A civil lawsuit with potentially major ramifications about what counts as protected online speech got under way in Jefferson County Monday afternoon.


At issue, the question of whether blogger Alexandria Goddard and members of the online community at the website Prinniefied.com defamed a Steubenville High School athlete and his parents with comments made about the rape allegations against two of the plaintiff's teammates.


The plaintiff was not charged or asked to testify in the rape case; however, he was named regularly in blog postings and related forums about the case.


Last month, the plaintiff and his parents sued Goddard and approximately two dozen "John and Jane Does" who commented on stories about the case using anonymous screen names.


The plaintiffs' attorney said he could identify the anonymous posters by correlating screen shots of the original Prinnified.com site and data preserved by their respective Internet service providers. Without knowing their actual names, subpoenas cannot be issued and the case cannot continue, according to the plaintiff's attorney.


The plaintiffs' attorney claimed the blog and the forum had been moved to an online "host" in Hong Kong.

Judge David Henderson held a hearing Monday about whether to allow the plaintiff's attorney to get that information from several Internet service providers.


After hearing from the plaintiff's and Goddard's attorneys, Henderson took that motion under advisement, agreeing to rule on it as soon as possible.


Henderson did sign an order compelling several Internet service providers to preserve any data that may become evidence in the civil case.

The plaintiffs' attorney was concerned that some providers' policies purge such data after six months.


Goddard, who was not present for Monday's hearing, still has not been served with a copy of the lawsuit, despite what the plaintiff's attorney claims was an exhaustive attempt to locate her at several previous addresses.


The plaintiff's attorney claimed Goddard was trying to evade being served.


Goddard's attorney said she was not avoiding process servers, but declined to tell the court where she is currently living claiming a potential violation of attorney-client privilege.


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