How offensive can anonymous online bloggers be?
Kevin Rogers investigates
Sheffield Wednesday FC’s recent spat with a website owner raises some interesting issues in relation to the use of the internet for blogging purposes.
The use of online bulletin boards, chat rooms and blogs is rapidly increasing. The MySpace, YouTube and Facebook generation not only encourages people to blog, but also gives the impression that everybody is an expert on any given topic. Any blog provides the opportunity for a blogger to criticise, abuse, welcome or generally ramble on a subject. This decision, which went partly in the claimant’s favour, indicates that just because anonymous bloggers publish their material online does not mean that they are above the law.
There are obviously broader problems—most notably jurisdictional in nature—when considering websites that have a significantly wider international reach. The claimants in this case are fortunate in that the subject matter is of relatively minimal interest outside of the UK and so any jurisdictional problems are likely to be minor, if they exist at all.
OWLSTALK
In Sheffield Wednesday Football Club Ltd and others v Hargreaves [2007]
