[WikiEN-l] Libel law

Thu Dec 8 12:57:39 UTC 2005

On 12/8/05, Justin Cormack <justin at 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. For many years the UK was the only place any
> major libel cases were heard (in the days of [[Peter Carter-Ruck]]),
> as you could get serious damages and it was very much slanted in
> your favour. It has changed a bit now. The main thing was you didnt
> have to prove damages, unlike in the US; you would get a notional
> (often large but once famously a penny) amount of damages for loss
> of reputation.
>
> Justinc

I think I'll wait to worry about this until I have a big enough
presense in the UK that a ruling against me would matter.  The UK
can't garnish wages from my US employer, can they?

(Actually, at the point where I have significant assets in the UK I'll
be able to afford a lawyer to research these issues for me.  I
certainly won't ask around on an international mailing list which has
pretty much nothing to do with law.)

As far as Wikipedia goes, once again, it's my understanding that the
foundation doesn't have any significant assets in the UK.  This means
a UK ruling against it would be pretty much meaningless (other than
taking that country out of the running for Wikimania anyway), right?

Anthony