Owen Gibson
Wednesday October 1, 2003
Office workers across the country will be nervously deleting their emails this morning after lawyers for a top Premiership footballer accused of rape took the unprecedented action of starting proceedings against an individual spreading rumours by email.
The sender of the email, who works for a large company, has been warned he could face a libel action for making the claims. He was also told to hand over details of those people to whom he had sent the rumours and identify the source of the claim.
A solicitor acting for the footballer said that computer users could not consider themselves immune from prosecution simply because the claims were made by email and warned that the matter could be forwarded to the attorney general.
The move is believed to be an attempt to scare others tempted to continue the speculation, but much of the damage may already have been done.
The attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, warned newspapers last night that increasingly feverish coverage of rape allegations against eight Premiership footballers could prejudice any future trial.
His intervention came in the wake of widespread coverage of allegations by a 17-year-old girl that she was attacked in a central London hotel last weekend.
Meanwhile, football websites are scrambling to take pre-emptive action to avoid being sued for libel, taking down message boards on which fans are speculating about the identities of the footballers involved.
Rivals.net, which operates unofficial sites for all 92 league clubs, has closed all of its message boards after fans spent much of yesterday speculating over the identity of the eight players involved.
"It was felt that given this unique situation and the intense interest in the press and public in general, it was prudent to ensure our network was not used for any unsavoury comments or unsubstantiated rumours," said a spokeswoman.
"This was a pre-emptive action and this decision has not been taken as a result of any particular post but to protect ourselves from people who may want to use our boards in a manner that is incorrect."
Other websites have moved to take down their message boards to avoid possible legal action, while some have warned that users discussing the subject will be banned.
The Internet Service Providers Association has called for a change in the law to make those who circulate rumours via the internet liable rather than the ISPs that host the material.
Internet giants such as AOL are concerned that under current legislation they could be sued for effectively "publishing" the material, even though they have nothing to do with the content posted on sites that they host.
Last year David Beckham became one of the first celebrities to attempt to take on the internet gossipmongers when he issued an injunction against Popbitch after untrue rumours that he was having an affair swept the web.
The site was forced to take down the defamatory material but by then it was too late, the case having showed just how quickly rumours can spread online.
Also last year, the online version of Italian newspaper La Repubblica published the identity of the man who allegedly raped one of Prince Charles' servants.
The proliferation and anonymity of the internet combined with the quickfire nature of email, have already led to a nationwide guessing game as to the identity of the stars involved in the latest case.
Wednesday October 1, 2003
Office workers across the country will be nervously deleting their emails this morning after lawyers for a top Premiership footballer accused of rape took the unprecedented action of starting proceedings against an individual spreading rumours by email.
The sender of the email, who works for a large company, has been warned he could face a libel action for making the claims. He was also told to hand over details of those people to whom he had sent the rumours and identify the source of the claim.
A solicitor acting for the footballer said that computer users could not consider themselves immune from prosecution simply because the claims were made by email and warned that the matter could be forwarded to the attorney general.
The move is believed to be an attempt to scare others tempted to continue the speculation, but much of the damage may already have been done.
The attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, warned newspapers last night that increasingly feverish coverage of rape allegations against eight Premiership footballers could prejudice any future trial.
His intervention came in the wake of widespread coverage of allegations by a 17-year-old girl that she was attacked in a central London hotel last weekend.
Meanwhile, football websites are scrambling to take pre-emptive action to avoid being sued for libel, taking down message boards on which fans are speculating about the identities of the footballers involved.
Rivals.net, which operates unofficial sites for all 92 league clubs, has closed all of its message boards after fans spent much of yesterday speculating over the identity of the eight players involved.
"It was felt that given this unique situation and the intense interest in the press and public in general, it was prudent to ensure our network was not used for any unsavoury comments or unsubstantiated rumours," said a spokeswoman.
"This was a pre-emptive action and this decision has not been taken as a result of any particular post but to protect ourselves from people who may want to use our boards in a manner that is incorrect."
Other websites have moved to take down their message boards to avoid possible legal action, while some have warned that users discussing the subject will be banned.
The Internet Service Providers Association has called for a change in the law to make those who circulate rumours via the internet liable rather than the ISPs that host the material.
Internet giants such as AOL are concerned that under current legislation they could be sued for effectively "publishing" the material, even though they have nothing to do with the content posted on sites that they host.
Last year David Beckham became one of the first celebrities to attempt to take on the internet gossipmongers when he issued an injunction against Popbitch after untrue rumours that he was having an affair swept the web.
The site was forced to take down the defamatory material but by then it was too late, the case having showed just how quickly rumours can spread online.
Also last year, the online version of Italian newspaper La Repubblica published the identity of the man who allegedly raped one of Prince Charles' servants.
The proliferation and anonymity of the internet combined with the quickfire nature of email, have already led to a nationwide guessing game as to the identity of the stars involved in the latest case.
