What is Libel
Libel is defined as the defamation of a person, business, group, product, government, or nation that is made in written or printed words or pictures. In order to be libel, the claim must be in writing, it must be false and the person making it must state or imply that it is factual. In other words, libel means printing or implying something negative as if it were true, when it is not. The publication where the libel occurs is assumed to be read by persons other than the person defamed.
How does libel differ from slander?
Slander, another legal term, is also a false, defamatory, and often malicious statement. The difference between slander and libel is that slander is spoken and libel refers to written words and pictures. Libel covers any form of defamation other than spoken words or gestures.
----------------------------------------------------------------------- What is harassment
First, you must clearly tell the harasser to stop. Generally speaking, it is unwise to communicate with the harasser. However, as soon as you determine that you are truly being harassed by someone, you must very clearly tell that person to stop. You do not need to explain why, just state that you do not want the person to contact you in any way in the future.
Do Not respond to any further messages of any sort from the harasser. Do Not have anyone else contact the harasser on your behalf. It is common practice for the harasser to claim that you are harassing him/her, but if you aren’t contacting the person, then it is clear that you aren’t the harasser.
Call ISU Public Safety and ask to speak to a Public Safety officer regarding any on-line incidents.
If you are being physically threatened, you must involve law enforcement. Contact your local police department and Public Safety.
If you believe yourself and/or your children to be in immediate danger, please dial 911.
Complain to the appropriate parties. If you are harassed in a chat room, contact whoever runs the server you were using. If you are harassed on any kind of instant messaging service, read the terms of service and harassment policies they provide and use any contact address given there. If someone has created a website to harass you, complain to the server where the site is hosted.
If you are being harassed via e-mail, complain to the sender’s ISP and any e-mail service (Hotmail) used to send the messages.
Save EVERYTHING! Do not delete messages, chat logs, websites, etc. Place them in a separate folder on your hard drive or onto a floppy disk/zip disk or CD-ROM, and print out a hard copy.