We wrote about this in our book "Be Careful Who You SLAPP" on pages 204-205:
"And so, in many ways defamation on Internet message boards is more accurately described as slander, the spoken word, rather than libel, the written word:
“... the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) renewed its stance that online critics and other speakers should be allowed to remain anonymous if they so choose.... “The Supreme Court has made it very clear that it believes anonymity (to be) a very fundamental First Amendment principle,” ACLU attorney Ann Beeson ... For the past few years, Beeson said, as the Internet has grown, the number “frivolous” defamation lawsuits aimed at exposing and, the ACLU believes, intimidating online speakers has grown tremendously. “We started following it as soon as it became a trend,” she said. To protect the anonymity of online speakers, the ACLU has asked the courts to impose a higher legal standard on plaintiffs seeking to sue online speakers for defamation, Beeson said. By requiring plaintiffs to prove that they have suffered “actual economic harm” from an alleged online attack, the courts could strike a good balance between the real needs of plaintiffs and the constitutional right of speakers to remain unnamed. To drive home that argument, the ACLU has argued that most online speech should be regulated under laws governing “slander” rather than those governing "libel.” ...”
According to the California Civil Code 46:
“Slander is a false and unprivileged publication, orally uttered, and also communications by radio or any mechanical or other means which:
1. Charges any person with crime, or with having been indicted, convicted, or punished for crime;
2. Imputes in him the present existence of an infectious, contagious, or loathsome disease;
3. Tends directly to injure him in respect to his office, profession, trade or business, either by imputing to him general disqualification in those respects which the office or other occupation peculiarly requires, or by imputing something with reference to his office, profession, trade, or business that has a natural tendency to lessen its profits;
4. Imputes to him impotence or a want of chastity; or
5. Which, by natural consequence, causes actual damage.”
It is important to understand how an Internet message board is different than a newspaper or magazine wherein defamation is treated as libel in California..." |
