Limits to free speech

[mahall]

How are defamation laws not boiled down to simply insult laws? Is it a crime to say “you have AIDS” or “your mother is a tramp”? (heh) If they were printed how is the scenario any different?

[Autolykos]

@Eugene

Even if all interrogation is done inside the court room, how can you make sure murder suspects stay put and don’t escape the country for instance? You will have to use force against them.

I see two possible ways of doing this:

1. They can be arrested, much like they’re arrested today. Once they’re arrested, they can only go free if they post bail. The bail serves as collateral for their promise to appear in court.
2. They can be threatened with outlawry should they fail to appear in court or otherwise fail to cooperate.

Holding the police force or PDA accountable in the event of wrongful arrest is paramount. It will motivate them to minimize wrongful arrests. Indeed, such accountability might lead them to rely more on the tactic of outlawry.

[Tex2002ans]

@Eugene

That’s why there should be laws specifying which actions should be considered illegal and which should not.

Do you believe there has to be ONE correct body of law? If so, why do you believe this monopoly called the government should be the only one to have the say as to what is illegal, and what is not legal?

@Eugene

publishing the name of a rape victim should be illegal in my opinion.

You still haven’t explained why you believe so. Is any property being damaged?

Let me put out another example, and you tell me if it is illegal or legal in your mind, and why. I am a business owner, and in my personal life I have a very weird fetish (let us say I LOVE things like 2 girls one cup), and I indulge in this with a woman. She then goes out and tells all of my friends, and tells the newspapers, and lets everyone know about it. I lose a lot of business due to this being out in print. What she has done, should it be legal or illegal?

Now let me put out 3 more branches to the story to see what your answers are (whether they would be legal or illegal in your mind):

1. What if I did not lose business?

2. What if she completely fabricated the story, and I still lost business.

3. What if she fabricated the story, but I did not lose business.

[Eugene]

I don’t think there is a correct one body of law, as far as I am concerned most law should be private. However I would expect defamation laws to appear in most private laws.

In the case with the fetish, defamation law in my opinion should not be applied because it is too indirect. However if that women maliciously fabricated a story about your business, for example if she published in a newspaper that you make hamburgers from rat meat and you can prove that you lost a lot of clients as a result of this, then I think she should be liable.

[Tex2002ans]

@Eugene

However I would expect defamation laws to appear in most private laws.

But you cannot own a reputation (the way other people/customers view you).

@Eugene

In the case with the fetish, defamation law in my opinion should not be applied because it is too indirect.

But it is exactly the same.

@Eugene

However if that women maliciously fabricated a story about your business, for example if she published in a newspaper that you make hamburgers from rat meat and you can prove that you lost a lot of clients as a result of this, then I think she should be liable.

So if someone LIES, and you lose business. You think that should be illegal, but what property is being damaged?

You cannot own a set amount of revenue, you cannot own a given set of customers, you cannot own everyone’s view of your business or person.

Law is in place in order to protect an individual’s property, but no property is being damaged in the case of someone lying and you losing business.