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Aug
26
According to the Reuters news agency, a court in Finland recently ruled against a 15-year-old student after his teacher accused him of libel for posting a video on YouTube of the teacher singing at a school party and labeling it Karaoke of the mental hospital.
The teacher had originally asked for 2,000 euros in damages, but the court ordered the student to pay 800 euros (about $1,085) and a 90 euro fine, saying they did so because the boy was under 18, and he had removed the clip from YouTube within two weeks of being asked by the headmaster of the school.
While the teacher’s reaction may have been overly sensitive — well, ok, ridiculous — this is an interesting case for vloggers. It points to both the power and responsibility they have when they put a video out onto the internet.
Although some “serious vloggers” are well aware of this double-edged sword they hold in their hands, my guess is that many others are not. Many don’t see the videos they produce as, theoretically, being on equal footing with something a major website, TV network, or newspaper would produce and put out on the web.
But publishing on the open internet is publishing in public. It doesn’t matter if your cousin, Bubba, pees in the pool or if Bill Gates pees in the pool, the end result is there’s still pee in the pool. (Not that I’m saying vlogs are akin to pee in a pool — although, certainly with some vlogs, that would qualify as a sympathetic portrayal.)
Although the Reuters report did not go into detail, I would assume the crux of the case rested on the labeling of the video and not the video itself. Though if the video was taken at a school function, and it was considered a private function, that may have been another element. But it appears that it was the “spin” the kid put on the video that was the problem - at least in this particular Finnish court.
In situations such as these, we should remember the sage words of William Vlogspeare: “Libel not; label wisely.”
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