Breaker at Right on the Left Beach responds to the SLAPP threat against Calblog by suggesting a legal defense group or fund for defending bloggers against these kinds of baseless legal threats. He points out, correctly, that, um, evildoers may well want to shut down a blog and might use legal threats to do it.
As a call to action, we bloggers, left and right, need to consider forming a non-profit lobbying and defense association to keep the blogosphere free. We may not agree with each other on substance but we should all agree on process that:Sounds good to me. I'd be interested in input from some of the more active comment-blogs, such as CalPundit.
- Bloggers should only responsible for their own content, not comments.
- American bloggers should not be exposed to foreign judgments for speech codes that vary from American First Amendment standards.
- Any suit against a blogger must be held where the blogger is located and decided under the laws of the blogger’s location.
There's enough legal talent in the Blogosphere that we can do the best thing -- which is help anyone affected by this bull think about their defense and help them (if necessary) find a competent lawyer.