Carrie v Tolkein

This libel judgment from the High Court last week caught my eye: Eady J has struck out a libel claim about a blog comment under the Jameel jurisdiction to protect the court from abuse of process where there is no substantial publication of the allegedly defamatory stuff.

The case was about a blog, specifically comments made on the claimant’s own blog, which he didn’t remove. Essentially the defendant successfully argued that for the vast majority of the time the comments have been visible, the claimant has in effect consented to publication by failing to delete the comments.

So, that’s yet another reason to delete any libellous comments about me. The case is also interesting for revealing the claimant’s sock-puppetry. Eady J says

the Claimant was at pains to point out that people on blogs very often assume a persona different from their own and this does not necessarily imply any intention to deceive.

Mm.