I saw this on the webpage WRAL. Can someone tell me how to find a link to this bill? Would North Carolina be the only state to hold a persons word as criminal? Jim http://www.wral.com/golo/blogpost/4461230/
It's a sure bet that it would be challenged on a Constitutional basis. Just because words may be unpopular, it doesn't mean they can't be expressed. You can't have a "Free Expression" area, if you censor the expression placed thereon.
Does this mean that if someone writes that the pizza was cold at so and so restaurant, could be thrown in jail? I work in construction, and we have some heated debates on a construction forum. Just want to know where people have to draw the line.
Here's more information on it. http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/bill_targets_libel_on_blogs
I can understand leaving something out as an oversight, but how do you put in specific criminal provisions as an oversight?
What similar piece of legislation? I think he included that intentionally, and is now backtracking. Anyway, the common law libel and slander remedies are available to anyone who believes they have been libeled or slandered electronically, just as they are available for any other case of libel or slander. This dimwit may not realize it, but bloggers are already subject to being sued for libel and slander; what they do not yet have, is some of the defenses available to traditional news media under our laws. Maybe we should propose an amendment to take out the criminal penalties, and put in the protections.
I have not read the bill itself but I have noticed in many cases the same general wording is used in several different bills. Much like taking the parts of one bill, which has been passed and incorporating it into the design of another similar bill being proposed. When writing a new SOP or Quality Assurance Manual section I have seen sections copied and modified because they were similar eough to use as a base, but when a posrtion is mistaken left in there may be a problem similar to this one.
I just read this bill and it guts the libel legislation from this aspect. North Carolina currently has the most strict laws of any state for such libel but this bill has theeffect of allowing a retraction to negate the claim. It also allows a "good faith libel" where one does not know the truth but believes somehtin ghas a possibility of being true.
