would you try to be a bit more respectful to other users? Views please.
” A political argument that erupted in a remote corner of cyberspace and descended into vicious name-calling could lead to a spate of libel actions by contributors to internet message boards, the man at the centre of the case claimed yesterday.
The dark side of the blogosphere was revealed by a libel action brought by Michael Keith-Smith, a former Conservative party member who stood for Ukip in Portsmouth North at the last election. He said he was moved to sue after a woman with whom he was debating the merits of military action in Iraq began a campaign of name-calling that started by describing him as “lard brain” and culminated in falsely labelling him a “Nazi”, a “racist bigot” and a “nonce”.
Tracy Williams, a college lecturer from Oldham, was ordered by a high court judge to pay £10,000 in damages, as well as Mr Keith-Smith’s £7,200 costs, and told never to repeat the allegations.
The case is one of the first of its kind between two private individuals to go to court and, said lawyers, highlighted issues that would become more prominent as internet usage continued to grow and blogging, social networking and community sites became yet more popular.”
Edit: Link http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/mar/23/digitalmedia.law
We know that Filya- your heart has always been in the right place!
Vlad- your answers are always welcome, as they are always polite. Thanks.
Hypocrite- you speak sense as always, but given that a “Precedent” has been set, there could be a basis for a prosecution surely?
A gang of users on here should take heed of this.
Oh joy – at last – someone has been held to account for their cyber-actions!
Thanks for sharing.
I’m sure a few on here would have been sued for thousands and thousands if they had insulted the wrong user on here, sometimes i wish a few had sued lol.
There are two users on here who should pay very close attention to this.
Woop woop!!
Take note haterssssssssss!!
I think this case is somewhat different to a typical scenario that we all familiar with, where a member of a discussion forum wages personal vendetta against another member.
To me it seems like this former politician could not take the heat, and could not even actually do what 99% of politicians currently resort to – to make up a half descent lie or to dodge the actual question by talking around the issue. Instead just he resorted to libel action in order to make the issue go away. No offence but that incident alone would make me unlikely to vote for someone like that, if he stood to represent another party. No offence but he sounds like a typical toffy nosed twa*.
Sustained campaign of abuse through difference of opinion is one thing, an incompetent politician wannabe who is unable to take the heat from his potential electiorate is another story.
I am sorry if you do not agree with my opinion.
Wow that’s great! I look forward to winding someone up so badly that they give me grounds to sue …. see I told you there was method in my madness!
But what if he was? Oh no! I can think of a few instances where such action has been threatened on here too. I don’t think anything has come of it.
edit. There could be, but as I understand this, the laws that applied were those of libel. The only precedent being set is one of on-line libel in a chat room. It’s still something that people should be aware of when posting comments. It can get quite heated in here.