From now on, I will try to avoid just posting my lecture notes on anything I find interesting, as that would most likely be dull for everyone else and would be the very definition of quantity over quality. Also, it would happen frequently, because I am going over a lot of (in my mind) very interesting things.
However, here is an interesting little nugget of the law concerning saying things about other people:
1) Defamation, more specifically libel, is where you say or write something that is published in some manner that damages somebody’s reputation (the actual definition is a little longer and more extensive than that, but this is the gist).
2) If this happens, a person can sue you for damages that will be decided by a jury who probably doesn’t like you and won’t be on your side (or in most cases, actively hates you).
3) Every fresh publication of this can be considered a new instance and can also be actionable.
Here’s where things get a little more scary if you are updating a blog. In the case of internet publication, it is considered a new publication every time the piece is downloaded.
In short, if you get away with something potentially defamatory, you probably won’t get away with it for long. Not only that, but even if you pull your piece, Google will still have it. Google will have cached it. Google will have downloaded it. Google will know all about your defamation. That’s enough.
I have been through some of my previous posts and I’m fairly certain I’m ok. In a worst case scenario, I could use defences of “Fair Comment”, in particular with relation to being maybe a little bit rude about theatre pieces, or if I’m feeling particularly confident, “Justification”, where I would claim that what I said was true, which should never really be too hard to manage.
All the same, if you notice a drop in the number of posts, just be aware that the above is swilling around in the back of my mind.
Additional Notes:
I suppose the very worst thing you could do if you’re worried about defamation is to put a brief outline on how the law around it works up on your site. I suppose the only thing really worse than that is to put up the contact details of a good tort lawyer.
Another reason you might notice a drop in posts is that sleep is fast becoming a luxury event up there with eating and drinking when put next to the desperate scramble to keep all the shorthand I’ve learnt in my head.
