On 26/09/2007, Armed Blowfish <diodontida.armata(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
True. I believe that in general, if you want to use
the 'truth'
defence in defamation court, you have to prove you took
reasonable measures to ensure that it was true... assuming
'truth' is even a defence, which it sometimes is not.
In any case, the door is wide open should anyone try it,
especially to a non-Wikipaedian.
How is using the username someone gave us when describing things they
done wrong defamation? We don't say "Joe Bloggs of Number 7, Vandal
Road, Vandalton, is indefinitely blocked for disruptive behaviour.",
we're not naming and shaming anyone, we're just using the name we're
given. If that name happens to be the name of an innocent bystander,
that doesn't make what we've said defamation. It makes it unfortunate,
and we should try and avoid/fix it where possible, but that's because
we're nice people, it's not because it's illegal not to.