At What Cost Freedom? In My Opinion... ALL INFORMATION CONTAINED IS PUBLIC RECORD AND HAS NOT VIOLATED ANYONE'S RIGHTS!!!! I am one blogger in a world where blogging has become a mainstay in social networking and information sharing. What a sad state of affairs we are in now where the Freedom of Speech act cannot protect our readers from freely expressing their opinions. "The ACLU's vision of an uncensored Internet was clearly shared by the U.S. Supreme Court when it declared, in Reno v. ACLU, the Internet to be a free speech zone, deserving at least as much First Amendment protection as that afforded to books, newspapers and magazines. The government, the court said, can no more restrict a person's access to words or images on the Internet than it could be allowed to snatch a book out of a reader's hands in the library, or cover over a statue of a nude in a museum." I understand that this refers to government censorship, but if it doesn't end there then where does it end? "Internet defamation of character, also referred to as cyber defamation, is pretty much what you would expect it to be. It is a false statement made against a person, product or company. Its intent is malicious; that is, it is made with deliberate intent to harm you, or your company’s, reputation. Currently, most internet defamation is in written form, although we are fast approaching the day when oral blogs will become just as easy to post as written ones." Most internet defamation of character comes in the form of blogs. In the US, most courts consider blogs to be nothing more than vehicles for opinion sharing. As opinions are not facts, disparaging remarks that appear in blogs are tough to prove as defamatory. No proof, no recourse. Another unique feature of internet defamation is that finding the source of an offending blog can be problematic. Anyone with internet access can open an infinite number of email accounts and blog away anonymously. At what point does hurting someone's feelings become slander? For a link to the full complaint please see this article on Cryptomundo The unfortunate circumstance is that real money will have to be paid out to attorneys and court costs to defend a (in my opinion) frivolous lawsuit. When will it happen to us? Do we have to begin censoring our very own readers and depriving them of the right to express their opinions or to comment freely? I don't want to have to shut down my blog with others to follow suit because they do not have the resources, time or money, to deal with this type of (in my opinion) foolishness. Do we and our readers have to end every sentence or comment with "in my opinion"? We need to make a stand, NOW. We cannot invite this type of vampire into our homes to suck the life and creativity and freedom from our very own thoughts and opinions!!! The upside to being the defendant of a frivolous lawsuit is that Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure allows a federal court to sanction an attorney who has filed a frivolous lawsuit. Thus, filing a frivolous lawsuit might be more than just expensive—it might be considered unethical. Now a message from Craig Woolheater and Loren Coleman of Cryptomundo: Cryptomundo and Loren Coleman have been sued for defamation by a member of the site = Both Cryptomundo and Loren believe the case is baseless. The Plaintiff has demanded that he be given ownership of the website to settle the case. This is simply not acceptable. We don't think that seeing Cryptomundo disappear is something that Cryptomundians would like to experience. As you can imagine, defending this lawsuit will be an expensive proposition. As such, we are asking that you donate to our legal defense fund if you wish to assist us in this matter. Please use the donate via Paypal button on the site. One hundred percent (100%) of your donation, no matter the amount, will help Cryptomundo fight this baseless lawsuit. To be as transparent as possible, we want to make it clear that we have not set up a legal defense trust or non-profit. As such, your donations will not be tax deductible. They will be counted as income for the site and the corporation will be responsible for any taxes due. A separate bank account and Paypal has been set up for this fund. Please visit Cryptomundo for information on how to donate to the Legal Defense Fund. Sharonlee- The Bigfoot Field Reporter