> I have an amusing topic for my web's journal section, but I'm not sure of the appropriate way to go about writing and posting my piece. See, I visited an island this weekend, and stopped briefly at an old, restored lighthouse whose museum section was run by two old ladies who absolutely hated each other and made no bones about letting us, the poor unsuspecting tourists, know exactly how they felt about each other. I thought I could make this into a very funny entry, however, would it be slanderous (or libelous(what's the difference, anyway?)) to mention the location of the lighthouse, thus being too specific and possibly damaging someone's reputation, or should I just stick to the vagueness I've implemented in this post?

I posted about this a while ago -- run a search on the topic for more info. In a nutshell, libel and slander are untruths that damage somebody's reputation in such a way that it causes them harm. The difference between them is the medium: slander is spoken while libel is written.

In your case, it doesn't sound like what you're writing would be libellous since it's true. Anything that is true is not libel. The other big exception is opinion: you can write you think somebody is an idiot, and since that's neither provably true nor false it's not actionable as libel either.

You also bring up a good point: if you don't identify somebody, it's not libellous. Though it's worth noting that just because you didn't give a name doesn't protect you; if you write "that big dumb guy that writes the 'It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad Movie' reviews," Dave might have a case against you because he's identifiable from the description.

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> I attended a brief talk on libel and slander in newspaper, but I'm not sure how this applies to blogging. Any ideas, thoughts, or concrete facts?

Contrary to popular belief, newspapers and journalists have virtually no special legal protections or privileges as compared to the general public (there are a few, depending on states, such as access to voter registration records and shield laws to prevent being jailed for refusal to identify sources). As far as I know, the only differences between newspaper writing and blogging would be that there is a special section of the libel law that deals with reporters who act in good faith during the persuit of a story. But I really think you should be okay.

As a word of caution, libel laws can vary significantly depending upon the state you're in, so you may want to look into that.

Stephen