defamation on wordpress blogs
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how is wordpress.com going to react now that an Australian court has found Yahoo guilty of defamation ?
In this case ;
http://defamationwatch.com.au/music-promoter-wins-225000-trkulja-v-yahoo-inc-llc-yahoo-7-pty-ltd-2012-vsc-88/
a man was awarded over $200,000 in damages because Yahoo inlcuding links to a libel about him in it’s seacrh engine. He is also suin for similar.
An Australian court dound defamatory websites that can be read in Australia are actionable despite what US based corporations say ( Dow Jones & Co. Inc. v Gutnick 2002).The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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I suspect they will react by having their attorneys study and follow the matter closely. I would be more interested in how Google reacts.
FYI, Yahoo has significant presence in Australia. I don’t know that WordPress.COM does. Jurisdiction can be an issue.
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WordPress.COM does have a system that people can request illegal information to be removed from a blog – I would expect that would insulate WordPress.COM from lawsuits – I have seen some blogs removed for content – they do also lean over backwards for freedom of speech.
http://en.wordpress.com/freedom-of-speech/
http://en.wordpress.com/abuse/
http://en.wordpress.com/complaints/ -
I don;t think either reply (and than you) addresses my original question.
The Australian court found that-if you come to that country and wish to operate and profit there, then you are subject to local laws as both Yahoo and Google have been found to have (and failed in their attempts to use the ‘freedom of speech’ defense and the US laws) and which both have had to pay hundreds of thousands$$ in damages.
Significantly, neither have appealed the findings which could open the floodgates to all blogs read and downloadable in that jurisdiction.
WordPress are in exactly the same position legally.
On the grapevine I hear Google are removing bloggers that defame but the same blogs are popping up on WordPress.com.I would question that WordPress has a system in place. So did Google & Yahoo. They failed to act.
Interesting though how the great “freedom of speech” defense is used by corporations like Google etc yet they base themselves in tax havens to avoid US tax laws and indeed, Australian taxation laws where it’s estimated they made over $50M in profit there alone last year but paid just $72K in tax.
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Actually- the 2 posters above are basically correct as I have now discovered.
Two people I know tell me that WordPress.com have been quite active in removing blogs that trade on other’s names wrongly or are defamatory and while it might take a week or so, they do respond.
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WordPress are in exactly the same position legally.
No, I don’t think they are. They are not doing business in Australia. All of their operations and datacenters are in the US. Google and Yahoo have datacenters in Australia.
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I actually think they are in the same position as before. That is, if people in Australia think they have been defamed, they can sue.
UK libel laws are notoriously plainitiff-favoring. That has always been true. That a high-profile case somewhere has been decided in favour of the plaintiff doesn’t necessarily effect WP.com.
WordPress.com is not a search engine. In fact, it’s built in search engine sucks (sorry, Andy) so badly that I always use Google to search within the forum for technical answers.
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