Re: UKNM: Legal Responsibility of Content

[Danny O'Brien]

On Tue, Sep 22, 1998 at 06:54:16PM +0100, Ray Taylor wrote:

> >You could well be right. I'm no legal-eagle, perhaps someone could

> >enlighten us on what would happen if a guest on a TV/radio talk show

> >slandered or libeled a 3rd party. Would the broadcaster be liable, or the

> >guest, or both?

> 

> The guest, the host, the broadcaster, the producer, the cameraman, and any

> newspaper that reported the offending words _could_ all be sued.


And yet cameraman are so rarely sued. I wonder why that is? Possibly they

don't have as much money as their employers. I wonder, as well, whether a the

sheer ridiculousness of such a case doesn't hold back the more out-of-touch,

non-legally-minded litigants. Think of the thousands of pounds lost by

companies every year - just because they don't know their rights in this area.


> >I'm not sure a mailing list could constitute a publication as such, in fact

> >legal-wise I personally think it would be wrong to consider it a

> >publication.

> 

> Think what you like. New media has no special privileges in the eyes of the

> law. As I said previously, it may be that courts would view email as being

> different and more transient than print publications, but on the face of it

> email still gives you the opportunity to spread false, malicious, and

> defamatory material.


But, Criminy, Ray -  suppose that with an entirely new area like this, comes

an obligation above the letter of the law - to attempt to rethink and

reposition the libel laws to provide more sensible redress? It's not, for

instance, beyond the realms of credibility that you might be asked one day to

give an expert opinion as to whether a mailing list like this *should* be

viewed as a publication. Think what you like, Ray, but I'd hope that

personally you'd actually access an opinion, rather than just leave it to a

blundering court who - let's be honest - wouldn't know an e-mail if it jumped

up and infected their learned faces with the ebola variant of the good news

virus. That way, one day, suing Sam would be seen as insane as suing Ken

Morse, rostrum cameraman, and we could all live happily ever after.


But enough of this heavy stuff. What's your favourite banner ad?



d.


> Ray Taylor NMC/Adplan