defamation law

We've discussed, a few times now, the serious problems with the rise of publicity rights as a new form of intellectual property law, driven at the state level, which is severely stifling speech and culture in a variety of ways.

A few weeks back, we wrote about how Texas real estate developer H. Walker Royall "went on a lawsuit bender," upon finding out a book by author Carla Main that was critical of some of his development projects.

He not only sued the author and the publisher, but also someone who reviewed the book, the newspaper that published the review and (most ridiculous of all) an academic who wrote a blurb praising the book that went on the book's jacket.

A few folks have sent over a recent article from The New York Observer declaring that "the end of libel" is upon us, noting that Time Inc. has no active libel suits against it and the NY Times has no domestic libel suits against it.

In both cases, it's the first time in three decades that they don't have any active libel suits going on.

Wall Street Journal: "Justice David Eady ruled that Google's Internet search engine isn't considered a publisher under defamation law, and therefore isn't responsible for the content of the short descriptions of Web sites that appear in Google searches."