[WikiEN-l] Bans and online/offline reputation (was Re: Follow-up on my Ban from Wikipedia (part 3))

[Wily D]

On 9/11/07, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
> > The bar for libel of non-public figures is very low if I understand it
> > correctly.  And that bar varies greatly from jurisdiction to
> > jurisdiction.  In some jurisdictions, truth is not a defense.  And
> > then there are right to privacy laws, which are often intermixed with
> > libel laws, and to which truth is not a defense.  Further, I'm sure
> > there's lots of stuff on the arb com "evidence" pages which are
> > downright false.
>
> Where is truth not a defence? By my understanding, libel is defined as
> publishing damaging lies about someone. Privacy is another matter
> entirely, and truth isn't a defence there. However, for something to
> be a violation of privacy (at least under UK law) you have to have a
> reasonable expectation of privacy (eg. someone takes a picture of you
> sunbathing naked in your garden and sells it to a tabloid, that's a
> violation of privacy, if they take a similar picture of you on a nude
> beach, it isn't). There is no reasonable expectation of privacy on the
> internet. The only way privacy law can become relevant to Wikipedia is
> if the person publishing the information knows the person in question
> in real life (which includes stalkers) - we do have problems with
> those kinds of cases, but not very often.
>
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Indeed, I'd be very curious about this too.  Mistake of fact is not
always a defense to libel, but I'm unaware of any jurisdiction where
truth is not a defense of libel accusations.

Is anyone really alledging that I'm liable for libel for telling
Mister Shabadoo that I indef block'd him for creating [[Brian Pepper
on Wheels!]] anywhere?  I know I'm not in my country of origin ... but
am I in Malawi or someplace?

WilyD