News 

Law Firm Shearman & Sterling have subpoenaed a bulletin board for the identity of a member who posted a message, which was later sent as an email to the company and which it found offensive.

It is that email which apparently trespassed the company's email system, and was in breach of a 'contract'.

The sender of the email is thought to be a disgruntled employee and civil rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation say they are concerned that the firm is doing this 'not to assert a legal claim, but to discipline an employee.'

The group has written an open letter urging the company to drop

EFF staff attorney Kurt Opsahl, said: 'The Constitution does not permit subpoenas for identity just because someone was upset ... While it is unfortunate that a Shearman employee received an offensive email message, Shearman cannot manufacture a cause of action out of thin air just so it can unmask an anonymous speaker.'

Apple recently dented its cool counter-culture image when it subpeonaed Apple blogs ThinkSecret, AppleInsider and Powerpage for the identity of sources that had leaked sensitive information on upcoming products - and succeeded.

The bone of contention here was whether the information published by the blogs consituted journalism, and allowed the blogs to shield their sources. However, the Shearman case seems even more fundamental. 'There is no allegation that the message is false or defamatory, nor any claim asserted under harassment law - merely the assertion that the message was offensive,' says the EFF in its letter. If successful, each of us would be taking on a massive legal burden each time we press the send button.