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From: vnend@engr.uky.edu (D. V. W. James)
Newsgroups: news.admin,misc.legal,soc.women
Subject: Re: Re: Mark Ethan Smith: For real?
Message-ID: <1650@ukecc.engr.uky.edu>
Date: Sun, 11-Oct-87 02:02:01 EDT
Article-I.D.: ukecc.1650
Posted: Sun Oct 11 02:02:01 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 13-Oct-87 00:04:21 EDT
References: <378d6016.b8ab@apollo.uucp> <5261@jade.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: vnend@engr.uky.edu (D. V. W. James)
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In article <1342@cuuxb.ATT.COM> dlm@cuuxb.UUCP (Dennis L. Mumaugh) writes:
>
>Please remember one major thing.  Libel and slander MUST  involve
>damage to one's reputation and must be monetary in nature.
>
>=Dennis L. Mumaugh


     For a libel to occur,  at least four,  and  sometimes five,  conditions 
must  be fulfilled. These are:

     1) the statement must be defamatory.   That  is,  it must tend to
        hurt someone's reputation;
     2) it must identify its intended victim;
     3) it must be  communicated,   that is,  it must  be broadcast in
        such  a way  that at  least one  other person  other than  the
        victom or perpetrator hears or sees it;
     4) in cases  involving the  mass media there  is also  required a
        proof of  fault.   That means a  the publisher must  have been
        either  guilty of  actual  malice or  have  been negligent  in
        publishing it;
     5) in  cases where  actual  malice cannot  be  proven,  the  U.S.
        Supreme Court has said that the  victom of the libel must also
        prove damages. (Overbeck and Pullen, 1985)

     Overbeck, Wayne and Pullen, Rick D. (1985).   Major Principles of
                                                   _____ __________ __
        Media Law (Second Edition) New York,  NY:  Holt,  Rinehart and
        _____ ___  ______ _______
        Winston

Copyright (c) 1987 by David W. James
	
	The above is from a paper I wrote this summer on the subject of
Libel and USENET.  Note that damages need not be proven in all cases.


-- 
Later y'all,             Vnend            Ignorance is the Mother of Adventure.                        
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      "...the net exists on good faith and a lot of hand waving." Chuq