$5,000 Libel Award Over Web Dispute Is Rescinded

A woman who called a man a liar during a discussion over the Internet is not guilty of libel, a San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled in overturning a $5,000 award imposed in Small Claims Court.

The ruling, issued last week by visiting Superior Court Judge Winton McKibbon, came in a dispute that began last July, when Ken McCarthy, a Web consultant, sent Stacey McCahan several e-mail messages.

McCahan has emerged as a representative for the Critical Mass bicycling group. McCarthy said he wanted details about what went wrong during an unruly Critical Mass ride in San Francisco.

Eventually, the two, both San Francisco residents, exchanged e-mail, followed by a telephone argument. On an Internet discussion group dedicated to Critical Mass, the two posted rival electronic accounts about how the phone call ended.

McCarthy said McCahan hung up on him. McCahan, in a message titled “Ken McCarthy is a liar--be warned,” alleges that she hung up the phone by saying “Buh bye.”

In the ruling, the judge ordered McCarthy to pay McCahan $221 for attorneys’ fees and other legal costs, the maximum allowed in an appeal of a small claims case.

Although the case does not set any precedent for libel in cyberspace, it raises questions about whether traditional libel laws apply to the Internet--which has been compared to having an electronic discussion over the backyard fence.

McCahan’s attorney, Karl Olson, argued that his client is protected under the 1st Amendment and that McCarthy was a public figure and therefore must prove that malice was a factor when McCahan allegedly libeled him.