The Miniatures Page being Sued [Slightly OT]

[Emiricol]

A news outlet can not be *successfully* sued for quoting portions of an email they've actually received, even if they aren't even involved in the conversation - as long as they get confirmation of authenticity by one of the parties involved.

News outlets (definition probably determined by case law somewhere) are protected in their right to publish newsworthy items.

I dealt with this myself about two years ago. RJ opens himself to damages, libel and the laws regarding B.S. lawsuits, as a number of historical precedents have proven.

EDIT - and unless you have a signed Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), even if the news outlet IS involved in the email conversation you can't do a thing about it, all other factors being equal. And NDAs are generally not worth the paper they are printed on. It is HARD to sue news folks for publishing news - that pesky constitution and all those pesky statute and case laws, you know...

 

[Christian Walker]

Letters

My understadning fo letters and e-mails is this:

Let's say I send Morrus an e-mail. In the opening I talk about what a good job he's doing with EN World. I then go on to say that Avalanche Press, while they make superb wargames, are soft pr0n pushing knuckleheads for poo-pooing his reviews. At the end of my mail I include a press release for Scrollworks 27.

He can post the press release, but the personal comments are a no-no in regards to posting because I have a reasonable assumption of privacy.

Print letters are even weirder. I mail the same info to Morrus, but this time by snail mail. He could SELL that letter on EBay! However, he could not scan the letter and post an image of it that allowed one to clearly read the letter.

Then again, US-UK law may not work the same way, but I was just trying to create an example familiar to all.

 

[Griswold]

Re: Letters

My understadning fo letters and e-mails is this:

Let's say I send Morrus an e-mail. In the opening I talk about what a good job he's doing with EN World. I then go on to say that Avalanche Press, while they make superb wargames, are soft pr0n pushing knuckleheads for poo-pooing his reviews. At the end of my mail I include a press release for Scrollworks 27.

He can post the press release, but the personal comments are a no-no in regards to posting because I have a reasonable assumption of privacy.

First off, IANAL.

I don't believe that there can be an assumption of privacy with email. Email is too easy to intercept, and has too touch too many servers where 3rd parties can take a peek at the goodies. Now if he encrypted the message, that would be different.

Legality aside, this strikes me as being more like a game of chicken. Somebody wants that message off those boards and is willing to go to court over it, the question is, "Is the board operator willing or able to pony up the costs of a legal fight over keeping that message online?" This is nothing new.

G.

 

[Juiblex]

First, it is going to be next to impossible to prove damages in this case. Even if damages are presumed in the jurisdiction, due to the defamation law, they aren't going to amount to much.

This isn't legal advice, just my opinion. I don't think they are threatening legal action against the right entity. They should sue whoever posted the message if it is defamatory, not the one providing the information conduit. There was a case against Compuserve a few years ago that was similar. However, the court found for Compuserve since they did not ratify or post the message. The implication from the opinion is that the person who posted to the board could be sued for damages. Another similar case almost went to trial bringing the action against the person posting, but settled before deciding the issue.

 

[Storminator]

First, it is going to be next to impossible to prove damages in this case. Even if damages are presumed in the jurisdiction, due to the defamation law, they aren't going to amount to much.

This isn't legal advice, just my opinion. I don't think they are threatening legal action against the right entity. They should sue whoever posted the message if it is defamatory, not the one providing the information conduit. There was a case against Compuserve a few years ago that was similar. However, the court found for Compuserve since they did not ratify or post the message. The implication from the opinion is that the person who posted to the board could be sued for damages. Another similar case almost went to trial bringing the action against the person posting, but settled before deciding the issue.

I believe this is the US interpretation of the law. In Europe ISPs have been found liable for posts made on their servers by others.

PS

 

[Gizzard]

Off Topic: Does anyone else find it amusing that two of the major Demon Princes (Grazzt and Jubilex) have posted in a thread regarding the intricacies of privacy, lawsuits and copyright law? ;-)

 

[Buttercup]

WRT the privacy of email, one shouldn't have any expectations along those lines, at least in the US. If you post from work, your company owns your email. If you post from Hotmail, Microsoft owns your email (read the fine print!), and I would assume that all the other major ISPs take the same stance.

So although it isn't good form to quote the private portions of an email sent to you, I don't think it's actionable. But IANAL.

 

[Darkness]

Leonard "J." Crabs would come in real handy for the Minis Page now.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Okay, no actual suit yet, but it continues to be, well, silly...

http://theminiaturespage.com/news/?id=816087

The Auld Grump, who doesn't confuse Hearsay with Heresy...