Yo, anonymous, obnoxious, defamatory online trolls: Screw with someone bad enough and they will find you out.

For more, see this Guardian story. An excerpt:

The ability of users of internet bulletin boards to remain anonymous was placed in serious doubt yesterday after Terry Smith, chief executive of City firm Collins Stewart Tullett, won a landmark libel settlement.

Mr Smith and his firm won "substantial" damages from Jeremy Benjamin, a fund manager who posted false allegations on the Motley Fool web site using the invented web name "analyser71".

The claims were described in a high court statement yesterday as "serious allegations of criminal and dishonest financial wrongdoing by Mr Smith and the claimant companies" and "a grave slur on Mr Smith's personal and professional integrity".

Mr Benjamin, in the same court statement, said he "now accepts his serious error in publishing these libels". His claims were made in September and October 2003.

Mr Benjamin was traced after Mr Smith's lawyers, the City firm Rosenblatt, won a court order forcing Motley Fool to reveal what details it held on "analyser71", including the identification number of his computer and his email address. Motley Fool had refused to volunteer the details without a court order.

The computer was traced to Mr Benjamin's employer at the time, Kyte Fund Management. He has since left the firm.