To briefly summarize the story, John Peter Zenger was a New York Newspaperman who published articles critical of the government. In 1735, the year that this occured, publishing articles like these was a very big deal, even though it is common in our time. There was a law against the act called seditious libel, which states anyone who wrtites material that turns people against their government can be thrown in jail. Zenger was tried for seditious libel, and was proven innocent by a jury. This important trial was the prelude to the First Ammendment in the United States Bill of Rights, which states exactly this.
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| The Trial Of John Peter Zenger Image source: http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/bookmarks/zenger/ |
After the First Ammendment, one might expect the law of libel to dissappear. Surprisingly, it still exists, as a subcategory of defamation. To constitute libel, a piece of media must be false and degrading of a person, buisness, nation, or any other group of people.
One example of libelous material is a newsweek article, written recently, on March 6. This article, by Leah McGrath Goodman, "reveals" the identity of the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, a very popular and recently booming digital currency, which has had as much as $500 million in transactions per day.
There are no shortage of flaws in this piece of journalism. The major one, and the most controversial part of this article, is that Dorian Nakamoto, the proposed creator of bitcoin, denies any involvment in the currency. In fact, he later stated that he had first heard of bitcoin less than a month before the alleged interviews took place. This means that the things stated in the article are false, and are potentionally libelous.
Another issue with the article, titled " The Face Behind Bitcoin", is that the information in it clearly discloses private information, which violates privacy laws, which are very similar to libel laws. In the articles are details about his family, personal life, and even his house and what kind of car he drives.
Although libel laws still exist in America, they are much more fair than the laws that Zenger faced in 1735. Today, the law states that the published material must be false, which was not the case at the time of his famous trial. These two examples of articles that would be considered libelous in their respective times shows how our legal system has progressed and has been refined into a system that can more accuratley determine what is right and wrong.
"The Face Behind Bitcoin", Newsweek. March 6, 2014
http://mag.newsweek.com/2014/03/14/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto.html
Very well written post. I am familiar with Bitcoin, so this made the post easier to comprehend for me. As for your information, it is very well structured and clear. You took two extremely different topics and linked them together very clearly. Nice job.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a very interesting post. I really like how you incorporated BTC into History, and, now that I think about it, really makes sense. The Zenger trial really does have a lot in common with bitcoin. I especially liked how you connected it back to the topics we are studying and discussing in class. It was very well said.
ReplyDeleteAlso, this is one of the few blogposts that the images show up on (at least for me) so props on that!
This is a great post. This connection to Bitcoin is very modern, and I like that you connected it to a key part in American history. I have heard of the article, but I would never thought to connect it to the past in the way you did. I was surprised too when I read your post and found out that libel was still a law, but I can agree with its intent. I think that in cases like this, people shouldn't be putting out completely false information.
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