Very light jet (VLJ) manufacturer Eclipse Aviation is fighting back against one its fiercest detractors, a blog aptly named “Eclipse Aviation Critic.” The blog has taken Eclipse to task for failing to live up to manufacturing projections, misjudging demand for VLJs, as well as calling out what it sees as a less than stellar service record for the plane.

The blog has persistently poked fun at Eclipse CEO Vern Raburn. While much of the blog’s content is in the way of unsubstantiated speculation or satirical made up news stories, it has at times drawn blood with pointed, and occasionally accurate, critiques of Eclipse. Eclipse, in turn, has filed a lawsuit in California which seeks to uncover the identity of individuals posting on the site. Google, which owns the blogging service that hosts the site, informed the blog’s operator Shane Price, that it will be forced to release the subpoenaed IP addresses to the court by May 9, unless they receive a motion from Price or the anonymous posters to quash.

The problem seems to be that some of the comments left by users on the blog are just a little too accurate to come from mere industry observers, much less general aviation enthusiasts. Eclipse believes that disgruntled employees or other persons with an intimate knowledge of the VLJ maker’s operations may be posting these comments. Raburn, who founded Eclipse after a lucrative career at Microsoft, is known as an enthusiastic visionary for VLJs, but he a has reportedly aggressive management style.

Is the Eclipse Aviation Critic blog a symptom of the resentment held against the maverick Raburn, a newcomer to a famously insular aviation community? Perhaps the more important question is whether this lawsuit shows Raburn’s frustration against some incessant gadflies or is it a corporation’s legitimate grievance against the leaking of proprietary information by employees who signed non-disclosure agreements?

Eclipse’s decision to sue may be due in part to the fact that the vociferous blog shows up as the third search result for the phrase “eclipse aviation” on Google—certainly not the kind of exposure the company is looking for.

Price, who lives in Ireland and is unaffiliated with Eclipse Aviation or any of its suppliers, told Halogen Guides in an email response that he intends to challenge the suit. “We (there is a team now working on the legal side) will fight the attempt by Eclipse to intimidate their staff, customers and suppliers by seeking confidential information from Google.” He added, “Ethics is a big thing with me, and I smell a rat in Eclipse. It’s that simple.”

In an interview with Aviation International News, Raburn insisted that the lawsuit was not in anyway meant to stifle criticism, and that he would “be happy to respond to critics who aren’t posting anonymously.”

The fact that the case was filed in California may favor the blog, where legal precedent in the past has gone in the way of protecting anonymous users from similar suits seeking their identities. At the same time, a blog, a labor of love (or perhaps in this case, hate), almost certainly does not have the same legal resources as an aircraft manufacturer.

While Eclipse Aviation’s Eclipse 500 and forthcoming 700 aircraft have been lauded as ground breaking achievements in the field of VLJs, the company has struggled at times to fill orders and keep costs and prices down. More troubling have been the questions concerning the manufacturer’s financial status. These seem to have been resolved in January, when a European investment firm, ETIRC, bought into the company for more than $100 million.