Defamation and Hate Speech

Defamation y Making of false, derogatory statement in private or public about a persons business practices, character, financial status, morals, or reputation. The spoken or transitory form of defamation of character, a legal term that refers to a falsehood presented as true which could harm the reputation of a person or entity. Slander also encompasses body gestures as in the case of sign language. A published or fixed form of defamation of character; a civil wrong that falsely impugns the reputation or character of a person or entity, opening the target up to public scorn or ridicule. Libel might appear in a magazine, book, newspaper, or in a radio or television broadcast. Signs, billboards or posters can also be mediums for libel.

Slander

Libel

Hate Speech y Speech that attacks someone (or a group of people) based on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, culture, religion, nationality, or other characteristic. It may use abusive or belittling language or communicate bigoted or defamatory ideas. Freedom of Speech A universal right to express any opinion in public without censorship of each and every human being protected by United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Legal Recourse y It is an action that can be taken by an individual or a corporation to attempt to remedy a legal difficulty. Possible only when hate speech turns into clear threats and intimidation against specific citizens.

Internet Service Provider ( ISP ) y A company that provides individuals and other companies access to the Internet and other related services such as Web site building and virtual. It has the equipment and the telecommunication line access required to have a point-ofpresence on the Internet for the geographic area served.

America Online ( AOL ) y An American global Internet services and media company.

U.S. citizens being successfully sued or convicted of crimes relating to hate speech

1. A former student sentenced to one year in prison for sending email death threats to Asian American students.

2. A coalition of anti abortion groups ordered to pay more than $100 Million in damages after posting on website information about doctors and clinic workers.

3. Varian medical system won a $775,000 verdict in a defamation and harassment lawsuit against two former employees.

Countries do not provide constitutional protection for hate speech

1. Germany 2. Britain 3. Canada 4. Denmark 5. France 6. Australia

Corporate Blogging y Published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals. The advantage of blogs is that posts and comments are easy to reach and follow due to centralized hosting and generally structured conversation threads. A quite an innovative idea, and there is no final word yet whether it would succeed. This controversial marketing tool could be the start of a new sort of advertising scheme, or it might fizzle out in just a matter of months. A lot of companies are searching for ways to take advantage of the blogging trend, and several of these corporations have ascertained that a great way to ride the blogging wave is to maintain a blog on their corporate website.

Internal Blog

Generally accessed through the corporation's Intranet, is a weblog that any employee can view.

External Blog

A publicly available weblog where company employees, teams, or spokespersons share their views.

The 10 Best Corporate Blogs in the World

1. Caterpillar

Established separate blogs based on industry (construction, electrical, marine) with sub-categories under each industry (products, safety, and problem-solving). Employs its blog as a global brainstorming platform. Customers submit ideas for new drinks, food items, packages, even store designs. The company chairman actually does his own posts, dictating them on a weekly basis. This personal involvement has won the site loyal fans since they know they are getting the word from a real executive a powerful point of differentiation.

2. Starbucks

3. Marriott

4. Wegmans

The blog design changes every few weeks to reflect colorful seasonal themes. The company has managed to attract a loyal and engaged audience through posts from President Danny Wegman and other store employees on ideas for

entertaining at home, recipes and nutrition.

5. Manpower An attempt to meet that demand and engaging and educational content. This blog is aimed squarely at breaking this image through wonderful story-telling. The most creative blogs in the corporate world. The company solicited help from four scrapbook fanatics who demonstrate their love of crafting and the tools they use with this customer-generated content. A quirky, honest blog about travel and the people who make it happen. This is the anti-corporate-press-release blog. They also wisely use this as a way to connect with employees. A company that sells high-end adventures gear and this No-frills site does a marvelous job featuring reader stories

6. General Electric

7. Fiskars

8. Southwest Airlines

9. Patagonia

10. Whole Food Market A social media darling, and for good reason. They do great work! This popular blog is full of how-tos, best practices and exciting product ideas. Pornography y Films, magazines, writings, photographs or other materials that are sexually explicit and intended to cause sexual arousal. A pornography that is distributed by means of various sectors of the Internet, primarily via websites, peer-topeer file sharing, or Usenet newsgroups.

Internet Pornography

Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN SPAM) Act y Introduced by Senators Conrad R. Burns (R-MT) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) in April 2003 Requires unsolicited commercial e-mail messages to be labeled and to include opt-out instructions and the sender's physical address. It prohibits the use of deceptive subject lines and false headers in such messages.

Key Requirements of the Law y y y y y y The From and To fields in the email The subject line of the email The email must be identified The e-mailer must provide a return e-mail address The e-mailer has 10 days to honor the opt-out request Prohibit harvesting of e-mail address from web sites

Federal Trade Commission ( FTC ) Authorized to establish a "do-not-email" registry. State laws that require labels on unsolicited commercial e-mail or prohibit such messages entirely are pre-empted, although provisions merely addressing falsity and deception would remain in place.