Cory Doctorow highlights a new critique of English libel law:
The Guardian published a long excerpt from Nick Cohen's forthcoming You Can't Read This Book: Censorship in an Age of Freedom, a fantastic-looking book that reveals the dirty truth of English libel law, where "money buys silence" for some of the world's most notorious dictators, thieves, and bad guys. English libel law is so broad that it allows, for example, Russian oligarchs to sue Russian newspapers for punitive sums ("the cost of libel actions in England and Wales is 140 times higher than the European average") in an English court, merely by demonstrating that someone, somewhere in England looked at the paper's website. And yet, the libel law in England and Wales doesn't actually protect people from the most common forms of libelous publication: false declarations of criminal suspicion by the police, false claims of financial irregularities from credit reporting bureaux and false statements in former employers' reference letters are protected unless they can be shown to have been malicious and negligent.
I would like to recommend Cory Doctorow's books.
Tea-Partiers be aware: Turn hard right - reality ahead!
In "Little Brother" he very concisely puts away with all the nonsense about the minsitry of homeland security, cameras at public places and all the other new "security" measures increasing the security of the people. Instead he pleads very strongly for fredom based on the US constitution.
In "For the win" he goes for the work conditions in asian factories. What is new here is, that he uses workers the world of Online Role Playing Games and their ability to connect internationally as a basis.
The booke are not philosophical discussions but straight forward fast paced novels.
At least "Little Brother" should be read in school if you want to talk about democracy and who it is loosing against terrorism.
(I have no relationship with Cory Doctorow - but was very(!) impressed with his book).
Posted by: Martin | January 16, 2012 at 02:40 PM