News, Have a Complaint? Blog about It. More People Using the Internet to Vent Means More Defamation Suits. (how to, complaints)

[JD59]

The Web is fast becoming a favorite forum for consumers or parents to lodge complaints. Whether it's a gripe against child's school administrator, a faulty product or even a car manufacturer, the disgruntled have found a wide range of creative ways to air grievances online, raising new questions about the limits of free speech in the Internet age.

Late last month an Orlando, Fla., mother blogged about her 7-year-old daughter's private school, which she claimed discriminated against "mixed-raced" students and generally made her child unhappy.

ABC News: Being Sued For Gossiping Online

[~NeonFire~]

What happened to free speech anyway? If I want to blog about my daughter's private school, I should be permitted to do so in whatever manner I wish (with the exception of personal threats and stuff like that). I guess we live in censored world that'll probably soon dive straight out of net neutrality (Comcast, anyone?) and then comes the downfall of the internet.

Or maybe I'm just pessimistic.

[tallrick]

"the legal definition of defamation is knowingly making an untrue factual statement that could potentially harm someone's reputation"

Isn't "untrue factual" an oxymoron? I am thinking that the best way to fight these lawsuits is for people to learn how to defend themselves. If lawyers are getting beaten by regular citizens, there will be less of an incentive to file frivolous lawsuits.

[K'ledgeBldr]

Originally Posted by tallrick

"the legal definition of defamation is knowingly making an untrue factual statement that could potentially harm someone's reputation"

I'd sure like to see that dictionary!? That's not a legal definition.

Black's Law Dictionary:
Defamation- Holding up of a person to ridicule, scorn or contempt in a respectable and considerable part of the community; may be criminal as well as civil. Includes both libel and slander.
Defamation is that which tends to injure reputation; to deminish the esteem, respect, goodwill or confidence in which the plantiff is held, or to excite adverse, derogatory or unpleasant feelings or opinions against him. Statement which exposes person to contempt, hatred, ridicule or obloquy.

Sounds like theres plenty of room for free speech- state facts! Not twisted stories of he said/ she said.