libel
Risks of criticizing people online
<p>Okay, so, basically, I want to make a blog about ripping on people. And it's not like just ripping because ripping but I really want to point out flaws in works/people/attitudes/technology/decisions and whatever.</p>

<p>I don't really care about people commenting "oh, you're moron, you're so and so, go kill yourself"</p>

<p>What I do care about is this:</p>

<p>If I say company X is full of morons who have no idea what they are doing is there any legal ground for them to come after me? Like I said, I could not care less about people insulting me, I only care about legal troubles/lawsuits and hairy stuff like that.</p>

<p>Is there any reason for me to worry about that?</p>

<p>There are two common defenses to defamation (there are others):</p>

<ol>
<li>That what you said is true.</li>
<li>That what you said cannot be reasonably interpreted as a factual claim.</li>
</ol>

<p>If after examining the totality of the circumstances, a fact-finder (judge or jury) sees your statement to be an expression of opinion rather than a factual claim about the subject, you would not be found to have defamed the subject.</p>

<p>The opinion defence doesn't have a bright line rule. In your example, I think it is clearly on the side of opinion. However, if you were to say something like "Douglas Dunce, Apple's Chief Engineer, has an IQ of 76", that would be almost certainly be deemed a factual claim.</p>

<p>The leading case here is <em><a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/497/1/" rel="nofollow">Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co.</a></em> The court held that "<em>statements that cannot reasonably be interpreted as stating actual facts about an individual are protected</em>".</p>

<p>Other summaries of this defence:</p>

<ul>
<li><p><a href="http://www.defamationlawblog.com/2009/01/fact-vs-opinion-setting-the-record-straight/" rel="nofollow">http://www.defamationlawblog.com/2009/01/fact-vs-opinion-setting-the-record-straight/</a></p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.rcfp.org/browse-media-law-resources/news-media-law/news-media-and-law-summer-2011/opinion-defense-remains-str" rel="nofollow">http://www.rcfp.org/browse-media-law-resources/news-media-law/news-media-and-law-summer-2011/opinion-defense-remains-str</a></p></li>
</ul>
