In a decision praised by the entertainment industry’s BREIN Dutch enforcement unit as an opening for it to go after p2p file sharers, Holland’s highest court has ruled Lycos, “wrongly protected the identity of a user who anonymously posted slanderous allegations against an Internet postage stamp dealer on a member site,” says the Associated Press.
“It is the first ruling of its kind in the Netherlands on Internet privacy and could have far reaching consequences for other Internet providers,” it says.

“A. Pessers” sued Lycos in 2003 demanding information about a client so he could seek financial damages allegedly resulting from the allegations, says AP, going on:

“Supreme Court spokesman Steven Bakker said the court found Pessers’ claim of having suffered damages sufficient to order Lycos to release its client’s name and address, even though no criminal offense had been committed. It issued a sweeping rejection of Lycos’s argument that personal client details should only be released if they are suspected of a crime and the information is wanted by the police.”
Via p2pnet.net