Chinwag's Old Blog: Tricky Time for Publishers

It's tricky being a publisher, particularly if you're an online specialist. In between worrying about advertising and sponsorship revenues, it's time to fit in another headache. Defamation. Libel.

An Australian court ruling reported in the Media Guardian and elsewhere, could change the face of publishing on the Web.

In this ruling an Aussie mining magnate was able to sue a US-based publication in his local court. This means publishers now have to watch their P's and Q's in every country where their website can be accessed and articles downloaded. In this instance, I suppose it's some miserable consolation that the UK's libel laws are some of the toughest around.

Presumably this will mainly affect companies who have assets worth going after, but it still means online publishing is becoming an even more complicated business.

Still, at least the UK is 13 in the European broadband league. Oh hang on, that's not a good thing.

But constructing a super-cooled computer with the remnants of old machine, a fridge and some alcohol. Now that's inventive.