Interesting article in yesterday's Irish Times about libel on websites written by a barrister on foot of the fuss over the ratemyteacher.ie website. It seems like technically it's possible for teachers to sue their students or former students who write about them on this site (hosted in the USA). Because the laws are more liberal there, however, it is unlikely that a case taken under US law would win. It seems unlikely that a case taken under Irish or UK law which is a lot stricter would wash with American courts.

It did point out though that as the law stands most Irish-based websites now are effectively in the same position as newspapers who publish edited material. They can be sued if they publish something that is libellous. Luckily from the point of view of ISPs there is actually an EU directive which allows them to carry on independently of the sites hosted on their servers. aparently there is something similar that protects newspaper distributors. If asked to remove offensive material, however, and they don't respond they then open themselves to legal action.