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by Mike Caswell

Curis Resources Ltd. has won a court order directing Stockhouse Publishing Ltd. to provide information that could identify the forum poster known as "erinG," who the company claims is responsible for a series of posts that contributed to a 27-per-cent drop in its price. The order, handed down on Thursday, June 14, specifies that Stockhouse must provide the user's name, physical mailing address and other contact information, as well as the user's IP address. Stockhouse did not oppose the order, and nobody appeared on behalf of "erinG."

The order comes just two weeks after Curis filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of British Columbia against "erinG." According to the suit, a user with that name created messages on Stockhouse that wrongly claimed the company had been unable to obtain a water permit for its flagship Florence copper project in Arizona. The messages were "defamatory and injuriously false," according to the company.

In seeking the identifying order, Curis said that it had established a claim for defamation sufficient enough to outweigh any expectation of privacy that "erinG" may have. The user posted words that were false and were capable of lowering the company's reputation. As such, "the public interest favouring disclosure outweighs the legitimate interest of freedom of expression and the right to privacy."

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