http://www.cbldf.org/

I just find cease and desist orders from lawyers incredibly irritating. It is a clear misuse of the law. It is, in essence, lawyers, employed by rich folk, determining your society for you. And using the threat of legal action as a lever to actually avoid these sorts of issues from ever being determined by a court of law. For none of us are rich enough to fight back, I’d assume.

Contrary to what Sunny says at 9, I’d have thought a legal defense fund would only be arbitrary in the same way as the ACLU is arbitrary. If you’ve a reasonable chance of winning, you take it on. Otherwise, you don’t.

In some cases you can argue that blogging is merely “fair comment” and get away with that. The opposition would argue that (a) the blogger in question was spreading false, malicious rumours and / or (b) say that the commentary went beyond fairness and was designed merely to libel the person and destroy their reputation.

Either way, if you want to argue fair comment you have to be fairly certain it was “fair” and not some off-the-chain rant.

Should we be setting up a legal defense fund? I think blogs are too important to be silenced by legal threats.

Any comments?

Great idea on one level although I’m not sure who will manage it or if it’s something that’d actually raise any cash outside the blogosphere:

man down the pub: “you want my money for what??”

us: “to create a fund to protect bloggers from litigation”

man down the pub: “wtf is a blogger?!?”

….

I have no legal expertise, but I do know some big words.

I charge by the hour.

Any comments?

Thanks for the coverage Sunny!

I’m counting this article as “support”.

Just a thought.