Talk:libel

Notes on US usage:

As a legal term libel is a civil violation (rather than criminal). In the US truth is an absolute defense (if it's true then it is never libel) but not necessarily in other coutries. To be libel and not slander it must be distributed to a wider audience than just saying it: publishing it, using a public address system (possibly), putting it on billboard could all be sufficient. Libel requires malice (intent to do harm) OR (I'm fuzzy on this part) negligence.

IANAL, if someone has expertise please expand this. JillianE 15:15, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

I just linked the entry with the. It has a lot of detail; but we still may need to tweak the definition to include the distinction between libel and slander and some other details. JillianE 15:38, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

misuses
Are the following misuses common enough to be worth noting? JillianE 16:18, 31 December 2005 (UTC)
 * mistake for liable
 * mistakenly used for likely it's libel to happen any moment now.