[matt]

You've made some good points, Chris. This has become a very interesting discussion.

Up until quite recently the laws pertaining to defamation and libel, as they apply to the internet, were quite nebulous.

Much of the problem stemmed from how the law/s were interpreted and applied across jurisdictions and indeed from country to country.

Recent developments, however, overseas and here in Australia, with people successfully suing websites for defamation, have established precedents and the way is now much clearer for litigation.

The old claim of "oh well...it's only the web....no-one sees what's written anyway and the comments are only shared within a small community" doesn't hold as much water as it used to. It's still published material being shared with others who are reading it, like they would read a newspaper or magazine governed by strict defamation laws.

Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing but is also a great responsibility. As much as it should be fiercely protected, it also needs to be wielded with great care and balanced against the protections for the individual's and/or a business' reputation and standing in the community.

Public attacks on a person or business for the sake of attack are not what 'freedom of speech' is all about. That's defamation and an abuse of freedom of speech.

And as has been pointed out previously, it's not only the person making the defamatory comments who can be sued, it is also the website administrator as the 'publisher' of the offending material who will find themselves facing legal action.