

Blogger beware: Postings can lead to lawsuits - Halienja
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-blogger-suits-20100823,0,5604043.story

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jacquesm
Lots of things can lead to lawsuits. Especially in a climate where reason and
live-and-let-live have been replaced by litigation. It wasn't always like
that, but then again we didn't always have this many lawyers.

I have received on average at least one threat of a lawsuit per _month_ since
roughly 1998, which is when we started getting a little larger online. As a
rule these threats come from the United States, and equally predictable once I
outline the legal situation to them they change their tone and become polite
and reasonable individuals.

I think that for bloggers the same holds, simply add an international
component to your situation and the cost of 'because I can' legislation goes
up so much that you might end up resolving things amicably instead of through
the courts.

I also have a rule that anybody that does not want to be reasonable _has_ to
sue me, that is, they actually have to follow through on their threat. To date
that hasn't happened.

So most of this is all bark and very little bite, but I'm sure that it is
possible to be sued for blogging or operating any other web property, it just
hasn't happened to me yet. If you go out of your way to slander or libel
someone then of course you're just as culpable as you would be 'in real life',
after all the web is an extension of real life.

Just like lots of other activities can get you sued. Just be a bit more
careful when you criticize someone in print than you would be if you spoke out
loud, that should take care of most of it. 'It is my opinion' goes a long way
towards solving most of this.

~~~
Ardit20
"I also have a rule that anybody that does not want to be reasonable has to
sue me"

That might work with the average Joe or the guy in his basement, but a public
figure might, knowing that he vastly out powers you in terms of law expertise,
follow through. So too a company. That is, if they actually have any basis for
it. You can not be sued for opinions, but you need to make it clear that they
are opinions, and you can not be sued for saying the truth. If you blatantly
defame someone however, again the average Joe might not want to go through the
hassle as he would have to pay lawyers, but some other person would have no
reason to hesitate. So if you defame someone, just offer them to amend it, if
however they are making threats without any base at all, then yeah sure stick
with your rule.

~~~
jacquesm
> That is, if they actually have any basis for it.

That's the key though.

And in the very large majority of the cases it seems that threatening to sue
are a modern day equivalent of baring your teeth. And just like in the animal
kingdom, most of the time, showing that you have teeth too, and presumably
bigger ones will cause the other party to back down.

Of course you have to weigh your position carefully, but even corporations
have backed down when faced with the prospect of someone that would not be
scared by this. And in those cases where _I_ threatened to sue and the other
party did not back down I followed through each and every time, haven't lost a
single case to date.

It all depends on what is at stake and how much of it is simply kneejerk
responses. A very large portion of all this is just bluster and threat
display, most of the times there are reasonable people underneath the angry
facade, and if they realize that their facade has been punctured quite often
the reasonable person emerges.

Those times where I sued the business interests warranted the investment in
legal fees and the damages recovered in turn covered those fees. If that would
not have been the case I would have let it slide, otherwise you're just
throwing good money after bad.

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snitko
I think it's not the worst idea in the world to hold people accountable for
what they say. On the other hand, the legal system in most of these cases
seems to serve not for the better purpose. It basically ruins people's lives
and makes them spend their money to defend themselves in courts over
accusations that may not pass the common sense check. Not good for economy.

~~~
bhdz
It would be an interesting experiment if a blogger adds a small disclaimer:
"This is a work of fiction &| gossip" to his "libelous, slanderous"
"claims"... Or put every adjective in "quotes" with "some say" at the
beginning. This would confuse the lawsuits even further.

~~~
snitko
Adding "may or may not" to every sentence would also be a good idea.

~~~
noonespecial
Most public figures already do something like this when speaking or writing.
"Allegedly", is pretty much becoming a salt term for every verb and is well on
its way to joining the "most used words in english" right after "the" and "a".

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tzs
I've always been a bit amazed at how many people think that writing something
on the internet is safe, even if they know that writing the same thing in a
magazine, or printing it up on flyers and handing them out on the street,
would get them in trouble for libel.

