Worrals, a contentious issue and the cause of much angst in our Admin Forum.
The site publishers now advise the Mods when a subpoena is received but the requested details are still provided by return.
A subpoena was received by the publishers late last year resulting in around 40 user details being provided, including the details of a Mod. The Mods were not advised until after the event which led to some rather terse confrontations.
In the instances of SLAPP Subpoenas that have occurred, the aim has been to harrass and intimidate PPRuNe users rather than initiate defamation action. The airline initiated the subpoena was probably looking for it's "disloyal" staff and anyone else it could intimidate.
haughtney1. What you suggest may be possible, but rather improbable. You could access PPRuNe via a free Proxy Server in another country - e.g.
Hide my Ass or one of hundreds of others in different countries - but I don't know how secure they are considering they also probably record your home IP address.
Then there is your profile email address and a determined litigant could also seek IP details and email contents from your email service provider. With an IP address, a subpoena to, for example, social networking sites for IP matching and *bingo* - your identity, personal details, possibly employer, known friends etc, all laid bare. Social networking sites are potentially very dangerous, as many have already discovered.
The internet is not some great big annonymous party. A few dollars and a little determination and it is relatively simple to trace individuals.