Hi everyone! (Quick note - I'm new here and this is my first post, but I have read the FAQ!) The Electronic Frontier Foundation's area on blogger's rights, as well as the Chilling Effects website, discusses the issues of potential libel and slander. I looked up my state's statute of limitations - Indiana's is 2 years - in other words, once something potentially libelous has been online for 2 years, the statute of limitations runs out. I'm curious - if something potentially libelous was moved or copied to a new domain name, does that reset the statute of limitations? For example, if I register a new domain name and move the potentially libelous content there, but the information has already been online for 2+ years, does that reset the statute? I know YANAL (unless, of course, you are!), but an e-mail to Chilling Effects just got me a standard "we cannot give legal advice" reply. I'm happy to accept opinions and won't regard it as legal advice. Thanks!! Kat2
Glad you agree this is not legal advice. It's not even an opinion. At most, this is just a suggestion of questions you might ask to an attorney with whom you do have a real attorney - client relationship. First, ask your lawyer whether the statute of limitations starts 1) when the material is originally published or 2) when you take the libellous material off the site. In other words, so long as it is still up, you lawyer may advise you that the statute has not even started running. Your lawyer may advise you that a court could say that the libellous content is republished every time the page is accessed. Second, it will depend on which state law applies and the particular facts, but there is a very strong possibility that your lawyer will tell you that putting it up on a new or different site would constitute a separate publication, and would restart the clock even if the original clock had run. Third, do not assume that your home state statute of limitations controls. Conflict of laws is a complex area of the law, and it may be that some other state's statute of limitations controls - where the injured party lives, for example, or perhaps where the suit is filed. (It may also be that some other state's particular version of libel and defamation law applies, depending on the facts.) Let me repeat - this is not legal advice. We are not in an attorney / client relationship. Libel is a very complicated area of the law, and it varies a lot depending on the applicable law and the particular facts (and you would probably be unwise and perhaps waiving various privileges if you posted your interpretation of the facts on a public forum). If this is important to you, you need to be talking with a qualified first amendment / defamation attorney.