On 26/09/2007, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@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.