That could cause a terrible situation with legal consequences. Unlesss a crime is involved the administrator would be really sticking his neck out if he released 8mans IP address.
That would cause a terrible situation, however, more of a credibility issue for APC rather than a legal issue - read the terms of service on the site, and forum rules, and case law.
The anonymity of our users is a matter of OUR policy rather than a legal obligation. That said, we value the privacy and anonymity above all. We will not under any circumstance voluntarily "out" any user regardless of how we feel about the content of a post. Of course we reserve the right to close, delete, or otherwise moderate a post or thread for any reason.
I would caution users that we could be forced to cooperate with law enforcement and or court order. Slander and Liable come to mind as potential causes, please type carefully.
My request is that unions keep the negotiations at the table, keep in mind that this IS a public forum with about 35,000 unique IP visits daily. The world IS watching gentlemen.
And to that end, this thread has turned into rather unproductive witch hunt, let's move on.