How to Identify the Review Poster in a Condominium Community

The Mansion Community is a forum operated by Mikuru Corporation as a “word-of-mouth bulletin board site to support those considering purchasing a condominium”. It is one of the largest forums of its kind in Japan, where purchasers and prospective buyers mainly exchange information about new condominiums, including living conditions, sales status, and local information.

In many cases on the Mansion Community, threads are created for each individual condominium. Furthermore, within these threads, there are “consideration threads” for prospective buyers and “resident threads” for contract holders. Additionally, the property overview of the respective condominium is also posted within each thread, making it extremely useful for those considering purchasing a condominium.

However, as it is an anonymous forum, there are often instances of baseless slander being posted. Such posts have the potential to significantly impact the sales of the condominiums and the performance of the sales agents.

Identifying Defamatory Articles and Their Authors

Not all articles are beneficial. There are instances where companies are defamed with posts accusing them of “engaging in fraudulent business practices through dating scams” or being “a black company and a fraudster”. Such defamatory articles are not uncommon.

One possible response to these malicious posts and defamation is to request the operator to remove them. If this doesn’t work, it’s possible to apply for a provisional disposition to remove the article from the court. However, even if the articles are removed by these means, if the malicious posts and defamation continue, it does not fundamentally solve the problem.

In such cases, it is necessary to identify the poster and pursue legal action to hold them accountable.

https://monolith.law/reputation/condominium-community-reputational-risk[ja]

Procedure 1 for Identifying the Poster: Request for IP Address Disclosure

Firstly, in order to identify the poster, it is necessary to request the disclosure of the sender’s information from the condominium community. This process begins by sending an “Information Disclosure Request Form” to Mikuru Corporation, the operator of the condominium community. The Information Disclosure Request Form must include the URL (address) of the site where malicious posts or defamation were written, the name and address of the requester, and the reasons for seeking disclosure.

IP Addresses and Timestamps

In a condominium community, posts can be made completely anonymously, so the administrators do not know the name or address of the poster. However, they do know the poster’s “IP address and timestamp”.

An “IP address” is, so to speak, address information on the Internet. Every machine connected to the Internet, such as home PCs and smartphones, has its own unique IP address. Due to the structure of the Internet, communication cannot be conducted without knowing the other party’s (poster’s) IP address.

When a site is accessed or a post is made, the poster’s IP address and the time of access, known as the “timestamp”, are recorded. Site administrators usually record this IP address and timestamp. Therefore, it is advisable to request the disclosure of the IP address and timestamp of the person who made the post.

Request for Disclosure of Poster’s IP Address and Timestamp through Provisional Disposition Procedure

When a request for disclosure of sender information is made, the site administrator decides whether or not to disclose based on whether the requester’s claim meets the legal requirements. Although there are cases where they voluntarily comply with the request for disclosure, in most cases, they will say that they cannot comply with the request for disclosure unless a public judgment is made by the court. Therefore, it becomes necessary to file a provisional disposition for the disclosure of sender information against the condominium community. Not limited to condominium communities, from the perspective of site administrators, the person who made the post is an important customer, and from the perspective of personal information protection, there are hardly any cases where they comply with voluntary information disclosure requests.

Therefore, it becomes necessary to use court procedures, which cannot be realized otherwise. This court procedure is not a lawsuit but a provisional disposition, which is a quick procedure. While lawsuits take time, provisional dispositions can be implemented in about 1-2 months.

If the court’s provisional disposition allows for information disclosure, the condominium community will promptly disclose the IP address and timestamp.

Conditions for Disclosure of Sender Information

When your rights are infringed upon online, you can request the disclosure of sender information from the provider based on a law called the Japanese Provider Liability Limitation Act. However, there are two conditions for this.

Article 4 of the Japanese Provider Liability Limitation Act states that you can request the disclosure of sender information when it is clear that your rights have been infringed upon and when there is a “justifiable reason”.

What does it mean for your rights to be clearly infringed upon?

Even if a post is malicious and persistent, if it is not illegal, you cannot claim that your rights have been infringed upon and you cannot request the disclosure of sender information. For example, you cannot request information disclosure for vague reasons or out of curiosity, such as wanting to know who made such a post.

