On Blogs and Lawsuits
"The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism."
Wole SOYINKA
Nigerian playwright, poet, novelist, and political activist (1934-)
So my blogging associate Lance has shut down the SaskBlogs aggregator, a service that benefited all of the Saskatchewan bloggers. I understand his reasons and I accept that he felt he had to do what he did but it really too bad.
This all stems from a lawsuit that has been launched against Small Dead Animals. Now my readers will know that I have gone of the way, on many, many occasions on this blog to try to discredit and attack Kate and her blog (and Lance has come in for his fair share of criticism as well)
But this is an attack on free speech. It is easy to defend free speech when it is something that you like, it takes some guts to defend the speech that you hate.
So let it be said, at least here, (even if that is meaningless), Kate, Lance and all others should have the right to say whatever they want on their blogs without threat of lawsuit or any other legal interference from the state or the public.
Kate, Lance, I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend your right to say it. For what it is worth (and I know it is not worth much) you have my support in this matter.
gpm
This all stems from a lawsuit that has been launched against Small Dead Animals. Now my readers will know that I have gone of the way, on many, many occasions on this blog to try to discredit and attack Kate and her blog (and Lance has come in for his fair share of criticism as well)
But this is an attack on free speech. It is easy to defend free speech when it is something that you like, it takes some guts to defend the speech that you hate.
So let it be said, at least here, (even if that is meaningless), Kate, Lance and all others should have the right to say whatever they want on their blogs without threat of lawsuit or any other legal interference from the state or the public.
Kate, Lance, I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend your right to say it. For what it is worth (and I know it is not worth much) you have my support in this matter.
gpm
3 comments:
Kate, Lance and all others should have the right to say whatever they want on their blogs
Nonsense. There is no right to libel people and there shouldn't be. Reputations are important to some people's livelihood and they have every right to defend it.
Good comment Robert McClelland. Giant Political Mouse seems to supporting the libel against the Canadian Human Rights Lawyer. I would suggest that giant political mouse wants to be included the law suit. Perhaps we can accommodate gpm's wishes if they wish to continue with their libels.
Sorry, Robert. I don't agree. I defended you even when I disagreed with what you had to say, and I will continue to do so.
I don't agree with what Kate said, but look at the chilling effect the lawsuit has had - Lance pulls his aggregator because he is worried he might get caught in the net as well.
Libel may apply if the person launching the lawsuit can prove that they have lost income as a result of Kate's post. This is different than, say, a Newspaper. I don't think that people take what Kate has to say very seriously and I find it hard to believe anyone's reputation has actually suffered as a result of her ramblings.
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