Comments on: Is Libel A Rising Issue For Bloggers Worldwide?

By: Wonderful Wednesday | Catherine Lawson

Wonderful Wednesday | Catherine Lawson — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 05:57:02 +0000

[...] to be featured in her new blogger of the week section. Other stuff I loved reading this week: Bloggers Getting Sued: A warning from Monika [...]

By: betshopboy

betshopboy — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:46:35 +0000

Recently a US citizen who is a lawyer was arrested in Singapore for posting critical remarks of a Singapore High Court Judge on his blog.

Care to pick up this story?

By: Cath Lawson

Cath Lawson — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:44:00 +0000

Hi Monika – I hope this isn’t the beginning of a trend. If a company does something wrong, you should be able to blog about them. Trouble is, if they can afford expensive lawyers – it’s your word against theirs. I have many things to say that I don’t say for that very reason.

By: Monika

Monika — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:15:05 +0000

@ Terry: You are certainly not cynical, in fact you raised a very valid point. I think it would be quite hard to prove such things if it all came down to it.

Like you said, anybody can surf the net on false proxies, creating havoc in the process.

Plus the cross country issues are valid too. Maybe there exists a law for it, who knows. I reckon it would be quite a challenge for Internet lawyers to see through all the hoops.

By: Terry Didcott

Terry Didcott — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:48:31 +0000

Hi Monika,

Interesting stuff, but I figure taking anyone to court if they are resident in another country might prove difficult.

The USA might be a big deal, but that doesn’t make them the world’s policemen and what is illegal there may not be in another country.

Worse, their lawyers will have to prove the person who owns the blog actually wrote the libellous content and with hackers being able to inject code, text or even malware into anyone’s website (as happened to me recently) who’s to say with utter 100% cast iron proof that the owner of a blog actually wrote the stuff unless they were stupid enough to admit it?

I’d like to see them track down some clever student sitting in a hotel room somewhere in China hiding behind a brace of tor proxies laughing his or her ass off at the irony of it all…

Mmmm, I can be such a cynical bugger…

By: Monika

Monika — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:33:18 +0000

@ Brett: You know, I wonder whether they can or cannot do this legally since there wasn’t a disclaimer. Although I do see this as being intellectual property too. One of those grey zones for sure.

By: Brett Legree

Brett Legree — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:31:25 +0000

@Monika,

It does sound scary, doesn’t it. I’m not sure if they would sue, but you never know, and they can certainly make threatening moves.

Not a movie example, but a music example – last week (I think) Metallica had an informal listening party for their new album, and invited some people to listen. There was no non-disclosure agreement. Some of the invitees blogged about it.

Metallica’s representatives asked that they take down the blog posts…

By: Monika

Monika — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:04:50 +0000

@ Jenny: You are welcome. I appreciate you stopped by and shared your own views as well. I think we can’t take this too lightly and do have to be cautious and civilized.

By: Monika

Monika — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:03:20 +0000

@ Lin: You said it short and sweet I think.

“I believe that having freedom of speech to say what we want also carries a great deal of responsibility.”

I agree with you on that one Lin. Much like the blogger who posts his failed relationship online, posting just about anything about others might get bloggers in trouble alright.

The same applies for those who renamed that company that is responsible for Vlad’s lawsuit (ePerks). Many renamed them with a not so nice name finishing with jerks and that to be spells utter malice.

While many bloggers would take sides with Vlad, I still think we have to do it in a civilized way without getting down to name calling and the likes. This doesn’t serve anybody and in the end, just gets more bloggers into trouble with the law.

By: Monika

Monika — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:54:26 +0000

@ Brett: That movie review example is a scary thought, common sense would say that there is no way that a company would sue a bloggers for a negative spin on things, but then you never know either do you.

I reckon that this Vlad blogger guy also never thought he would be sued and now he is in deep trouble as it seems. The problem seems to be that the line in which we dread on seems to be mighty small.

What is right for one person could be entirely wrong by another and that is where the trouble starts brewing.

In the end cases like these serve to keep us alert if all, knowing that there are possible implications if we take a wrong (by the law) turn as a blogger.