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Two landmark decisions over internet anonymity occurred in the past few months and it is important that users understand the legal protection, and pitfalls, that writers face.
Rosemary Port is to sue internet search providers Google after they failed to uphold her anonymity over blogging site “Skanks in NYC” which was created using Google’s Blogger.com program. Blogger.com is the world’s most accessed blogging site and Miss Port’s opinions were contained on one of its many pages, urging Google to hand over the electronic identity of its writer.
Google was ordered by a court order to reveal Miss Port’s email and IP addresses after she criticised US model Liskula Cohen. The former Vogue model was labelled a “psychotic, lying, whoring, skank” by Miss Port – which Ms Cohen took objection to. The information provided by Google enabled Ms Cohen to identify Miss Port and therefore to bring an action for defamation against her.
Legal experts believe the ruling stripped away some of the anonymity provided by the web, making offensive bloggers, tweeters and video makers a target for legal action in the process.
In June, the UK’s High Court ruled that bloggers who write under a cloud of anonymity have no legal right to hide their identities. Mr Justice Eady made the decision during the case of police author NightJack who regularly criticised the workings of his own force.
NightJack, also known as 45-year-old Richard Horton, won the Orwell Prize for political writing, but faced legal action after his stories could be traced back to genuine prosecutions. Mr Horton, who sometimes attracted over half a million readers a week, was unmasked by a political journalist who discovered his identity after a process of deduction.
“Blogging is essentially a public rather than private activity,” ruled Justice Eady, opening the door for libel cases across the internet’s highly surfed waves.
“Thousands of regular bloggers would be horrified to think that the law would do nothing to protect their anonymity if someone carried out the necessary detective work and sought to unmask them,” argued Mr Horton, and his fears look set to become reality on the back of Miss Port’s ruling.
The concept of anonymity is non-existent in internet terms. Users who believe their footsteps across the web are silent and untraceable are undeniably wrong. Every touch of keypad is noted via ISP (Internet Service Provider) addresses and, as Peter Cohen, writer for website Allthingsdigital.com said:
“Every time you use the internet, you’re leaving a trail of identifiable information.”
UK libel law was a complicated entity before the advent of the internet. The balance between the public’s right to fair opinion and individual protection from literary attack is still swinging from one side to the other.
In law, a person is defamed if a publication exposes them to hatred or ridicule, causes them to be shunned or lowered in estimation by ‘right thinking’ members of the public, or disparages them in regards to their work.
The problem surrounding libel and the internet is the concept of ‘right thinking’ individuals. This is open to subjectivity amongst jurors and is a breeding ground for interpretation.
But there are defences. If a publisher can prove a statement to be true and rooted in fact, then they are immune to legal action. So long as an opinion is genuinely held and not motivated by malice, publishers have another shield with which to deflect legal arrows.
In the case of Miss Port it can clearly be seen how someone may take offence to being called any of the terms divulged in her blog. Seeking the right legal advice before hitting the enter key would have altered her actions, limiting the considerable legal costs she is sure to endure.
Miss Port’s assumption that blogs are a “modern-day forum for conveying personal opinions, including invective and ranting” statements, did not hold up in a court of law and is a flashing warning sign for internet authors.
With Blogger.com becoming the eighth most visited internet site in the world, the power to spread opinions and criticism is burgeoning and seemingly unstoppable. Users are leaping onto the internet soapbox to voice their concerns and highlight the issues important to them.
For all budding writers hoping to participate in this ever expanding medium, make sure you know the law before approaching the keyboard as it could be the difference between high acclaim and financial strain.
For more information on this please contact Nicky Androsov.