Drive-by blogging

Although Judge Edward Fadeley didn't use the term, his warning is clear: 'Drive-by blogging' is out of control.

He described the blogosphere as:

"a veritable Wild West of verbal ambushes and shootouts, with very little fear of legal recourse to keep character assassination, defamation and dirty business tricks in check.

...It's high time to fill the gap in a system that allows defamation in the blogosphere to go unchecked. The harm can be wide-ranging and devastating. Until the law catches up with technology, innocent parties have little or no protection in the volatile world of cyberspace,”

What do you think?

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 10, 2006
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  August 10, 2006
  Alex,
  
  My comments got too long to put here, so I posted my response elsewhere:
  
  http://inkblots.markwoodman.com/2006/08/11/better-blog-bureau/
  
  Regards,
  
   Mark
• Anonymous
  August 10, 2006
  Justice Farley's comments, directly, are at http://sev.prnewswire.com/multimedia-online-internet/20060808/NYTU10508082006-1.html.
  
  I was going to say that the comment: "...some 50 to 60 per cent of blog attacks are now sponsored by business rivals." seems ridiculous and is completely unsupported, but I don't see that anywhere in Farley's own commentary.  I do, however, note that he believes "some companies have lost millions in stock value" due to bloggers' making venomous claims "intended to be read as fact."  I'm curious where he gets his "facts".
• Anonymous
  August 11, 2006
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  August 15, 2006
  I'm just amazed and amused to hear a JUDGE use the word blogosphere.