My Legal Identity

The news of blogger identity has actually got me piqued about something. Not that I'm an anonymous blogger who has anything important or consequential at all to say, but I'm fully aware of the power of the internet as a tool of expression, and this clamping on it is a dangerous precedent. I found a couple of cases of interest, and some rather amusing extracts anyway, and I think my next project is probably going to focus on this kind of thing.

The bottom line is that an anonymous commenter calling someone a "bigot' in an an anonymous forum is simply not defamatory… The statement is clearly one of opinion, not fact, and it is further tempered by the fact that an anonymous commenter is not considered a credible source by the vast majority of readers.
In addition, the bar is even higher to prove a statement as defamatory when one takes into account that Ms. Greenbaum is a public official, as the commenter would have had to show malice - which is legally defined as "falsity or reckless disregard of the truth".

And...

A statement that the plaintiff is a "Dumb Ass," even first among "Dumb Asses," communicates no factual proposition susceptible of proof or refutation… depending on context, it may convey a lack less of objectively assayable mental function than of such imponderable and debatable virtues as judgment or wisdom.Here defendant did not use "dumb" in isolation, but as part of the idiomatic phrase, "dumb ass." When applied to a whole human being, the term "ass" is a general expression of contempt essentially devoid of factual content. Adding the word "dumb" merely converts "contemptible person" to "contemptible fool."
Plaintiffs were justifiably insulted by this epithet, but they failed entirely to show how it could be found to convey a provable factual proposition. ... If the meaning conveyed cannot by its nature be proved false, it cannot support a libel claim.

(all via http://www.webpronews.com/insiderreports/2007/03/22/google-asked-to-reveal-blogger-identity)

P.S, If I'm honest, I always used to think it was coincidence that all judges' first names were 'Justice.' This was especially confusing for a younger Tobias as he was sure that 'Justice' was a girl's name and most judges are old men.