Eclipse Aviation Looks To Out Blogging Critics

By Chad Trautvetter

April 22, 2008
Business Aviation

Eclipse Aviation is breaking new ground again, but this time it’s in the California courts. On Friday, the Eclipse Aviation Critic NG blog administrator received a subpoena, forwarded from the Google legal department (the blog is hosted on Google Blogs), seeking the names, e-mail addresses and other personal information of 29 people who post anonymously on the blog site.

According to Eclipse president and CEO Vern Raburn, the Albuquerque, N.M. aircraft manufacturer has been irreparably damaged by the “lies” posted by anonymous visitors on the blog, and he seeks to unmask them via the subpoena. But the blog hasn’t been far off the mark on several occasions, suggesting that some of the anonymous posters might be Eclipse employees who could be breaking a non-disclosure agreement signed when they were hired.

Meanwhile, the blog users are mounting a legal defense and plan to file a motion to quash the subpoena, which was filed in the Santa Clara Federal Court, to prevent disclosure of this information to Eclipse. Raburn told AIN he isn’t trying to shut down the blog and would be “happy to respond to critics who aren’t posting anonymously.”

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