FAQ: Questions and Answers

[back to notice text] Question: What is malice? Answer: According to Black's Law Dictionary, malice is "the intent, without justification or excuse, to commit a wrongful act." The dictionary further defines malice as "reckless disregard of the law or of a person's legal rights." The adjective "malicious" is defined to also include those acts which are "substanitally certain to cause injury." [back to notice text] Question: What is a Business Interference Campaign? Answer: The phrase is probably used to signify attempts to interfere with a business relationship (also known as commiting "tortious interference with prospective advantage"). The latter is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as "an intentional, damaging intrusion on another's potential business relationship, such as the opportunity of obtaining customers or employment." [back to notice text] Question: What are the elements of a defamation claim? Answer: The party making a defamation claim (plaintiff) must ordinarily prove four elements: a publication to one other than the person defamed; a false statement of fact; that is understood as a. being of and concerning the plaintiff; and b. tending to harm the reputation of plaintiff. If the plaintiff is a public figure, he or she must also prove actual malice. [back to notice text] Question: What defenses may be available to someone who is sued for defamation? Answer: There are ordinarily 6 possible defenses available to a defendant who is sued for libel (published defamatory communication.) 1. Truth. This is a complete defense, but may be difficult to prove. 2. Fair comment on a matter of public interest. This defense applies to "opinion" only, as compared to a statement of fact. The defendant usually needs to prove that the opinion is honestly held and the comments were not motivated by actual "malice." ( Malice means knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth of falsity of the defamatory statement.) 3. Privilege. The privilege may be absolute or qualified. Privilege generally exists where the speaker or writer has a duty to communicate to a specific person or persons on a given occasion. In some cases the privilege is qualified and may be lost if the publication is unnecessarily wide or made with malice. 4. Consent. This is rarely available, as plaintiffs will not ordinarily agree to the publication of statements that they find offensive. 5. Innocent dissemination. In some caes a party who has no knowledge of the content of a defamatory statement may use this defense. For example, a mailman who delivers a sealed envelope containing a defamatory statement, is not legally liable for any damages that come about from the statement. 6. Plaintiff's poor reputation. Defendant can mitigate (lessen) damages for a defamatory statement by proving that the plaintiff did not have a good reputation to begin with. Defendant ordinarily can prove plaintiff's poor reputation by calling witnesses with knowledge of the plaintiff's prior reputation relating to the defamatory content. [back to notice text] Question: What is the "publication" of a defamatory statement? Answer: Publication is the dissemination of the defamatory statement to any person other than the person about whom the statement is written or spoken. [back to notice text] Question: May someone other than the person who originally made the defamatory statement be legally liable in defamation? Answer: One who "publishes" a defamatory statement may be liable. However, 47 U.S.C. sec. 230 says that online service providers are not publishers of content posted by their users. Section 230 gives most ISPs and message board hosts the discretion to keep postings or delete them, whichever they prefer, in response to claims by others that a posting is defamatory or libelous. Most ISPs and message board hosts also post terms of service that give them the right to delete or not delete messages as they see fit and such terms have generally been held to be enforceable under law. [back to notice text] Question: Does it make any difference if I am commenting on a product or company rather than a person? Answer: Product disparagement law prohibits certain false claims about another's goods or services. While a defamatory statement harms the reputation and character of a person or corporation, a product disparaging statement harms the marketability of the goods being disparaged. Product disparagement is typically harder to prove. [back to notice text] Question: What is disparagement? Answer: As defined in Black's Law Dictionary (7th ed. 1999), disparagement is "A false and injurious statement that discredits or detracts from the reputation of another's property, product, or business. To recover in tort for disparagement, the plaintiff must prove that the statement caused a third party to take some action resulting in specific pecuniary loss to the plaintiff." [back to notice text] Question: What does the "reservation of rights" language mean? What are they "waiving" at me? Answer: Many C&Ds will say something like, "This letter shall not be deemed to be a waiver of any rights or remedies, which are expressly reserved." This is just legalese for saying, "Even if you do what we ask in this letter, we can still sue you later." The language is standard; do not be alarmed. Litigation is extremely unpleasant, and unless your opponent is irrational (always a distinct possibility, of course), it will not bring litigation after it has obtained what it wants. [back to notice text] Question: What does the "reservation of rights" language mean? What are they "waiving" at me? Answer: Many C&Ds will say something like, "This letter shall not be deemed to be a waiver of any rights or remedies, which are expressly reserved." This is just legalese for saying, "Even if you do what we ask in this letter, we can still sue you later." The language is standard; do not be