Online libel costs woman £10,000, So watch your p's & q's in future. Options

[Ordep]

Apparently this action could open a hole new can of worms.

UK Independence Party member Michael Keith Smith brought the libel case against Tracy Williams over remarks she made on a Yahoo! discussion board.

Click'ety-click

[The Ghost of Inept Pig]

Ah yes - but it's not as if they were innocent remarks, or just the odd comment about a personal dislike of someone, these were remarks to the effect of:

Ms Williams, of Oldham, Gtr Manchester, used a pseudonym to post claims that he was a sexual offender and racist bigot.

Ms Williams had also claimed that the chartered surveyor had sexually harassed a female co-worker, had been charged with soliciting boys and cottaging and that he was a sexual deviant and pervert.

[Cataclysm=J]

I do have a great dislike for UKIP, as do most people but that was a bit far to publish on the net.

[Sureshot]

Just shows her complete immaturity. I don't have much love for the UKIP but if you disagree with their views and policies surely its better to debate the facts and put forward why you feel they policies are wrong etc. She reduced it to a stream of lies and insults that wouldn't be out of place in a school playground, and for that she deserves everything she has coming to her. Also I think he displayed a little bit of niavety by posting all his personal details on the web.

On the wider scale I think people still have this "..buts it only on the internet" mentality. If you are libelous about someone on the web why should you not face the law? Does putting it on the web lessen the crime? Credit Card fraud is committed on the interweb, should that be treated any differently than other fraud?

Its a strange one to debate, but I think its going to get more litigious from now on. Maybe its a sign the internet has grown up and has become an integral part of our lives.

Would be interested to know how it would be policed and how you would go about bringing a case against someone who typed libelous material and lived in, say, Japan. Sure the legal costs would be huge!!!

[Cataclysm=J]

But then you charge the legal costs to the person who commited the crime. People seem to think that becuase its on teh net they can delete it when someone complains but what most computer-illiterate people don't realise is that once you published it it will be logged somewhere and records will be made.