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US Blogger Faces Law Suit Over Comments Posted By Readers

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    #2
    Fergus Cassidy
    Registered Users Posts: 28 ✭Fergus Cassidy


    This is an issue waiting to happen _here_.

    It might already have happened. A solicitor's/legal office letter may be enough to frighten a website owner/operator into action. We might never hear about it.

    I am deeply concerned about the widening gap between online and print/broadcast media. There is a danger that the laws applying to the latter will be curtailed or diluted when applied to online media.

    Take defamation in particular. The Legal Advisory Group on Defamation Reform's report to the government, includes a section dealing with "innocent dissemination" or the defence of innocent publication.

    We won't know until a draft of the bill is published (it's constantly being promised by the justice minister), whether such a defence is included and whether it applies to the online environment.

    To me, this is one of the most urgent issues facing the internet and web in Ireland. If we lose out, online publications will become the digital equivalent of second class citizens.

    I fully support the forming of a digital rights group and want to be involved in building it. I'm not too gone on Electronic Frontier Ireland as a name, as it would have to be explained every time it's mentioned. Irish Digital Rights (Idri), to me, says it all. I'd also favour affiliation with Edri.

    Then again, if getting the name right is holding things up, I don't care what it's called, as the cost of doing nothing is too high to pay.

    Fergus


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    #3
    EWI
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11 ✭EWI


    Fergal Crehan wrote:
    Bound to happen sooner or later, this. Well worth keeping an eye on

    http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB112541909221726743-_vX2YpePQV7AOIl2Jeebz4FAfS4_20060831,00.html?mod=blogs

    It's only a matter of time. I can remember a certain prominent Irish blogger being incredibly foolish and naming names over the Northern Bank Robbery arrests down the country. If he'd gotten it wrong, he would've been deep in the doo-dah.


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    #4
    dahamsta
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,659 ✭✭✭✭dahamsta


    EWI wrote:
    It's only a matter of time. I can remember a certain prominent Irish blogger being incredibly foolish and naming names over the Northern Bank Robbery arrests down the country. If he'd gotten it wrong, he would've been deep in the doo-dah.
    And rightly so, if he'd libelled someone he should be held responsible for his actions just as if he'd done it in any other media. More to the point, the story the OP posted is about a blogger being sued for the action of his readers, an entirely different matter.

    The big issue here is the word "publish". Bloggers are in a legal minefield because they're publishers and they're not, they're reporters and they're not. It's going to take some time and some cases like the one above to actually figure out what the hell they are. Boring for the most part, imho.

    adam


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