Delaware Supreme Court Protects Anonymous Blogging… Sort Of
from the almost,-but-not-quite dept
It’s likely that many in the blogging world are going to overreact positively to the news that the Delaware Supreme Court has ruled in favor of an anonymous blogger, protecting his identity against defamation charges from a local politician. However, there are some specifics to the ruling that might not make this as big a “win” as some will undoubtedly claim. First, it’s obviously a state Supreme Court, so the it doesn’t cover beyond the state of Delaware. While the blogger’s lawyer hit on the relevant point that the standard for defamation may be somewhat different on blogs, as more readers don’t consider them “credible” sources, that doesn’t appear to be the point that the court ruled on. Instead (at least according to this article), they focused on the fact that the blog allowed comments, meaning that the upset politicians could “respond to the same audience.” This is a bit strange and makes you wonder what the justices would have said if there weren’t comments on the blog — as many blogs don’t allow comments (or heavily moderate them). So, now, does this mean (in Delaware) leaving open comments on your blog protects you from defamation charges? That seems unlikely.
Comments on “Delaware Supreme Court Protects Anonymous Blogging… Sort Of”
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Kind of fucked up when you consider that people were getting sued over comments made by their users and now here is an example of where allowing comments saved the guys ass.
Damned if you do and damned if you don’t…