alarmed. Litigation is extremely unpleasant, and unless your opponent is irrational (always a distinct possibility, of course), it will not bring litigation after it has obtained what it wants. [back to notice text] Question: What are "Exemplary Damages"? Answer: Exemplary damages are punitive damages, which are defined as "Damages awarded in addition to actual damages when the defendant acted with recklessness, malice, or deceit." Punitive damages are intended to punish and thereby deter blameworthy conduct. The Supreme Court has held that three guidelines help determine whether a punitive-damages award violates constitutional due process: (1) the reprehensibility of the conduct being punished; (2) the reasonableness of the relationship between the harm and the award; and (3) the difference between the award and the civil penalties authorized in comparable cases. BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore, 517 U.S. 559, 116 S.Ct. 1589 (1996)." [back to notice text] Question: Why is anonymous speech important? Answer: There are a wide variety of reasons why people choose to speak anonymously. Many use anonymity to make criticisms that are difficult to state openly - to their boss, for example, or the principal of their children's school. The Internet has become a place where persons who might otherwise be stigmatized or embarrassed can gather and share information and support - victims of violence, cancer patients, AIDS sufferers, child abuse and spousal abuse survivors, for example. They use newsgroups, Web sites, chat rooms, message boards, and other services to share sensitive and personal information anonymously without fear of embarassment or harm. Some police departments run phone services that allow anonymous reporting of crimes; it is only a matter of time before such services are available on the Internet. Anonymity also allows "whistleblowers" reporting on government or company abuses to bring important safety issues to light without fear of stigma or retaliation. And human rights workers and citizens of repressive regimes around the world who want to share information or just tell their stories frequently depend on staying anonymous – sometimes for their very lives. [back to notice text] Question: Is anonymous speech a right? Answer: Yes. Anonymous speech is presumptively protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Anonymous pamphleteering played an important role for the Founding Fathers, including James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, whose Federalist Papers were first published anonymously. And the Supreme Court has consistently backed up that tradition. The key U.S. Supreme Court case is McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission. http://www.eff.org/Legal/Cases/mcintyre_v_ohio.decision [back to notice text] Question: What are the typical claims behind a CyberSLAPP suit? Answer: The most common complaints by CyberSLAPP plaintiffs are defamation, trademark or copyright infringement, and breach of contract. Speech that involves a public figure - such as a corporation - is only defamatory if it is false and said with "actual malice." It also must be factual rather than an expression of opinion. In the US, because of our strong free speech protections, it is almost impossible to prove defamation against a public figure. Trademark and copyright complaints typically claim that defendants have violated intellectual property rights by using the name of a corporation or its products, or by quoting from some of their copyrighted materials such as an annual report. In reality, the First Amendment includes a clear right to criticize and discuss corporations and their products, and the law includes clear exceptions for the "fair use" of protected material for those purposes. Breach of contract suits often involve a claim that anonymous speakers might be employees who have violated a contract by releasing confidential information. Of course, the right to anonymous speech is meaningless if a corporation can unmask your identity at will because you might be an employee breaking a promise of confidentiality. [back to notice text] Question: What are some of the important cases in this area of law? Answer: Important CyberSLAPP cases include Dendrite v. Does, http://www.citizen.org/documents/dendriteappeal.pdf, Melvin v. Doe, http://legal.web.aol.com/decisions/dlpriv/melvinop.html, Doe v 2TheMart.com, http://www.eff.org/Cases/2TheMart_case/20010427_2themart_order.html, Global Telemedia International v. Doe, http://www.casp.net/busted.html. Additional information about these and other cases can be found by searching the Internet or looking on the Web sites listed below. [back to notice text] Question: What other resources are available? Answer: Web sites dealing with this issue include: www.aclu.org, www.citizen.org, www.eff.org, www.epic.org, www.johndoes.org, www.casp.net, www.cybersecuritieslaw.com, cyber.findlaw.com/expression/censorship.html [back to notice text] Question: What is good faith? Answer: Good faith is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as "a state of mind consisting in ... honesty in belief or purpose ... or absence of intent to defraud or to seek unconscionable advantage." Good faith can be a defense to legal claims where the plaintiff must establish that the defendant had a particular state of mind, such as an intent to do harm. Essentially, it is a defense that can be used by the defendant to establish that he or she was void of the requisite mental culpability necessary to hold him or her liable for an alleged harm. [back to notice text] Question: Why does the author care if the purpose of the recipient's acts was to engage in political debate or commentary? Answer: Because comments made for purposes of political debate or commentary are protected free speech under the First Amendment, if made in good faith.

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