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Those anonymous comments you've been posting online might not be as anonymous as you think.

Last week, a Sacramento judge opened a small window of opportunity for a plaintiff in a lawsuit to discover the identities of individuals who had posted derogatory comments about him on a Davis blog.

The case mirrors others across the nation as courts struggle to balance anonymous speech online with the interests of litigants seeking information.

Many Internet user agreements warn bloggers that they aren't guaranteed anonymity. And more and more, those who file lawsuits are using the legal system to unmask attackers.

Online anonymity is "a speed bump that's relatively easy to clear for people with legitimate causes of action," said Matt Zimmerman, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The San Francisco group is a leading advocate for anonymous speech on the Internet and is currently defending bloggers in Chicago against a subpoena by developers over comments against a controversial project.

A recent high-profile case in New York also highlighted the issue. Rosemary Port is suing Google after it revealed her as the anonymous blogger behind "Skanks in NYC," a site attacking model Liskula Cohen. A judge ordered Google to disclose Port's identity.

In the Sacramento case, a former police officer with the University of California, Davis, filed a lawsuit against the UC regents in February, claiming discrimination and breach of a settlement agreement in a prior lawsuit.

David Greenwald, who operates a blog called The People's Vanguard of Davis, wrote about the legal dispute, and his readers weighed in with comments.

Some of those comments, posted anonymously and under a pseudonym, caught the attention of the former UC police officer, Calvin Chang, and his attorney, Anthony Luti.

They believed UC insiders had posted the comments and wanted to find out who they were. In July, Luti served a subpoena on Google, the Vanguard's former host, demanding names, e-mail addresses and log-in information.

Google informed Greenwald, and his lawyer, Donald Mooney, filed a motion to quash the subpoena. He argued the information was protected by the First Amendment.

In a tentative ruling issued Tuesday in Sacramento Superior Court, Judge Shelleyanne Chang (no relation to the plaintiff) ruled mainly in Greenwald's favor.

But the judge said the plaintiff could pay an independent third party to perform an Internet address trace to determine if those who posted comments were the people he thought they were. Only then could their information be revealed, she ruled.

"The court agrees that if the comments posted on the blog were authored by 'managing agents' of the university, they would constitute evidence relevant to the existing claims against the university, including breach of the settlement agreement," the judge wrote.

Luti did not return a phone call seeking comment. Mooney said he and his client were unlikely to challenge the judge's ruling, even though it was not entirely favorable.

"The lesson is there are no absolutes in life," he said.

That's pretty much the state of the law, too, said Zimmerman, of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

In general, he said, courts have been protective of the right to anonymous speech. Political advocates have long used pen names or written anonymously, he said.

But there have always been exceptions to free-speech protections, and the area has grown more complex with the explosion of bloggers on the Internet.

Only a few high-level appellate courts have taken up the issue, he said, leaving rulings mostly in the hands of lower courts.

In California, a leading case was issued by a state appeals court in San Jose in early 2008. Called Krinsky v. Doe 6, it involved the head of a Florida company who sought the identities of people posting nasty remarks.

The court said the First Amendment generally protects anonymous speech, even though the Internet's informality leads many "to substitute gossip for accurate reporting" and engage in "harsh and unbridled invective."

But where plaintiffs can make a plausible case for defamation, the justices ruled, online anonymity may be breached. "When vigorous criticism descends into defamation," they wrote, "constitutional protection is no longer available."

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Folsom-based Synap-Sense Corp. has been ranked among the 100 most promising clean technology firms worldwide by the United Kingdom's Guardian newspaper and Cleantech Group LLC, a San Francisco-based consultancy.

SynapSense was one of 55 U.S.-based companies on the list and the only one with headquarters in the Sacramento region. The list spotlights companies with "the potential and likelihood to achieve high growth and high market impact," according to a news release.

With technology developed at the University of California, Davis, Synap-Sense makes systems that help computer data centers cut their electricity use. The company was founded in 2006. Its clients include Yahoo Inc. and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

– Jim Downing

Determined to stay in touch with family members and acquaintances, Marjorie Loyd joined Facebook two weeks ago and quickly linked to 19 friends. Loyd learned to use a computer three years ago, when she was 95. ""It's kind of humbling," she says. "Every time I learn something, I learn I have a lot more to learn."

Marjorie Loyd is 98. She uses a walker. She can't hear that well. And her macular degeneration makes it difficult to read the print on a computer screen.

Still, the Carmichael resident has linked to 19 friends on Facebook since joining the social networking site two weeks ago.

"I don't think there's anything in life that takes the place of people and friends," Loyd said. "I love people, and I love contact with people."

More than 250 million people use Facebook, said spokeswoman Elizabeth Linder. The fastest-growing demographic are those 35 and older, but the company doesn't break out how many users are 98.

Loyd was born in Tennessee on Oct. 18, 1910. Her family had a horse and buggy, a party-line telephone shared with a handful of neighbors, and an outhouse. Loyd can still remember that junior high school day when her family received indoor plumbing.

With surprising speed, Loyd now wheels a walker through her senior residential facility, where she is known by name to everyone who passes. Inside her spacious apartment, she settles onto a chair in front of a laptop, on which the 18-point font is enlarged 150 percent. Loyd e-mails, writes letters in Microsoft Word and reaches out with Facebook.

Her 66-year-old daughter in Richmond, Va., joined Facebook a few days after she did.

Loyd said she joined to keep tabs on her former pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Sacramento.

The Rev. David Thompson said he was blown away when he received a friend request from Loyd in his e-mail inbox.

"I suggested to her that it would be a good idea, but I didn't expect her to follow through with it," Thompson said.

Loyd learned to use a computer three years ago, at age 95. She had just stopped driving and wanted to stay linked with family and friends. Her husband, long-time Sacramento physician Herlan Loyd, had died in 2001.

She had a friend at church pick out a laptop with a good screen, and after several quick tutorials, taught herself how to use it.

When her eyes deteriorated so much it was difficult to read the letters, Loyd hired a computer specialist to enlarge fonts on the display and put icons on the desktop so they would be easily accessible.

She swapped out the keyboard letters with larger-lettered keys herself.

"It's kind of humbling because every time I learn something, I learn I have a lot more to learn," Loyd said.

Loyd has frequently defied expectations. Before many women ran businesses, she owned a used typewriter company in Chicago to support her siblings after their father died. This was just as electric versions were being launched.

Now, even in her tenth decade, Loyd travels every odd-numbered year. She has a trip planned next month to visit family in Tennessee and then plans to celebrate her 99th birthday at the Long Island home of one of her eight grandchildren. She booked her airline ticket online.

She also continues to confront hurdles as they come. When she can't read something on the computer, she hits the print button and places the printout in a closed-circuit television machine that magnifies letters via a video camera.

That's how Loyd reads the Wall Street Journal every day and her subscription to Forbes magazine.

"It's amazing," said Thompson. "She finds ways to do everything."

When macular degeneration made it tough to read her laptop, Marjorie Loyd hired a computer expert to enlarge the typefaces. She also can magnify type by placing printouts in a closed-circuit TV machine utilizing a video camera.