Civil Disobedience on the Web
British libel law is notorious for its ability to silence critics of wealthyand often shadypublic figures. Premised on the notion that a published statement has opened a person to scorn, derision, social alienation, or caused him to lose face with "right-thinking" individuals, it has come to mean that almost everyone on the planet has a case and the nation is a hotbed for libel tourismCraig Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud had difficulty being published in the United Kingdom because of lawsuit fears. The law was revised slightly in 2006, but Fleet Street has been reluctant to challenge libel threats, usually issuing abject corrections and apologies instead. The process is costly and, if a newspaper loses, it bears the responsibility for paying the plaintiff's legal fees. One would think, then, that bloggers with neither the deep pockets nor the lawyers of their mainstream media compatriots would be even less willing to fight accusations of libel. But, as two recent cases point out, they might be ideally suited to undermining the institution that precipitated the downfall of Oscar Wilde.