Critics Say They Plan To Fight Court Order
Have employees at Eclipse Aviation -- or others closely tied to
the Albuquerque, NM-based planemaker, including customers --
disclosed proprietary information on a online forum critical of the
company? That's the question a subpoena issued by a California
court seeks to answer.
The subpoena was filed last week by the Superior Court of
California in Santa Clara County, ordering Google to provide
information about 29 anonymous posters to the "Eclipse Aviation
Critic NG" blog, hosted by the online mega-provider's Google
Blog service. Eclipse wants to know if some or all of those
posters are current or former employees, or others bound by
non-disclosure agreements with the company.
The subpoena includes the online identities of those who have
posted on the current blog, as well as the original "Eclipse
Aviation Critic" blog launched in April 2006, and discontinued in
January.
Several posters have claimed to be Eclipse employees, or to have
detailed information about the state of the very-light-jet
manufacturer.
Speaking to the Albuquerque Journal, Eclipse CEO Vern Raburn
denied his company is targeting critics in the subpoena. "We're not
trying to suppress dissension or criticism," he said. "We're just
trying to find out where it's coming from."
Unless a formal objection is filed by May 9, Google would be
required to provide the IP addresses of the anonymous posters named
in the subpoena. That information could, in turn, be used to track
down the posters' true identities -- including names and addresses
-- though a court order would be needed to obtain that information
from each Internet Service Provider.
Shane Price -- who started the "NG" blog (a play on Eclipse's
Avio NG avionics suite) after original operator Stan Blankenship
stopped updating his site, citing fears of "retribution" by Eclipse
or its investors -- told the Journal many posters, whether
they were named in the subpoena or not, have vowed to fight the
court's order.
Eclipse's action is the second
time this year an aircraft maker has taken measures against
comments posted on an online forum. As ANN reported,
Wichita-based planemaker Cessna revamped its own blog, established
to market its SkyCatcher LSA, after the site was deluged by
comments critical of the company's decision to build the plane in
China. The new SkyCatcher site, unveiled in February, does not
allow open postings -- comments must be approved by an online
moderator before they are posted online.
To its credit, Cessna said at the time it would continue to
allow critical comments on the new blog... though such comments are
hard to find on the current site. In a similar vein, Raburn denies
claims he is trying to quell criticism of Eclipse by seeking action
against the anonymous posters to the Critic blog.
"I don't care if people want to waste their lives speculating
about things, but I do care when people represent themselves as
having insider knowledge and what they're saying is overt lies,"
Raburn said. "I'm trying to figure out why they make these
accusations but don't say who they are."
Raburn did confirm the subpoena is connected to a civil case,
however, filed last month in Albuquerque's Metropolitan Court
against unknown defendants. The details of that case were sealed
the day it was filed... but that likely means Eclipse's action
against those the company says have said things they shouldn't, may
have only just begun.
Stay tuned.