Craigslist Rant Ends in Rare Criminal Charges

The Web site featured a photograph of a professor, altered to look like Kiss guitarist Gene Simmons, with a caption describing the person in the photograph as a former Kiss roadie who made a fortune by riding "the tech bubble of the nineties like a $20 whore."

A Web site in Tulsa, Okla., that features comments criticizing local politicians has been subpoenaed for the names of its anonymous posters in a criminal libel investigation, according to local news reports. A New Mexico man was convicted in 2005 of criminal libel after he carried a picket sign in front of the local police department that called an officer a "liar" and "dirty cop."

First Amendment advocates warn that the prosecutions may stifle free speech. Criminal libel laws have their origins in the Star Chamber, which prosecuted critics of the British crown.

"Criminal libel is just an anachronism," said Thomas Kelly, a First Amendment lawyer in Denver. "Using the criminal law to punish speech is just such an ugly display of the power of the state that I think most law enforcement officers would tell someone with a complaint like that to file a civil action."

The Associated Press contributed to this article