From: "Mark M." <markm@voicenet.com>
Date: Sat, 1 Feb 1997 19:51:41 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Libel & the 1st Amendment
In-Reply-To: <199702020156.RAA13867@mail.pacifier.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.95.970201224616.410A-100000@purple.voicenet.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

On Sat, 1 Feb 1997, jim bell wrote:

> At 12:52 PM 2/1/97 -0500, Mark M. wrote:
> >On Sat, 1 Feb 1997, Peter J. Capelli wrote:
> >
> >> 	You mean to say, rich people can overcrowd the courts as much as they
> >> like, while others are restricted by contigency-only lawyers ( Call 
> >> 1-800-AMBULANCE! ) ... and what of the case of a rich person trying to
> >> control
> >> a poor one with many frivolous lawsuits ... while they can afford to file 
> >> lawsuit after lawsuit, the poor person cannot defend himself.
> >
> >What, exactly, would be the point of suing a poor person?
> 
> To quiet him from political dissent, presumably.  I think the term coined a 
> few years ago was "SLAPP", something akin to "Strategic Lawsuit Against 
> Public Policy," or similar.

I should point out that in my previous post, I was refering to the specific
instance of libel -- not any general lawsuit.  I can think of very few
instances where a rich person would sue someone without the resources to even
defend himself for libel just to harass the defendant.  I'm sure there are a
few cases, but it wouldn't be worth the plaintiff's time or money.  I would be
interested if anyone knows of any specific examples of this.



Mark
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.3
Charset: noconv

iQEVAwUBMvQQAyzIPc7jvyFpAQFAfQgAp5qsAm9LZdXeR3+8s4LkUv5qH6Ju8Rda
te3EJ90gjHxDcv/QRopQ3fRM5KzsHgr5JqPRWDFF0Zo3CxbRsB8x/CK3aIo2axpt
xEAeA/TT3oBWOCXFs2fVR6dCy4XAMh4e/q58kNnDqqUnJNBgto5kr8Hp4op9Ypgi
WO0G0Su6L8JuBwnui6Ni5XxHSBchBwu6Z0Jv0TFrG43lnS++K+UriX9cIYxR8JVH
roUg/9SDCZysmuEvNh8VMLAd492wD2jhge4LiiYaSNWrpe5JD2jA/nJ9Olevpu3v
4+75YOpRIgHAugMyl/bbNZgTjStoLUicHATyt7PLEUtj/sbmPbakkQ==
=qrVu
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----