Following up on some comments received we would like to point out what the blog is trying to get across. We are not anti-free speech in fact completely the opposite, we are not anti ‘crusader sites’ and we are not attempting to usurp the right to question our government, our celebrities, the companies with which we do business, or indeed our next door neighbor.
We are however attempting to highlight (in our own miniscule piece of cyberspace) the problems that we forsee with the growth of libel on the net. Look back 10 – 15 years ago and to libel someone in a way that would warrant a legal case was pretty difficult. If you wrote to a newspaper you would be unlikely to be published either as an individual ‘letter to the Editor’ or as a story unless you or the journalist could back up what you were writing. There basically was no media in which you could have a huge affect on someone’s reputation that would warrant the legal fees to prosecute your accuser.
If you were defamed, you would more than likely be a politician or a celebrity with the funds necessary to fight a legal campaign against your accuser. It was, affectively a ‘rich mans game’. If you were defamed and couldn’t afford to fight a case you could always rely on the fact the soon it would be ‘yesterdays news’. Today’s newspaper is tomorrows fish and chip wrapper was the way that many looked at these situations.
The Internet has changed all that. If you have a web connection you are up and running. Blogs, forums, Myspace, news groups etc etc are accessible to everyone. The possibilities for defamation are endless, and pretty much for all time in a Google cache somewhere. We all make mistakes, someone somewhere will be reading about these for a long, long time. If we are under the impression that employers do not look up your name on the web when you go for a job, or a potential partner doesn’t check you out on Google then you are in for a shock.
People have said to me this may make a better society, one in which we can all check out the misdeeds of others and be prepared, I agree this would be great, but I just don’t see it. Have you had an ex lover that has spread rumours about you when she/he was jilted? Now it will probably end up on the web, check out http://dontdatehimgirl.com.
“The flagship site of TJC Media Group, DontDateHimGirl.com is a powerful online community of women from around the world…..advice to help you make better decisions in finding a man you love…..exchange experiences in real-time and of course, the postings of hundreds of thousands of women who are creating a global sisterhood on the Internet!”
Guys, even been a bastard to a girl? You will probably end up here and you are now stuck in the process of trying to defend yourself against 'the sisterhood'!
Been in prison for something? It will be on the web the second you annoy someone, no second chances here. Had a business fail, despite your best efforts? Its on the web…what about those people who lost money when it failed? Have they forgotten?…Not on your life, it will end up on the net. Been bankrupt? It will end up on the net… If you want to put your side of the story, do you think the people who put the information up will let it lie at that, unlikely. From what we have seen you are more likely to end up with a thread on a forum being 30% - 40% larger than those that have not responded, why because people like watching car crashes. They want to goad you, that is their goal.
If you want to remove the info you are left with at least a $10,000 bill. Not something the average guy can afford to lose, because lose it you will, even if you win your case you are unlikely to see any damages. $11.3mn was recently awarded to a victim of defamation, the woman in question is “still paying off her legal bills” and realizee she “will never see $1mn never mind $11mn.
This is where it gets interesting, we have seen people banged into a corner and so now you get dedicated web sites that start to tell stories about the person that has been libeled in the first place. www.esaybackgroundchecked.com was a response to www.easybackgroundcheck.com. These two sites fight amongst each other to discredit the other site. Once you get into doing some research as we have you will find hundreds, if net thousands of similar situations. Why? Because your right to seek redress in the courts has been made so difficult to achieve because of the fear of the loss of free speech. Laws have been created that protect ‘publishers’ which, unless you have a savvy lawyer you will find difficult to get around, and you better have the bucks if you want to do it.
Heres’ what you can do: Subpoena the site for names of those who have defamed you…. $5,000 to your lawyer, if no one fights you.
Issue a court order for a take down notice to the ISP. $5,000 - $10,000
If you do find the person responsible and want to sue them. $10,000 - $50,000.
Its just plain crazy, basically if you are rich and someone writes something untrue about you, you are perfectly OK if you are willing to throw $50,000 down the toilet….reputation restored. If you can’t well, unlucky, rotten feeling, sorry about that.
The system should protect everyone, not just those that can afford it. If someone beats me up in the street, I go to the cops and the guy is arrested, its my basic right of protection. Try walking into the cops and telling them that some anonymous person has posted on a web site that you are a pornographer and you steal from old ladies at the weekend and once were involved in a homosexual act in a Thai brothel. They do not care. They do not care that this may be read by every employer you ever go to an interview with, every date you ever have and God forbid you ever become a prominent figure, it will be there shadowing you everywhere you go.
The affects of things like this can be devasting, these are just some headlines found on the net:
“Wrongly accused nursery nurses 'contemplated suicide' “
“Man charged with defamation after boss’s suicide”
“Defamation led to suicide”
Surely in this day and age we should be able to protect our good name from those that would do it harm without having to be wealthy enough to do it. Is the reputation of a Pop Star or Politician more valuable than your reputation in your community or profession? I for one don’t think so.
The laws should be streamlined for those whose wish to challenge defamation on the web, there should be extremely harsh penalties for those found guilty of defamation, and there should be even harsher penalties if they are repeated after the event.
