Literary Agent Sues Public Blogging Sites for Libel

Literary agent Barbara Bauer sued 19 different bloggers and blogging Web sites (including Wikipedia, YouTube and AbsoluteWrite sites) for considerably libelous information posted on their forums. She felt that she was receiving bad publicity as a literary agent through personal reviews that claimed she was overpriced and did a poor job, while some even went so far as to call her a “scam artist.” According to her personal Web site, she has been working with successful writers since 1984 and has placed many with good publishers and instigated the publication of their work in other languages and nations.

The case came to court in Monmouth County, NJ on July 1. The case was dismissed on the grounds that the websites are not to blame for bloggers personal posts. The posts were reportedly removed by the hosting sites after the court ruling.