Defamation Law Archives - SEQ Legal

The website operator defence: will it really make a difference?

27 Jan 2014
Posted in Defamation Law

Website operators facing defamation action over users’ posts can now rely on the new ‘website operator’ defence. To use the defence, the operator must comply with a prescribed process after receiving a notice of complaint about allegedly defamatory material posted online. The defence follows increasing concerns about defamatory digital content posted by website users – […]

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Troll hunting: forum abuse and the law

26 Jul 2012
Posted in Criminal Law, Defamation Law, Internet Law

A troll is defined in the Urban Dictionary as “one who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument”.  The etymology seems to be disputed.  My preferred explanation is that the usage comes – via the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban – from fishing, where […]

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10 things you should know about … libel

22 Mar 2012
Posted in Defamation Law

This short article explains the key points of libel law – those which should be familiar to every webmaster. Webmasters need to know about libel law because material published on a website can give rise to libel claims. (1) What is defamatory? Defamation is all about reputation, and in particular about statements which damage others’ […]

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Section 1 of the Defamation Act 1996

29 Aug 2008
Posted in Defamation Law, Internet Law, Publishing Law

User-generated content can be a real headache for website operators.   One particular risk associated with such content is defamation; however there is a special defence to libel actions which may assist a website operator who is accused of publishing defamatory content submitted by users. See my most on “Dealing with defamatory posts on your website […]

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Dealing with defamatory posts on your website forum or blog

12 Jan 2008
Posted in Defamation Law

One of the many legal risks facing you as a web publisher comes from the law of libel: as publisher, you may be liable not only for your own writings, but also for the defamatory comments that users make on your website. Identifying defamatory posts How can you identify whether a particular post is defamatory […]

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