> > You may wish to check the definition of "harassment" ( > http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/s_to_u/stalking_and_harassment/#a02a) You > can see here that the Crown Prosecution Service defines harassment as > "causing alarm or distress" as well as the more traditional "putting people > in fear of violence" depending on which law is being applied. As such the > use of the term "harassment" in its strictest use does not legally mean an > incitement of violence. > > Please note the usual: I am not a lawyer, please seek legal advice before > taking any actions or inactions based upon this information etc... >
Putting my professional hat on for a moment... "Alarm and distress" can be interpreted very broadly with respect to the internet. Especially if you can tie it up to privacy laws. We had one case a few years ago where an individual was disclosing RL names & addresses of people on a social dating website; definitely not the same sort of thing (as there is an obvious risk factor in that context), but they prosecuted him largely for the privacy issues than the actual risk of harm. With all that said; we should be careful using the term "harassment" too much (especially off-wiki) because, as Edward says, if not accurate or reasonable then it is libellous. Tom
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