Judge calls for criminal sanctions on webposters

"Rate my solicitor closed by judge"
Reads a bit like turkey killed at christmas by butcher.

I think the Judge has a fair point about slander, it can be untrue and damaging. The problems are what if boards was shut because of a few mild posts about some company ?

Imo its a pity people cant use those rating websites fairly, I do find alot of professions have cowboys, and you often find out too late.

People spouting lies, myths and nonsense on the internet should think twice methinks.

We should voice our opinions on rate_your_judge.com.

A lot of Irish judges have had a bit of a thing about the Internet ever since one of their own was caught by American police downloading thousands of kiddy porn images and all the details were passed on to the Gardai here. Remember that? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Curtin

I suppose many of them wonder when they will be the next ones to be caught out doing something that would never come to light were it not for the Internet.:rolleyes:


Judges in Ireland have too much power, they are far too inconsistent in their sentencing, often pontificate on everything and anything in the most pompous and asinine way, and anybody who disagrees with them can be imprisoned under the far too draconian contempt powers they have.:)

They need to get a life and respect people's right to express their views, including those about the legal profession. After all, there is nothing to prevent a right of reply.:cool:

Crazy Horse 6 wrote: »

A free country indeed.

You have never been free to lie about people. There is a coming of age on the internet where somebody publishes things that are not true will get punished.

The real question is what does this mean for Yelp and Tripadvisor?

Can we not freely and openly post online our experiences with companies we trade with? If we are taken advantage of, or, receive inadequate services that are overpriced can we not speak of this online?

This is not only draconian, but will help make the Internet obsolete in Ireland. With SOPA and ACTA piled on, it is only a matter of time before the tech companies start moving their EU HQs elsewhere.

Vladimir Kurtains wrote: »

If you publish false allegations in a newspaper, you open yourself up to libel action. It follows that anyone who does so on the web risks the same.

But that newspaper would not be shut down as a result of one writer's comment.

Vladimir Kurtains wrote: »

You can seek an injunction to stop publication, which is effectively what the judge did with this website.

Stopping the publication of an article is not the same as shutting down the newspaper.

People have, more or less, always had the right to have comments about them removed from websites. This is a step too far.

Vladimir Kurtains wrote: »

They refused to take it down and denied they were responsible for operating the website.

There's no indication in that article that the website ignored previous rulings and refused to take the content down.