Suit yourself: Libel and Bloggers

"Bloggers can be both a provider and a user of interactive computer services. Bloggers are users when they create and edit blogs through a service provider, and they are providers to the extent that they allow third parties to add comments or other material to their blogs.

Your readers' comments, entries written by guest bloggers, tips sent by email, and information provided to you through an RSS feed would all likely be considered information provided by another content provider. This would mean that you would not be held liable for defamatory statements contained in it. However, if you selected the third-party information yourself, no court has ruled whether this information would be considered 'provided' to you. One court has limited Section 230 immunity to situations in which the originator 'furnished it to the provider or user under circumstances in which a reasonable person...would conclude that the information was provided for publication on the Internet....' " [Read more on EFF]

This law is valid only in the USA of course. We don't even have a proper law on rape as a crime, so let's chill for a while. I mean at least we now know how to fend off suits from the USA. Ha!
From the How to avoid libel and defamation piece on BBC:
[quote start]Be very careful about the adjectives you use. A misplaced word can result in costly action. If you are campaigning about a factory that releases chemicals into the atmosphere, referring to the factory as �poisoning the atmosphere� is inadvisable![/quote end]

Moral of the story? Watch your a$$. (Suman dives for cover as a hailstorm of libel suits crash down on him).

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