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ARTICLE · 23 MAY 2000

E-Defamation

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By Howard W. Winkler , [email protected]

By Stephen Satchel , [email protected]

Published 4/1/00

E-mailers and Bulletin Board users Beware! As everyone and everything moves to the Internet so too does the law of defamation.

E-mail and the Internet are becoming common methods of communicating both within organizations and to the world at large. While there is very little case law to date on the subject, it is widely agreed that the general law of defamation will apply to e-mail communications and information posted on or transmitted through the Internet. Electronic communications are often not confidential and the potential scope of distribution of an imprudent remark or statement could be very wide. This could have the effect of converting what would otherwise be a private, non-actionable communication into something for which damages might have to be paid.

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