cases in July 2000.

In a related matter, Hackett sued Yahoo! in California federal court in May 2000 for violating his privacy when it complied with AnswerThink's subpoena. Hackett and Yahoo! settled in August 2000.