According to a recent article in US Today, the US courts are increasingly being asked to intervene in blog and message board disputes. The claim is that more than 50 lawsuits stemming from postings on blogs and website message boards have been filed in the last two years.
“Bloggers didn't think they could be subject
to libel,” says Eric Robinson, a Media Law Resource Center attorney.
“You take what is on your mind, type it and post it.”
Increasingly, though, litigation is a potential issue, even for those without substantial assets.
I strongly suspect that we will start to see more of this sort of thing in the UK, although it will not be on the same scale as the US, and whilst a knowledge of libel law, is helpful, the technology itself may offer some defence as Susan Crawford, a professor at Cardozo Law
School in New York points out.
She says
the ease with which false postings can be corrected instantly, among
other things, will force judges to reconsider how to measure the damage
that is done to a plaintiff's reputation. Which makes sense, because a blog posting that is defamatory and which cannot be justified can be put up on a blog, just as quickly as the original defamatory statement can be taken down.
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