Andrew Gray wrote:
On 08/12/05, Justin Cormack justin@specialbusservice.com wrote:
On 8 Dec 2005, at 11:28, Anthony DiPierro wrote:
But it's wrong to point out that most people on this list don't live in the UK, and therefore don't care about UK libel law?
Actually (ignoring the rest of this thread), UK libel law is probably the most important in the world, mainly because it is so bad and you can choose your jurisdiction. Cases have been heard where Americans sue Americans about libels in US publications just because a few copies reached the UK.
Basically, in the eyes of the UK court system, what needs to happen is that something is published in the UK, and that it can be defaming to someone with standing in the UK.
"Published" has been construed to mean "made available to be read by a third party" - the classic example is that sending a letter in an envelope isn't publishing, since there's one recipient, but sending a postcard is, since the postman can read it... the logical extension of this is that something published on a server in Thailand by a guy in Kenya can be grounds for someone in Cuba to sue, if someone in London reads it even once, but this (thankfully) has not been ruled on by a court as yet. At least, I don't *think* it has, but IIRC there's an Australian court that did something similar.
Didn't the Lennox Lewis & ors v. Don King make exactly this point? That even though the comments were made on American websites, they were downloadable in the UK, and so had been published here.