Future

With a rapidly growing number of computer-communication users, the likelihood of an increase of cyberlibel in the future is inevitable. The only question is we can tell whether the number of litigations will grow steadily or there will be an explosion of lawsuits all at once.

To date, the laws of defamation and the approach in operating the laws are somewhat different from state to state and country to country. Ideally, the establishment of an "international treaty" among nations in the world, accompanied by greater harmonization of the defamation laws will be the solutions to the varies complex and arguable issues such as jurisdictions, choice of laws, forum shopping etc. However, we believe that the likelihood of the establishment of an "international treaty" is impossible in the near future or even such a dream will never come true.

What we wish to see in the coming future is more clear and defined rules and regulations governing the Internet communications among the industry players and individual users, and a more Internet-related version of the defamation laws.

I believe majority of the Internet users may not be aware that they are "publishing" a defamatory statement when they post a message on a bulletin board criticizing someone or corporations. Similarly, they may not anticipate that their liability will be extended to other countries while the message be received and read by someone overseas. Also, I believe majority of the employers may not be aware that they can become liable for an employee's defamatory statements if the employer is responsible for publishing the material. That is particularly true for internal e-mail bulletin board networks where the employer typically owns and manages the entire network. Therefore, the on-going legal debate about the liability of ISPs for the action of their customers can apply to the employer/employee relationship. The question is when this happen to the attention of the employers and the public.