![]() ![]() This new publication created a new cause of action, even for defamatory statements that had been previously published. Traditionally, if an author or editor published a new edition of a defamatory book, newspaper or magazine article, the new edition was a new publication. The court also recognized that republication, an established exception to the single publication rule, applies to Internet defamation. And the uniform view of other jurisdictions was that the Uniform Single Publication Act applies to Internet articles. So, the policy underlying the single publication rule demands that it apply online. The court reasoned that online content has potentially global reach and may always be on the Internet. It also ensures the efficacy of the statute of limitations by preventing every sale of an old book or newspaper from renewing it. The rule protects defendants who engage in mass communications, such as the media, from potentially limitless lawsuits based on a single communication. The single publication rule provides that any single publication, exhibition or utterance gives rise to only a single cause of action with a single statute of limitations running from the date of first publication.3 The court of appeals affirmed based on a republication exception to the single publication rule. The defendants argued that the claim was time-barred by a one year statute of limitations.2 The trial court rejected the statute of limitations defense and entered judgment against the defendants, and the defendants appealed. In December 2009, more than a year after the first publication of the posts, the ex-wife and her boyfriend sued for defamation. Several months later, the defendants used a comment section to publish additional information about the alleged abuse. She also accused the ex-wife’s boyfriend of abuse and molestation. In November 2008, the new wife authored two Internet posts accusing the father’s ex-wife of complicity in child abuse. The defendants in Larue were a recently divorced father and his new wife. Brown, the Arizona Court of Appeals recently issued its first opinion applying Arizona’s statutory single publication rule, an adoption of the Uniform Single Publication Act, to Internet defamation.1 The court confirmed that the statute of limitations for online defamation begins when a defamatory article is first published and that modifying the story, for example, by placing a substantive comment beneath it, is a “republication.” This republication creates a separate cause of action with a separate statute of limitations. Court of Appeals applies publication rule to the Internet ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |