Tech & Biz

Tweet This: You are being sued!

by Mary Richard | May 2, 2009 at 10:40 pm

313 views | 95 Recommendations | 10 comments

Can you defame someone in 140 characters or less?

Apparently so, according to designer Dawn Simorangkir, who has alleged that eccentic rocker Courtney Love has started a smear campaign against her on Twitter and MySpace.

In the case of the first lawsuit, notorious rocker Courtney Love is being sued by designer Dawn Simorangkir, also known as Boudoir Queen, who alleges Ms. Love made defamatory comments about her in a tweet.

This marks the first libel suit against a Twitter user, and joins a growing number of lawsuits against bloggers and social network users.

A year ago, blog lawsuits were a novelty, but they have been growing quickly. And so have the resulting awards - one as high as US$12.5-million. "The Internet was the Wild West, but now the sheriffs are coming in," Mr. Eric Robinson of Media Law group says.

The question here is, even in such an impersonal setting as the internet, are you watching your Ps and Qs? And if not, do you have personal liability insurance that covers your internet blogging?

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Samir Joshi

at 23:27 on May 2nd, 2009

Another example of technology catching up!

tikun

at 00:57 on May 3rd, 2009

This is worth watching.

Amy Judd

at 01:16 on May 3rd, 2009

I think things can be misinterpreted on the internet so easily - people will think you are talking about them when in fact you may be speaking about something totally harmless..

Uwe Paschen

at 06:14 on May 3rd, 2009

I agree with you Amy, the body languish is missing and there for things can get across the wrong way.

Mary Richard

at 08:00 on May 3rd, 2009

I'm with you on this one, Amy. Without face to face contact and mannerisms, many, many things can easily get misconstrued over the internet.

We're just starting to realize now, exactly how important body language really is, now that we have to learn to overcompensate for the lack of it, with words, over the internet.