COURT IS HEREBY INFORMED that as of 14:57 EST on Monday, the Nineteenth of March, in this the 2018'th year of the Lord, forumer
@Rondait confessed to and was found
GUILTY of libel against Mod-Mayor
@Tirin. The Convicted will now be sentenced.
Normally, in attempting to construct suitable models for passing sentence on a conviction, the Court will treat sovereign law of the affected party's geopolitical home states as loose guidelines for establishing precedent. In light of the convicted's choice of career path outside of these Forums, the Court had originally intended to draw especially heavily from this kind of legal precedent, both to serve a practical example of a potential occupational hazard to look out for in his future, and in order to more reliably render the short of punishment he could have reasonably expected to risk at the time of the offense in question.
However, as it happens, the particulars of the case would in fact preclude any punitive action under Canadian law, which holds that "a person who posts hyperlinks on a website which lead to another site with defamatory content is not publishing that defamatory material for the purposes of libel and defamation law."* Further, most American jurisdictions require that reckless disregard for the truth be demonstrated in order to pursue a libel charge. This has neither been done, nor even much attempted, and neither has the Convicted received any profit in Likes from the article in question, which currently stands at a rating of
Ł0.00 as of the time of sentencing.
As such, the Court will merely require that the
Mach Times print a correction along with a public apology to Mod-Mayor Tirin by the end of the month, for their clear oversight in failing to account for the discrepancy in dates provided by the
Rogue Tusk sources, as noted by the Prosecution.
The
Rogue Tusk itself, led by Forumer
@Walrus, is further issued with an official warning against such attempts at defamation of another Forumer in the future. No punitive action will be taken, however, as the
Tusk cannot be said to have published the material themselves. Other journalistic outlets, and readers themselves, are nonetheless strongly advised to take this incident into their consideration when evaluating the
Rogue Tusk's credibility as a source.
Finally, given the gravity of the competing allegations of corruption, treason, and dissident terrorism leveled at various points in relation to this incident, Forum Executive High Authority
@RECONmaster (and/or appointed agent) is issued with an official warrant to investigate such claims as he sees fit, provided that no punitive action is taken against a third party who refuses to disclose information pertinent to the case. Unless renewed, this warrant will expire in thirty days, and any special coercive action must be terminated at or before the time of expiration.
*(Crookes v. Newton 2011 SCC 47, [2011] 3 SCR 269 (19 October 2011), Supreme Court (Canada).)**
**(Apparently.)
...
This
CONCLUDES the case of Tirin v.
Mach Times. Court will now adjourn, pending any future cases to be held.
Accusations may be submitted privately, through correspondence with the Justice, or publicly, in this thread.
(Given that the Court is a public institution, and does not operate in a secretive or exclusive manner, accusations may NOT be submitted anonymously.)
COURT IS ADJOURNED.