Surely those who would seek to keep the web totally free from any such laws can see that a lawless web, is a useless web.
We are however attempting to highlight (in our own miniscule piece of cyberspace) the problems that we forsee with the growth of libel on the net. Look back 10 – 15 years ago and to libel someone in a way that would warrant a legal case was pretty difficult. If you wrote to a newspaper you would be unlikely to be published either as an individual ‘letter to the Editor’ or as a story unless you or the journalist could back up what you were writing. There basically was no media in which you could have a huge affect on someone’s reputation that would warrant the legal fees to prosecute your accuser.
If you were defamed, you would more than likely be a politician or a celebrity with the funds necessary to fight a legal campaign against your accuser. It was, affectively a ‘rich mans game’. If you were defamed and couldn’t afford to fight a case you could always rely on the fact the soon it would be ‘yesterdays news’. Today’s newspaper is tomorrows fish and chip wrapper was the way that many looked at these situations.
The Internet has changed all that. If you have a web connection you are up and running. Blogs, forums, Myspace, news groups etc etc are accessible to everyone. The possibilities for defamation are endless, and pretty much for all time in a Google cache somewhere. We all make mistakes, someone somewhere will be reading about these for a long, long time. If we are under the impression that employers do not look up your name on the web when you go for a job, or a potential partner doesn’t check you out on Google then you are in for a shock.
People have said to me this may make a better society, one in which we can all check out the misdeeds of others and be prepared, I agree this would be great, but I just don’t see it. Have you had an ex lover that has spread rumours about you when she/he was jilted? Now it will probably end up on the web, check out http://dontdatehimgirl.com.
“The flagship site of TJC Media Group, DontDateHimGirl.com is a powerful online community of women from around the world…..advice to help you make better decisions in finding a man you love…..exchange experiences in real-time and of course, the postings of hundreds of thousands of women who are creating a global sisterhood on the Internet!”
Guys, even been a bastard to a girl? You will probably end up here and you are now stuck in the process of trying to defend yourself against 'the sisterhood'!
Been in prison for something? It will be on the web the second you annoy someone, no second chances here. Had a business fail, despite your best efforts? Its on the web…what about those people who lost money when it failed? Have they forgotten?…Not on your life, it will end up on the net. Been bankrupt? It will end up on the net… If you want to put your side of the story, do you think the people who put the information up will let it lie at that, unlikely. From what we have seen you are more likely to end up with a thread on a forum being 30% - 40% larger than those that have not responded, why because people like watching car crashes. They want to goad you, that is their goal.
If you want to remove the info you are left with at least a $10,000 bill. Not something the average guy can afford to lose, because lose it you will, even if you win your case you are unlikely to see any damages. $11.3mn was recently awarded to a victim of defamation, the woman in question is “still paying off her legal bills” and realizee she “will never see $1mn never mind $11mn.
This is where it gets interesting, we have seen people banged into a corner and so now you get dedicated web sites that start to tell stories about the person that has been libeled in the first place. www.esaybackgroundchecked.com was a response to www.easybackgroundcheck.com. These two sites fight amongst each other to discredit the other site. Once you get into doing some research as we have you will find hundreds, if net thousands of similar situations. Why? Because your right to seek redress in the courts has been made so difficult to achieve because of the fear of the loss of free speech. Laws have been created that protect ‘publishers’ which, unless you have a savvy lawyer you will find difficult to get around, and you better have the bucks if you want to do it.
Heres’ what you can do: Subpoena the site for names of those who have defamed you…. $5,000 to your lawyer, if no one fights you.
Issue a court order for a take down notice to the ISP. $5,000 - $10,000
If you do find the person responsible and want to sue them. $10,000 - $50,000.
Its just plain crazy, basically if you are rich and someone writes something untrue about you, you are perfectly OK if you are willing to throw $50,000 down the toilet….reputation restored. If you can’t well, unlucky, rotten feeling, sorry about that.
The system should protect everyone, not just those that can afford it. If someone beats me up in the street, I go to the cops and the guy is arrested, its my basic right of protection. Try walking into the cops and telling them that some anonymous person has posted on a web site that you are a pornographer and you steal from old ladies at the weekend and once were involved in a homosexual act in a Thai brothel. They do not care. They do not care that this may be read by every employer you ever go to an interview with, every date you ever have and God forbid you ever become a prominent figure, it will be there shadowing you everywhere you go.
The affects of things like this can be devasting, these are just some headlines found on the net:
“Wrongly accused nursery nurses 'contemplated suicide' “
“Man charged with defamation after boss’s suicide”
“Defamation led to suicide”
Surely in this day and age we should be able to protect our good name from those that would do it harm without having to be wealthy enough to do it. Is the reputation of a Pop Star or Politician more valuable than your reputation in your community or profession? I for one don’t think so.
The laws should be streamlined for those whose wish to challenge defamation on the web, there should be extremely harsh penalties for those found guilty of defamation, and there should be even harsher penalties if they are repeated after the event.
Surely those who would seek to keep the web totally free from any such laws can see that a lawless web, is a useless web.
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