Actor Sues Wikipedia "Vandal"

Here is an interesting piece from Wired: the actor Ron Livingston, who starred in the very good 1999 movie Office Space, is suing an as-of-yet-unknown Wikipedia editor for changing his Wikipedia entry to indicate Mr. Livingston is gay (even though he was married to a woman in November). Livingston believes the same hacker has been posting fraudulent MySpace pages in Livingston's name.

Livingston did not sue Wikipedia or Facebook directly, since the Communications Decency Act of 1996 has been adjudged to provide protection to web hosts against legal claims for information written by third parties. But, according to Wired:

...that does not mean the anonymous person or persons who wrote the allegedly defamatory statements are immune from being outed and hauled into court.

Livingston’s lawsuit against “John Doe” will likely give him the power to subpoena Wikipedia and Facebook to find out the real perpetrator or perpetrators.

The lawsuit raises all sorts of issues privacy, the Internet, and even what it means to call someone "gay" in a time when homosexuality, if not gay marriage, is becoming more and more accepted. Fascinating issues, from both a legal and communications context.

For both individuals and those in a business environment, this raises another point: assume everything you say and do is traceable and could be subject to discovery at some point. "Transparency" is a corporate cliche that over the years has lost all meaning, and in my business I am approached all the time by clients who want me to "anonymously" do this or that to further their public interests. My advice: in the media age, there is precious little "anonymously" left. Better to be quite open about what you're trying to accomplish, which allows you to work from a position of strength, both in the court of public opinion and, ultimately, the court of law.

[PS - Mr. Livingston delivers a line from Office Space that I'm reminded of when having a bad day: "...ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that's on the worst day of my life." ]

[PSS - in the interest of transparency, I should disclose that I am only getting around to posting this on January 5, 2010!].