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Judi Lynn

(160,219 posts)
Thu Jan 9, 2014, 08:21 PM Jan 2014

Defamatory Online Posts Revisited by Texas Court

Source: Associated Press

Defamatory Online Posts Revisited by Texas Court
AUSTIN, Texas January 10, 2014 (AP)
By PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press

They say nothing on the Internet ever really goes away, but the Texas Supreme Court is considering whether defamatory postings might be worth the effort to try.

Justices on the state's highest civil court on Thursday weighed broader questions about cyberbullying, hate speech and the First Amendment while hearing a case with far lower stakes. At issue is whether a company can be forced to remove from its website damaging personal comments about a fired Austin businessman.

Lower courts already have ruled that Robert Kinney's former company, Los Angeles-based BCG Attorney Search, can't be forced to remove the comments, even if a judge or jury eventually finds it defamed Kinney on the company's website by accusing him of running a kickback scheme. That's because defamatory speech still has protections under the law.

But Kinney's attorneys told the nine-member court that it's time for Texas law to catch up with technology.

"It was a little harder to defame someone before the Internet. Now, on my cellphone, I can walk out of here and in five minutes I can say something defamatory about somebody and hit a button, and it's there worldwide," said Martin Siegel, Kinney's attorney. "And it's potentially there for perpetuity."


Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/high-texas-court-weights-damaging-online-comments-21482182

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Defamatory Online Posts Revisited by Texas Court (Original Post) Judi Lynn Jan 2014 OP
Interesting davidpdx Jan 2014 #1

davidpdx

(22,000 posts)
1. Interesting
Fri Jan 10, 2014, 01:26 AM
Jan 2014

The laws for libel and slander are much stricter here in Korea. You dare not say something against someone, especially professionally for fear of a lawsuit.

There was a whole drama (seriously it was) within the foreign community about one person who moved here and had some noterity. His past was later discovered and posted on the internet and from there it went down hill. It turns out it was true so the guy didn't have a case. He left Korea and can't come back now.

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