On 26/09/2007, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com> wrote:
A name is not a unique identifier.
I don't see how anyone could claim
something is defamation when it's
not even about them.
If I recall correctly, in the UK, the
burden of evidence is on them to prove
that they are referred to. In order
for that requirement to be met, you
don't actually have to mean that
person; rather, the public must
associate the statement with that
person. Some people's names are more
common than others. For people with
less common names - ones uncommon
enough that Wikipaedia would show up
as the first Google result - they
probably stand a good chance of
qualifying. For particularly common
names, they probably don't, unless
more details are given to pin it down
to them.