In the case of malicious posts or defamation, it is highly likely that you can question libel or insult (violation of honor) if it exceeds the limit. These acts are illegal and constitute torts in civil law. Article 709 of the Japanese Civil Code states, “A person who infringes upon the rights or legally protected interests of another person by intent or negligence shall be liable to compensate for the damage caused thereby.”

Based on these grounds, and in the case of condominium communities, it is often the case that the victim is a company, so you may request the disclosure of sender information on the grounds of defamation or obstruction of business. However, it is difficult to determine whether a post infringes upon rights, so it is often necessary to seek the judgment of an experienced lawyer.

What does it mean to have a “justifiable reason”?

You need a justifiable reason to request the disclosure of sender information. If it is unclear why you are making the request, you will not be granted disclosure.

In the case of a poster in a condominium community, you are recognized as having a “justifiable reason” in cases such as:

• Requesting the sender to delete the post
• Exercising the right to claim damages in civil law
• Identifying the person in order to take legal measures such as criminal complaints

https://monolith.law/reputation/provider-liability-limitation-law[ja]

Procedure 2 for Identifying the Poster: Prohibition of Log Deletion

Once the poster’s IP address and timestamp are disclosed in Procedure 1, it is possible to identify the intermediary provider used by the poster.

Next, you would request the intermediary provider to disclose the log information, specifically the name and address of the person who was connected at a certain time with a certain IP address. However, a problem of time constraint arises here.

This is because the amount of log information held by the intermediary provider is enormous, with mobile carriers recording logs for tens of millions of people, and fixed-line providers for several million people. Therefore, providers delete logs after a certain period of time, with mobile carriers doing so after about three months and fixed-line providers after about a year. As a result, if there is a delay between the post and the filing of a lawsuit, there is a possibility that the logs may be deleted.

When requesting the disclosure of the sender’s name and other information from the intermediary provider, it is necessary to request significant personal information such as address and name, which in principle requires a regular civil lawsuit. However, as it often takes several months to complete the procedures of a regular civil lawsuit, it is necessary to take provisional measures to prohibit the deletion of logs, i.e., to prevent the evidence from disappearing, during this period.

However, in most cases, if you notify the intermediary provider that you are requesting the disclosure of the address and name through the court and ask them to save the logs for a while, they will do so. Therefore, in many cases, this part can be covered by notification alone.

Step 3 in Identifying the Poster: Filing a Lawsuit for Disclosure of Sender Information

Once the preservation of the access log is guaranteed, we initiate a lawsuit for the disclosure of sender information against the intermediary provider, seeking the disclosure of information about the sender such as ‘address, name, email address’.

As a rule, intermediary providers do not disclose sender information without the sender’s consent. If a provider mistakenly discloses sender information due to a misjudgment of the requirements, not only might they bear liability for damages to the sender, but they may also be held criminally liable depending on the circumstances. Therefore, intermediary providers have no choice but to be cautious.

Therefore, the main point of contention in this lawsuit is whether it is clear that the contents of the targeted post infringe on the rights of the plaintiff (the person requesting disclosure).

Procedure 4 for Identifying the Poster: Claim for Damages

If the claim is accepted, the court will order the intermediary provider to disclose the name, address, email address, etc. of the subscriber who was used when posting the article.

The intermediary provider will promptly disclose the sender’s information. Once the sender is identified, the following options arise:

• Make them pledge not to defame in the future
• Claim for damages
• Claim for expenses incurred
• File a criminal complaint

You can choose any of the above options, and of course, you can choose multiple options.

As for the expenses, the standard rates are approximately 200,000 yen for the retainer fee and 150,000 yen for the success fee for deletion, 200,000-300,000 yen for the retainer fee and 150,000-200,000 yen for the success fee for IP address disclosure, 300,000 yen for the retainer fee and 300,000 yen for the success fee for deletion & IP address disclosure, and 300,000 yen for the retainer fee and 200,000 yen for the success fee for name and address disclosure.

https://monolith.law/reputation/reputation-lawyers-fee[ja]

Summary

When you are subjected to defamation online, it is crucial to respond before the damage spreads. By engaging a lawyer with extensive experience in defamation management, you can ensure a swift response.