UK Libel Law Is a Global Threat To Web Free Speech

uctpjac writes "London media lawyer Emily MacManus argues that UK libel law has three features which make it the 'defamation tourism' capital of the world and a serious threat to Web free speech. First, there is no free speech presumption in the UK as there is, for example, in the US. Second, every access of a Web page is considered to be a separate act of publication in the UK (unlike the US, where 'original publication' holds). Third, 'no-win-no-fee' libel litigation is now allowed in the UK. If any blog, anywhere, publishes something you'd like taken down, threaten libel action in the UK: no one except the super-rich can afford to even take these cases to court, so media lawyers advise publishers to 'take it down, take it down quickly, take it down again.' There's not much chance that the judges will move the law any time soon because they just aren't seeing the cases that could cause them to set new precedent."

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Re:lol

[Anonymous Coward]

What a tool you are. Typical Eur-a-peeon. Who was tortured? Captured terrorists. As in the real thing caught fighting American (and British) troops on the battlefield. Torture? Debatable as it was. And the death penalty is reserved for heinous murderers. If a minor is executed, you better believe he did something pretty severe. Personally, I've never heard of a minor having found themselves in such a predicament. I'm sure it has happened just not that I'm aware of.

See, you useful idiot fucks fail lack the intelligence and insight to make very simple distinctions between our situation and yours. We take people who try to kill us very seriously and act accordingly. Murderers and enemy combatants fall into this category and they are dealt with quite harshly. How does this effect the common American on the street? Not a whole hell of a lot, actually. Aside from being slightly safer. My personal liberties are not abridged in the slightest by what goes on in Gitmo and the local state penitentiary. You fools on the other hand, have your rights and freedoms taken away on what seems like a daily basis. Cameras practically stuck up your asses, disintegrating expressive freedom, hate speech laws, internet blacklists, the list goes on and on. Yet, in your pompous arrogance, you have the audacity to try to look down on us. It's like fucking bizarro world. You people are sad. And, frankly, I don't care. As a matter of fact, you deserve everything Orwell told you was coming.