When Twitter fought a court order for information from the accounts of several WikiLeaks supporters, it was lauded by Wired.com as having "beta-tested a spine."

The latest entry into the list of companies with a "spine" is tiny Sonic.net Inc., a Santa Rosa, Calif.-based Internet provider with about 36,000 customers. Sonic not only fought a secret court order for information from WikiLeaks supporter Jacob Appelbaum, but also spoke out about it.

So,...