Schuster v. The Fresno Bee [1]

A defense attorney for Larissa Schuster, who was convicted of murder, subpoenaed [2] The Fresno Bee seeking the Internet protocol addresses and dates of access for all users of the paper's website [3] and blog [4] during the period surrounding the time of his client's trial to determine whether jurors violated a judge's order barring them from reading online news stories about the case before they reached a verdict.

The subpoena [2], which was sent to the "Custodian of Records" at The Fresno Bee, sought IP addresses and dates of access for all users of www.fresnobee.com, the paper's main website, www.fresnobeehive.com, the paper's blog, and "any other internet site associated with The Fresno Bee."

Betsy Lumbye, executive editor and senior vice president of The Fresno Bee, stated [5] that the newspaper would not voluntarily turn over the IP address data of its users.

The idea that we'd violate readers' privacy by digging up that kind of information and disclosing it is preposterous," she said. "We would fight it tooth and nail and I'm confident we'd prevail.

On February 4, 2008, a Fresno County judge quashed the subpoena, concluding that Schuster's lawyer had not provided compelling reasons to force The Bee to turn over the information and characterizing the subpoena as "a fishing expedition."