Solicitors Journal: The killing effect
Saturday, 30 January 2010, 14:45
"When the risk of being sued dangerously discourages doctors from taking part in medical debate and prevents important research from being carried out, it is time to change libel laws, argues Mark Lewis"
Comment is free: Photography is our right, our freedom
Saturday, 12 December 2009, 13:34
Henry Porter: "The abuse of section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 is an established part of British life and is affecting the work of professional photographers and journalists, as well as the pleasure of amateurs. It is an outrageous infringement of an elementary liberty and it is something that we all should be concerned about, because this particular battle has symbolic significance."
Guardian: From snapshot to Special Branch: how my camera made me a terror suspect
Saturday, 12 December 2009, 13:31
Paul Lewis: "While the use of anti-terrorist stop and search powers has fallen in recent months, a succession of high-profile incidents involving the use of the legislation against photographers has embarrassed senior officers, who privately concede that the rank and file are misusing their powers on the ground."
Sunday Times: Jack Straw pledges action to end libel tourism
Sunday, 22 November 2009, 10:56
"The justice secretary says the large legal fees involved in defamation cases in English courts are jeopardising freedom of speech, potentially curbing vital debate by scientists, academics and journalists."
Out-Law.com: Consent will be required for cookies in Europe
Tuesday, 17 November 2009, 16:35
"The now-finalised text says that a cookie can be stored on a user's computer, or accessed from that computer, only if the user 'has given his or her consent, having been provided with clear and comprehensive information'."
New York Times: Two German Killers Demanding Anonymity Sue Wikipedia’s Parent
Friday, 13 November 2009, 08:37
"Wolfgang Werlé and Manfred Lauber became infamous for killing a German actor in 1990. Now they are suing to force Wikipedia to forget them. The legal fight pits German privacy law against the American First Amendment."
Sunday Times: Libel threat to force US papers out of Britain
Monday, 9 November 2009, 00:14
…And not just in print: "The National Enquirer, based in Miami, blocked British readers after it was successfully sued in London by Cameron Diaz, the Hollywood actress. Her lawyers showed that an article she deemed defamatory had been viewed 279 times by British internet users. … Some of the most prestigious US newspapers are now considering similar moves. A source at The Washington Post said blocking British readers online could be considered to avoid defamation suits in London."
Times Online: Libel tourists flock to ‘easy’ UK courts
Sunday, 1 November 2009, 12:16
"John Mardas, a Greek citizen and former associate of the Beatles, is fighting a case in the British courts against The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune over articles that he claims falsely represented him as a charlatan. Just 31 people read the relevant articles on the internet in England. The New York Times only sold 177 copies of its newspaper with the disputed article in England, while it was not published in the International Herald Tribune in this country, according to the defendants."
HTFP: Court ruling ‘clarifies law on user-generated content’
Thursday, 29 October 2009, 08:50
"As soon as Newsquest received the legal claim from Mr Karim, the readers' comments were removed from the websites concerned. Mr Justice Eady concluded that Newsquest websites were acting as hosts of the reader comments for the purposes of Regulation 19 of the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 and therefore would not be liable for any damages even if the material was unlawful."
Your Right to Know: Hidden High Court Injunctions
Saturday, 17 October 2009, 09:53
Heather Brooke: "It is bad enough that superinjunctions exist at all, but it is absolutely appalling that there are not even records kept of how often they are used. Pressure needs to be put on the High Court to record these occasions, and make the details public as a matter of urgency."
Wikipedia: Streisand effect
Tuesday, 13 October 2009, 14:44
Already amended with references to Trafigura and Carter-Ruck: "The Streisand effect is an Internet phenomenon where an attempt to censor or remove a piece of information backfires, causing the information to be widely publicized. … Mike Masnick originally coined the term Streisand effect in reference to a 2003 incident where Barbra Streisand sued photographer Kenneth Adelman and Pictopia.com for US$50 million in an attempt to have the aerial photo of her house removed from the publicly available collection of 12,000 California coastline photographs, citing privacy concerns."
BBC News: When is a secret not a secret?
Tuesday, 13 October 2009, 14:36
Nick Higham: "No injunction has been served on the BBC, but ever since the Spycatcher case in the 1980s, news organisations which knowingly breach an injunction served on others are in contempt of court – so the corporation too is bound by the Guardian injunction. But the lawyers in this case clearly reckoned without the blogosphere. In the anarchic, anything-goes world of the internet, where freedom of speech is a frequently heard rallying cry, injunctions banning publication of anything are unpopular. This one seems to have acted like a red rag to a bull."
One Man and His Blog: The Day Twitter Destroyed a Gagging Order
Tuesday, 13 October 2009, 14:33
Adam Tinworth: "a disparate, disaggregated group of individuals were able to work out the basics of what happened, and use Twitter to make the gagging order meaningless. That was mass, connected journalism at its finest."
ZDNet UK: Twitter, Trafigura, trends and treason
Tuesday, 13 October 2009, 14:31
Rupert Goodwins: "Over the past 24 hours, the news about the injunction and the injuncted material was more effectively distributed across the planet than any army of PR merchants and marketing gurus could have hoped to have achieved … It will be a while before the implications of the Trafigura affair are fully absorbed: if nothing else, it will make litigous parties think twice before issuing the sort of absolute injunctions which have been growing in popularity even as their powers to hide from scrutiny have increased. "
