A recent editorial on student’s legal rights and responsibilities in their MySpace and Facebook entries gives an excellent overview of how the courts have construed students’ speech rights when in the public classroom.
However, a comment struck me as interesting from the perspective of applying mass communication law to all of society.
Students need to remember that the law applies in cyberspace too: Threats and harassment are just as illegal online as offline. Defamation or libel can occur on the Internet as well as in a printed newspaper.
I start to scratch my head when a lawyer says that anyone “needs to remember” about a law that they’ve probably rarely heard about and that their parents most likely never were responsible for. Yes, the law is there and for good reason; but will the public accept laws which might be outside their moral framework or that they never have had a chance to debate and have a say in? Is it OK that “As a private entity, MySpace isn’t obligated to honor users’ First Amendment rights”? The struggle between protecting individual speech and protecting individual reputation has become so much more complex thanks to the Internet.
Perhaps we should all heed the advice that I recently heard given to bloggers: “Get libel insurance.”
Please remember that ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it. If you are “smart enough” to defame someone you are “smart enough” to pay the price. I have an idea…howabout this….. if you are so interesting and such an authority that you need to share your opinion with the world….know what you are talking about and be responsible for the consequences.