First Amendment Rights in the BlogoSphere

Link: The News-Press, news-press.com, Opinion, First Amendment rights in the blogosphere. This interesting article in a Florida paper discusses the problems inherent in fighting defamation cases that spring from Internet postings. Does the legal system adequately permit the redress of defamation committed on the Internet? It certainly is expensive. In addition to legal fees, court costs, and the discovery costs of traditional litigation, additional expertise must be engaged which is experienced in the technical aspects of the Internet and technology. The current flap over a proposed Italian law to limit the establishing of blogs is instructive. In a country that values free speech, the United States is being tested by technology that permits defamatory content to be spread immediately and over the entire planet. In the Italian proposal, a "responsible journalist" must be named as the responsible party for a proposed blog; apparently, an attempt to require an individual to step up in the event of a later problem with the blog. If the law passes, many problems ensue. What is a "journalist"? What sort of regulations of blogs will be created by the Italian bureaucrats charged with enforcing the registration law? Of course, such a law would never pass in the United States. Or, would it?