Giles the United States unfortunately prides itself in litigation. There's
good and bad about it. As far as financial harm or loss. In the United
States, this is called damages. i.e. your slanderous statement which was
untrue caused me a financial hardship and I had to go out of business.
There was a case here in the United States were a talk show host was sued
for damages for allegedly slandering the beef cattle industry. (mad cow
disease) Her name was Oprah Winfrey, you may have heard of her.
The Beef Cattle Industry claimed that the airing of the show was untruthful
with half lies and so forth and they never had a chance to rebut on tape
what the show was claiming they did. Also the Producers did nothing to
verify the facts, to see if they were true or not. The beef industry
claimed as a result they loss millions of dollars over the airing of the
show.
In my opinion, she should have lost the case. I felt the show was
irresponsible, however to the contrary , she prevailed and I think it had
something to do with her stardom and the argument of freedom of speech, that
the jury took into account. If she would have been tried in Montana,
perhaps a different outcome? Who knows..
But to your original statement on financial loss, that's what keeps people
from making slanderous statements, it's the fear of losing money in court.
You can actually sue for an aspirin here in the United States, the Judge may
throw it out though.
Sam...
-----Original Message-----
From: Giles <cnocbui@xxxxxxxxx>
To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tuesday, February 08, 2000 1:31 PM
Subject: Re: [OM] Interesting item on eBay web site item#252885791: OLYMP
I would advise caution about libelling someone via the Internet if they
live in a different country than you do.
Other countries can have far more draconian laws on libel than does the
US. Australia and Singapore as just two examples.
In Australia you can libel someone even if what you say about them is
true and provable, you would have to prove that what you said about
someone was both true and that it was in the publics interest to know
about it.
In Singapore you can libel a politician and be jailed for it
by just holding an opposing political view - if you are an opposition
party politician that is.
If you libel someone in another country just make sure you never travel
to that country ;-)
Usually libel has nothing to do with financial loss as far as I know.
It usually relates to harm to a persons reputation or standing.
Giles
Samuel Morales wrote:
> I disagree with your remarks. Slander is when you intentionally
> misrepresent a fact known to be false with the intent to cause harm to
one's
> reputation and that harm is irreparable , in as so much that the
individual
> suffers a financial loss.
>
> If your stating a fact... i.e. I read an email from an individual who had
> problems with this guy and judging by the sellers feedback you best
beware,
> before you purchase the OM-4.
>
> You have stated nothing in the above that was defamatory or slanderous.
It
> actually occurred and you could not be held liable. One good thing about
> the internet is this median is open to the public as if you were standing
> next to the person and bad word travels quickly.....
>
> Sam...
>
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